Beginning Birding-The View Through My Binoculars

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Barred Owl

Today my Grandfather and I biked down to the drainage creek in our neighborhood, and there were some birds moving around, so I went back to my house to get my binoculars. When I got back to the creek, we suddenly hear a Barred Owl calling its who cooks for you call from right over our heads, and another responding from upstream. It eventually poked its head out from a tree that had lost its top, and apparently had a hollow in the top. It then flew upstream, and started doing its jackal-laughing call. (That's how I would describe it.) They nested in a tree extending over our yard one year, but then our neighbors had to cut the tree down, so it is nice to see them again. I'll have a post up later about the Forest Park Forever Beginning Bird Walk I went on today.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary

I headed out to Riverlands this weekend, since it was around 40 degrees. Not at Riverlands. There was a cold wind that that illustrated the fact: It's always colder at RMBS. However, there were some great birds, including a kestrel with a meal, horned larks, Bald Eagles, American White Pelicans, unidentifiable ducks (mergansers of a sort and some possible goldeneyes), geese(greater white-fronted and canada) and gulls.

Gulls. I'm going to say the smaller ones are ring-billed and the larger ones are herring. If you want to disagree, you're probably right.

I think this is a Ring-Billed Gull.

I thought it was interesting that so many birds could be found close to an industrial area.

This one looks sort of like its winking.

Bald Eagles are one of the big draws for this area. As you can see, there are several on the ice in the background.

An adult one.

You can't really tell, but this is a big flock of pelicans.

Greater White-Fronted Geese.

Kestrel with snack. Good Birding!

Sunday, February 21, 2010

New Camera!

I'll have some pictures from Michigan up, but I don't have them right now, so I'll talk instead about my new camera. It is a Canon Rebel XSi/450D. 3.5 frames per second, 12.2 megapixels, and overall a great step up from my Powershot S2 IS. I got a two-lens kit, with the ef-s 18-55 and the ef-s 55-250. The 55-250 is the one I use for birding, and for the price, it is excellent. I am perfectly happy with the image quality and autofocus speed, the only problem is that it is a little short. However, it came with some nice editing software, and I can crop to get some really nice images.

This is a white-throated sparrow, taken in my backyard.

This is a chickadee, also from my backyard.

This junco is in a funny pose, I thought.

This eagle, from Forest Park, is dropping the catfish/bullhead it was eating.

I was happy to get a couple of decent flight shots. Ring-Billed Gull.

White-Throated Sparrow. I like to see the green, since it reminds me of spring.

A Northern Flicker from Tower Grove Park.
Finally, I would like to recommend Birdforum to you birders reading this. I joined in June, mainly to ask camera questions, but now I enjoy just browsing the forums and gallery. One of the best features is the Bird Identification Q&A section, where you can get answers to your ID questions as soon as you post them. There are almost 90,000 users from all over the world, and it is a great community! Good Birding!

Saturday, February 20, 2010

American Woodcock

A Woodcock seen at Tower Grove Park.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Beginning Bird Walk

I'll have some pictures up soon of the Forest Park Beginner Bird Walk on Saturday. The Wild Bird Sanctuary was there mist netting, so I have some nice pictures of birds in the hand.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Michigan

I saw many new life birds this summer, bringing my life list total up to 129. I don't think these are all my pictures from Michigan, and I'll try to find where I put the others.