Backyard birdies

Ravens, according to Mrs. H, weren't this far north until quite recently, @Fran604g We have about a half-dozen here. Interesting birds, indeed.
The most interesting thing are the young ravens (juvenals) about this time of year. Their calls don't resemble the low-pitch croaking of the adults, but rather sound much more like screams. Human screams. Not screams of terror -- just... screams.
I tend to laugh reflexively when I hear them because they're just so... incongruous.

mhardy6647 said:

Ravens, according to Mrs. H, weren't this far north until quite recently, @Fran604g We have about a half-dozen here. Interesting birds, indeed.
The most interesting thing are the young ravens (juvenals) about this time of year. Their calls don't resemble the low-pitch croaking of the adults, but rather sound much more like screams. Human screams. Not screams of terror -- just... screams.
I tend to laugh reflexively when I hear them because they're just so... incongruous.

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That's an interesting factoid, thanks Doc! Coincidently, about 3 years ago, I started very occasionally hearing a sound that I could only describe as a child's scream - in the woods! But, my brain told me there was something not quite right about the sound to actually be a child's scream. And I couldn't attribute it to any other animal I could think of, except maybe a kid goat. But no...no baby goats 'round here. I've heard that sound only a few times again last year and a couple of times this year, early this spring/late winter. Fascinating! I had to tell Sharon just now, that my mystery has been solved!

Kinda like having Clare Torry in the neighborhood, you know? 🤭

Foxes will shriek in a pretty unsettling way, too -- but that is usually well after dark.

Fran604g said:

That's an interesting factoid, thanks Doc! Coincidently, about 3 years ago, I started very occasionally hearing a sound that I could only describe as a child's scream - in the woods! But, my brain told me there was something not quite right about the sound to actually be a child's scream. And I couldn't attribute it to any other animal I could think of, except maybe a kid goat. But no...no baby goats 'round here. I've heard that sound only a few times again last year and a couple of times this year, early this spring/late winter. Fascinating! I had to tell Sharon just now, that my mystery has been solved!

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Juvenile Sasquatch? Apparently upstate New York is Bigfoot territory.

JoeThePop said:

Juvenile Sasquatch? Apparently upstate New York is Bigfoot territory.

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Our youngest daughter's BF wears size 19 footwear, does he count as one? His nickname is bigfoot after all. Here are his wildland firefighter boots next to her shoes.

Cardinal on top of a weeping Norway spruce. Just happened to look out the window and thought this was cool.

So... last evening was actual summer weather: the three Hs, you know? (hazy, hot, and humid).
As such, we (I) decided to cook dinner outdoors."
When I went outside, so to do, I was greeted by an unexpected, and remarkable tableau. There were barn swallows everywhere. Flitting around, sitting on the roof, swooping by me...everywhere. Realistically, probably 50 or more of them.
They appeared to be massing up in preparation to migrate.
They were out there for quite a while (several hours) -- which gave me a chance to grab the camera and snap a few piccies as the beanburgers were grillin'.
I thought I'd share a few. I didn't try too hard to photograph 'em on the wing, as they were moving quite fast and the density was fairly low at any given point in the sky. When they collected on the rooftop, again, though, they were (fairly) easy photographic prey.









No sign of them today. I am guessing they moved out during the night, as many migrating species do.

mhardy6647 said:

So... last evening was actual summer weather: the three Hs, you know? (hazy, hot, and humid).
As such, we (I) decided to cook dinner outdoors."
When I went outside, so to do, I was greeted by an unexpected, and remarkable tableau. There were barn swallows everywhere. Flitting around, sitting on the roof, swooping by me...everywhere. Realistically, probably 50 or more of them.
They appeared to be massing up in preparation to migrate.
They were out there for quite a while (several hours) -- which gave me a chance to grab the camera and snap a few piccies as the beanburgers were grillin'.
I thought I'd share a few. I didn't try too hard to photograph 'em on the wing, as they were moving quite fast and the density was fairly low at any given point in the sky. When they collected on the rooftop, again, though, they were (fairly) easy photographic prey.









No sign of them today. I am guessing they moved out during the night, as many migrating species do.

