How many of you are bird watchers?

[bmathison1972]

Was teaching in Minnesota early this week and got in some birding. Got three lifers: Sora, Northern Waterthrush, and Blackpoll Warbler.
Here is the trip report for all spots: https://ebird.org/tripreport/130103

[BrontoScorpio]

I like seeing migrating birds durring the changing of the seasons - but I do not do it proffessionaly.
Rather I have a small collection of birds models and I visit the bird museum once in a (long) while ...

[Halichoeres]

Was teaching in Minnesota early this week and got in some birding. Got three lifers: Sora, Northern Waterthrush, and Blackpoll Warbler.
Here is the trip report for all spots: https://ebird.org/tripreport/130103

The only sora I have ever seen was a window strike that landed near the train tracks. Does that count as a lifer?

[Gwangi]

Soras are a bird I occasionally hear while kayaking around the marshes but I still have never seen one. Rails in general are such elusive birds, any sighting of one is something to be celebrated.

[bmathison1972]

Soras are a bird I occasionally hear while kayaking around the marshes but I still have never seen one. Rails in general are such elusive birds, any sighting of one is something to be celebrated.

I was very happy to have actually seen it! It's a beautiful little bird!

[ceratopsian]

My thrill was catching sight of the Bearded Tits at Rainham Marshes yesterday.  No photos - much too quick for that!  But for once we were able to see the female for about a minute, just inside the margin of reeds, hopping around on the mud.  The male was the usual flash of long-tailed chestnut as it crossed open water between the reeds.  Despite regular visits to Rainham since 2021, we have probably seen them only three or four times, with some occasional "pings" of their distinctive call being heard.  They're always present, just shy!

[Gwangi]

I had never heard of a bearded tit before (great name BTW) so I had to Google it. That is a stunning little bird! So awesome that you got to see them @ceratopsian. And thanks for introducing me to a new bird. 

[ceratopsian]

Moustached tit is more accurate but somehow isn't as pleasing!  Quite a few people call them bearded reedlings, which is also highly descriptive.

[Shane]

Just wanted to hop into this thread with my own birdwatching experiences.

Growing up in South Florida, I was an avid birdwatcher and would often go camping in the Everglades. I'd say the best thing I spotted were white-crowned pigeons on a couple of occasions.

My parents moved to Vero Beach when they retired, and my dad and I love to go on excursions to some of the cool birdwatching spots, like Stick Marsh near Fellsmere. The coolest things we've seen out that way are Snail Kites and Crested Caracaras, and also the occasional Northern Harrier. Living in Florida my entire life, I still hadn't seen any of these birds until I was well past 30 years old.

Now that I'm living in North Florida, I'm seeing some pretty cool stuff in my neighborhood, some of which you don't see down south: Tufted Titmice, Eastern Bluebirds. I've seen some Ruby-throated Hummingbirds in the trees in my backyard, and also more Swallow-tailed Kites (during the breeding season) and Bald Eagles than I'd ever seen before in one place. Though perhaps my favorite is a Barred Owl that lives in the woods across from my backyard. I hear it almost every night, and had the pleasure to see it on three or four occasions in the evening and early morning.

[Halichoeres]

Reedling is the name I know them by, but I have a safari card by Editions Rencontre that calls it a Bearded Tit.

S @Shane Florida is one of two US states I haven't visited, but your description of the bird life is tempting me.

[Gwangi]

It's a shame that Florida is a place bountiful in natural beauty and biodiversity but absolutely ruined by the people and politics there.

I live on the Maryland eastern shore, so it's all flat coastal plain and wetlands, like Florida. The bird life here is spectacular. Particularly if you like shorebirds, seabirds, waterfowl, waders, etc. We have the second largest population of bald eagles on the east coast, after Florida.

[Shane]

It's a shame that Florida is a place bountiful in natural beauty and biodiversity but absolutely ruined by the people and politics there.

I live on the Maryland eastern shore, so it's all flat coastal plain and wetlands, like Florida. The bird life here is spectacular. Particularly if you like shorebirds, seabirds, waterfowl, waders, etc. We have the second largest population of bald eagles on the east coast, after Florida.

It is a shame, a lot of people dismiss Florida due to the unfortunate state of its current politics. It's distressing the way the government has been heading. But I truly believe the state is worth fighting for, and I try to highlight the many wonderful things about this state so folks can be reminded that there's much to love, and much to protect. Hopefully there can be a movement to turn things around instead of the more common attitude of just abandoning the state due to its misguided leaders.

On the subject of birdwatching, I'll add perhaps my most frustrating and exciting sighting. I was recently headed to Orlando to visit my brother and my nephews, and as I was driving along I-4 near Kissimmee I saw a large bird in flight. I'm pretty accustomed to most large flying birds' silhouettes, and this didn't immediately register as any of the usual suspects.

