==> THEblog devoted, since 2005, to news & commentary on the most iconic bird in American ornithology, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker (IBWO)... and sometimes other schtuff [contact: cyberthrush@gmail.com]
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Ah, some blog entries about "guy birds." Thanks... Of course a California Condor has a face only a mother could love...
And I loved the PBS special on "Pale Male," BTW... Of course if I remember correctly, Woody Allen thought all the attention was directed his way...
One observation I can pass on from a half century of watching raptors and such (and even crows) is that it's abundantly clear how the DDT ban helped their numbers to recover. From the time I started driving in the early 70's until the mid-90's, I noticed a huge increase, particularly among kestrels which are once again numerous around here.
And, as I shared with Cyberthrush a few weeks ago, last summer no less than a Peregrine Falcon dropped in on a family patio dinner here in what is essentially a residential neighborhood near the foothills of the Wasatch Mountains.
I've come to suspect it had just fledged (the cliffs where it was probably raised are two or three miles to the east), but I'm not really familiar with juvenile versus adult plumage (this one had lots of tan versus the gun metal gray I'd seen on captive specimens). I saw it at a distance of perhaps 20 feet...
No pictures, alas even though my dad went for his camera... Trying to capture a bird on film is a tough undertaking...
It's the same on Long Island, NY-- we have way more peregrines and ospreys since the 1970s.
BTY did anyone see that Mike Collins may have found a nest tree? He had some film looked at. he cannot easily ID the exact tree, since it's faraway. Isn't there some kind of computer simplification that does this? If so, email him at mike @fishcrow.com
John, you might want to re-read that one again... What he wrote about was Susan Epps looking at a video from 2007 and suggesting the bird in the video--not conclusively identified--was flying in that direction.
And the tree he's interested is a big one that he feels would be useful for observations...
That's all...
And thanks, Spat, for not doubting my Peregrine sighting... There were five us of us who saw that one...
Of course there's also that possible/probable wolverine I saw years ago while hiking on the south slopes of the Uintahs east of here... PBS just ran a neat special on those critters, and the wilderness is rugged enough to support them and is part of their historic range. I was dumbfounded to learn a male wolverine's territory can encompass 500 square miles...
And in defense of my credibility, I've never seen my namesake --Puma concolor, the cougar or mountain lion--despite a half century of hiking in those same hills...
P. concolor is an elusive animal, but at a wildlife hearing a few years ago, this ol' Southern Utahovian was arguing for more hunting, and claiming he kept seeing all over the place down in those parts.
One has to take what hillbillies say with a grain of salt, whether they're from Utah or Appalachia...
Problem here is so many have gone into politics...
4 comments:
Ah, some blog entries about "guy birds." Thanks... Of course a California Condor has a face only a mother could love...
And I loved the PBS special on "Pale Male," BTW... Of course if I remember correctly, Woody Allen thought all the attention was directed his way...
One observation I can pass on from a half century of watching raptors and such (and even crows) is that it's abundantly clear how the DDT ban helped their numbers to recover. From the time I started driving in the early 70's until the mid-90's, I noticed a huge increase, particularly among kestrels which are once again numerous around here.
And, as I shared with Cyberthrush a few weeks ago, last summer no less than a Peregrine Falcon dropped in on a family patio dinner here in what is essentially a residential neighborhood near the foothills of the Wasatch Mountains.
I've come to suspect it had just fledged (the cliffs where it was probably raised are two or three miles to the east), but I'm not really familiar with juvenile versus adult plumage (this one had lots of tan versus the gun metal gray I'd seen on captive specimens). I saw it at a distance of perhaps 20 feet...
No pictures, alas even though my dad went for his camera... Trying to capture a bird on film is a tough undertaking...
It's the same on Long Island, NY-- we have way more peregrines and ospreys since the 1970s.
BTY did anyone see that Mike Collins may have found a nest tree? He had some film looked at. he cannot easily ID the exact tree, since it's faraway. Isn't there some kind of computer simplification that does this? If so, email him at mike @fishcrow.com
Mike Collins may have found a nest tree?
Please, no more.
John, you might want to re-read that one again... What he wrote about was Susan Epps looking at a video from 2007 and suggesting the bird in the video--not conclusively identified--was flying in that direction.
And the tree he's interested is a big one that he feels would be useful for observations...
That's all...
And thanks, Spat, for not doubting my Peregrine sighting... There were five us of us who saw that one...
Of course there's also that possible/probable wolverine I saw years ago while hiking on the south slopes of the Uintahs east of here... PBS just ran a neat special on those critters, and the wilderness is rugged enough to support them and is part of their historic range. I was dumbfounded to learn a male wolverine's territory can encompass 500 square miles...
And in defense of my credibility, I've never seen my namesake --Puma concolor, the cougar or mountain lion--despite a half century of hiking in those same hills...
P. concolor is an elusive animal, but at a wildlife hearing a few years ago, this ol' Southern Utahovian was arguing for more hunting, and claiming he kept seeing all over the place down in those parts.
One has to take what hillbillies say with a grain of salt, whether they're from Utah or Appalachia...
Problem here is so many have gone into politics...
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