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Migrating? In the middle of summer?

JoeThePop said:

Migrating? In the middle of summer?

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Well, this far north "the middle of summer" is relative.

so...
so, so, so...

one of the more elusive birds in the 'hood is the gorgeous indigo bunting. They always come through in the late spring, often stay around for a while, and more than occasionally are here all summer. Their paired note calls are unmistakable and diagnostic (once one's familiar with them), and they often will perch at the tippy-top of the tallest tree in the forest area (no herrings, though!) and sing -- so they're not really reticent. Sometimes, they even show up at feeders.
But my luck in photographing one (or two), especially in the yard, runs hot and cold.
This year has been a banner year for indigo buntings. I think there are four (or more) in the neighborhood, and we've frequently had two singing from different places in the yard. We've seen 'em regularly, too... but never when I've had a camera handy.
Today, we came inside after our daily perambulation. I ambled to the kitchen and idly glanced out the window at the tube feeders in the yard. A blue-grey bird on one feeder caught my eye. Bingo! I zipped around the corner & grabbed the camera (which even had a tele lens on it).
Of course, by then the bunting had moved to the back side of the feeder.
I managed to snap a couple photos of its backside before it flew away.


That's it at the bottom of the feeder, protruding a wee bit on the left hand side.

I do feel like The Old Man and the Sea guy sometimes.

bad photo of a good backyard visitor


... indigo bunting on a sunflower seed feeder, just a little while ago.

Happened to look out the kitchen window at just the right moment this morning. A stupid brash young hawk was trying very hard to grab a squirrel. The squirrel was at least as large as said raptor. The raptor was hell-bent on its task, though. I, unfortunately, didn't get any photos of the fun/funny parts, but here you can see predator & prey.
Not a good day for this particular predator-in-training.



The effect of a pretty significant summer drought on our poor backyard is also clearly visible in the image.

A minute or two later, after a couple of failed pounces by the hawk on the squirrel. The latter kind of holed up under or near one of the outside units of our two mini-splits (high-efficiency heat pumps, that is).

mhardy6647 said:

Happened to look out the kitchen window at just the right moment this morning. A stupid brash young hawk was trying very hard to grab a squirrel. The squirrel was at least as large as said raptor. The raptor was hell-bent on its task, though. I, unfortunately, didn't get any photos of the fun/funny parts, but here you can see predator & prey.
Not a good day for this particular predator-in-training.

View attachment 51535

The effect of a pretty significant summer drought on our poor backyard is also clearly visible in the image.

A minute or two later, after a couple of failed pounces by the hawk on the squirrel. The latter kind of holed up under or near one of the outside units of our two mini-splits (high-efficiency heat pumps, that is).

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Is that a little Cooper's hawk?

One of the resident cemetery hawks perched atop a stone angel.

(I’m going to take a wild guess that’s the last time I’ll ever use that sentence.)

GuyK said:

Is that a little Cooper's hawk?

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We think so...

A couple of ruby-throated hummingbirds bulking up for their fast-approaching fall migration (just a few weeks away).
Note that they have a small but enrapt audience

We had up to five hummers buzzing around our two nectar feeders early this morning. Tried pretty diligently to snap a photo of them, but failed.

Thought we'd missed 'em when we were in South Carolina a bit over a week ago... but tonight we saw a bunch of common nighthawks feeding in preparation for their (nighttime) migration. Not really close to the house (some years they fly right over our porch), but easy to see (if not so easy to photograph).

mhardy6647 said:

Thought we'd missed 'em when we were in South Carolina a bit over a week ago... but tonight we saw a bunch of common nighthawks feeding in preparation for their (nighttime) migration. Not really close to the house (some years they fly right over our porch), but easy to see (if not so easy to photograph).

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Beautiful!

Last time I saw a nighthawk I was at a diner- which I believe is their natural habitat.

Deli said:

Beautiful!

Last time I saw a nighthawk I was at a diner- which I believe is their natural habitat.

View attachment 51852

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Yeah, and I looked, and looked for Vince Giordano, too, but didn't see a trace of him.