It was white, with black wing tips. It was pure white, so not a Sandhill Crane. It had a long, stretched neck, so not a Heron, Egret, or Wood Stork. It was much too large to be a White Ibis. The only thing that makes sense to me is that it was a Whooping Crane. I was very excited about it, since I knew a small population had been relocated to Florida. But later, I looked it up and saw that the current estimated Florida population of Whooping Cranes is only believed to be 9 individuals. No way I could be THAT lucky, right? However, there is absolutely nothing else it could have been. I've ruled out every other possibility. So if I did see a Whooping Crane, it's an amazing sighting, but I can never be 100% sure in my head.

[Halichoeres]

That would be pretty amazing to see a Whooping Crane. I know Wood Storks sometimes fly with their necks held straight, but you think the neck was too long for that? I thought once that I'd seen a White-Faced Storm Petrel, until somebody showed me that phalaropes can sometimes do a little dance that looks a lot like storm petrel foraging to the uninitiated (i.e., me, a desert rat birding for the first time on the East Coast).

[Shane]

That would be pretty amazing to see a Whooping Crane. I know Wood Storks sometimes fly with their necks held straight, but you think the neck was too long for that? I thought once that I'd seen a White-Faced Storm Petrel, until somebody showed me that phalaropes can sometimes do a little dance that looks a lot like storm petrel foraging to the uninitiated (i.e., me, a desert rat birding for the first time on the East Coast).

Wood Storks being a pretty common sight in Florida, I'm pretty used to seeing them in flight and feel like had it been a Wood Stork, I'd have registered that pretty quickly. This bird, the neck was too long, the bill too short (not the long downward curve of a Wood Stork). Also, I could clearly see that the wings weren't black-edged, but only black-tipped.

The most likely other candidate would have been Sandhill Crane, but they're pretty obviously not white, and this bird definitely was. Like I said, my first thought was Ibis due to the coloration, very stark white with black wingtips, but the bill wasn't long and curved, and it was far too large to be an Ibis.

So yeah, it's hard to reconcile in my head because I know it's extremely unlikely to have been a Whooping Crane based on sheer numbers (though it was the right area), but it doesn't match up with any other bird when I go over the features. It was flying over a stretch of highway, so I couldn't have followed it, but I really would have liked to.

I know there's part of me that wants it to have been a Whooping Crane because, wow what a sighting. But realistically, throughout my life, I've seen countless Ibises, Wood Storks, Herons, Egrets, Sandhill Cranes...and this bird still made me say out loud to myself "What IS that?"

[bmathison1972]

Got another lifer this morning, the Common Poorwill. It was a random observation during a 9-mile run:

https://ebird.org/checklist/S138492183

[bmathison1972]

Did a lot of birding over Memorial Day Weekend. Here is a complete Trip Report encompassing four different spots. Got two lifers, Hammond's Flycatcher and Olive-sided Flycatcher:

https://ebird.org/tripreport/134796

[Halichoeres]

In downtown Chicago, people unwittingly walking too close to a peregrine nest have been dive-bombed recently. I thought people here would appreciate that fact.

[bmathison1972]

Was in TX for work and birded briefly. Got 5 lifers however, the Yellow-crowned Night Heron, Mississippi Kite, Cave Swallow, and two interested exotic established species, the Red-vented Bulbul and Scaly-breasted Munia:

https://ebird.org/tripreport/139619

[Shane]

Hey Dino Toy Birders, just wanted to share a fun little sighting story (especially in light of bmathison's latest post),

A little while ago while at work I noticed a bird out my office window flying high enough that I could only see it in silhouette, but the shape was very distinctive. It had pointed wings and a very sharply defined trapezoidal tail. Its flying style was similar to a swallow-tailed kite, where the tail and the wings seem to tilt independently of each other, but it definitely was not a swallow-tailed kite.

I originally thought it might be a peregrine falcon, but after some further investigation all signs pointed toward Mississippi kite. But most maps I found didn't seem to indicate that it's breeding range extended all the way to Jacksonville; most just had it in the Florida panhandle.

A couple weeks after the first sighting I saw it again. I was able to snap some quick blurry pics on my phone to compare with the flying profile of a Mississippi kite, and it was a 100% match.

Well today, it flew right by the window and I could see it very clearly. Small (for a raptor), grayish uniform coloration, squared off tail, small beak...there was no question! It was indeed a Mississippi kite.

I had never seen one before (growing up too far south) so it was pretty great to be able to authoritatively identify a new bird to add to the list.

[Gwangi]

That's interesting S @Shane and congrats on the lifer. Mississippi kites have been showing up and even breeding in Maryland but I haven't seen one yet.