המועדפים של aidanrf

Two males fought for control of my pool deck. The greener one ended up winning when it successfully shoved the other off the edge. Here's a short video of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDKqu1oqkjY

This is an all TIME FIRST for up here!!! I couldn't believe my eyes, (nor ears when they took flight!). Waited patiently for them to come even closer, but then a car had to come along...They were eating Winter Hollyberries, and of course by the time I got back they had disappeared. There were over 100 of them!
Hope the pics can confirm they are indeed Bohemians.

Juvenile plumage, drab brown above with buffy spots on mantle, back, and coverts; underparts white with brown streaks.

Juveniles can be confused with juvenile Black-crowned Night-Herons (Nycticorax nycticorax), but Yellow-crowneds have more erect posture, heavier bill, longer legs, finer spots on upperparts, and finer streaks on underparts. (Per Birds of the world)

I also find the gold eye color helpful in telling night-herons apart from other juvenile herons.

Weird roadkill… Didn’t appear to be a cottontail. A European Rabbit perhaps? Escaped pet? But it appeared to have a thick full winter coat as though it were acclimated to the climate. I don’t think there’s an established feral population?

Found near the highest point in Maryland, where I've long hoped to confirm Appalachian Cottontail (Sylvilagus obscurus). A dark mark between the ears does seem to be present. Last photo is by Tom Feild.

First likely naturally occurring VA record. After talking with Ned Brinkley on Sunday, I had many questions. He said back in the 80’s they saw Green Anoles all over False Cape SP. I figured that means they must’ve been at Back Bay and could possibly still be there. So, I decided to check out the Coastal Live Oak forest to see if I could and lo and behold... Found one on the boardwalk. It was too hot to look much longer, but I feel there should have been reports of these throughout the years... This old male had several battle scars from fighting, so he is probably not alone. Only 13 miles from a known NC population. Released after photographed.

Cyanocitta cristata harassing Pantherophis alleghaniensis. Rock Creek Park, Washington, DC, USA.

There were at least half a dozen blue jays raising a ruckus high up in the trees. I had no idea what it was all about until I reviewed the pictures and saw the snake slithering through the branches. The jays must have been trying to protect nearby nests from the predator.

Between 21-24 September I observed and photographed 24 different color banded Piping Plovers on the upper Texas coast and adjacent Louisiana. 22 in Texas, 2 in Louisiana. I have provided data and photos on all these birds to various governmental agencies in the U.S. and Canada, as well as several universities who are involved in various projects with Piping Plovers. I'll hold off posting these to iNat until I get data on the bird and its origin. I received info on this bird today, so I'll post that record here for the information to be available on iNat for anyone interested.

Piping Plover 4G9
22 September 2015
Sea Rim State Park, Jefferson Co., Texas
29.6730
-94.0471
Right leg above joint: yellow flag with black lettering “4G9”
Right leg below joint: blue over green
Left leg above joint: metal numbered band
Left leg below joint: yellow over green

USGS Missouri River Tern & Plover Team
Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
Jamestown, North Dakota
Piping Plover 4G9 - banded as an adult on 6 July 2015 on the Missouri River south of Bismarck, ND.

South Georgia Diving Petrel
Cooper Bay, South Georgia
27 Jan 1996

On trips to the Southern Ocean and Antarctica, birds will regularly land on the the ship overnight. They probably become confused by the navigation lights, etc. In any event, most are not injured, and morning patrols of the ship often revealed several birds on the decks. This South Georgia Diving Petrel was picked up from the deck, examined and photographed, then tossed overboard into the wind. It flew safely away.

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S22439502
I arrived at a friend's ranch off of Hamilton Pool Road in western Travis Co., Texas at 11 AM this morning. I was there to pick him up and we were going into the town of Bee Cave to meet with another friend for lunch. I knocked on the door and as I stood there at the front door waiting for him to open it, I happened to glance at a sunflower seed feeder about 30 feet away. I was stunned to see a male Evening Grosbeak calmly eating sunflower seeds! This is a very rare bird in Texas, especially in recent years, with only 10 documented records in the state since 2009 and most of them in the far northern or far western portions of the state. When my friend Mike opened the door I excitedly pointed at the bird and told him what it was and then I headed back to my car to get a camera. I was fearful that the bird would depart before I had a chance to get any photos. I grabbed a point and shoot camera and got a few quick shots, but I also had a Tamron 150-600 lens and camera in the car so after a few quick documentary shots, I brought the better lens back to the front door and we stood there for about 10 minutes admiring the bird and taking photos. I was probably able to take 75 or so images to document this rare occurrence. It was dark and overcast and about to rain so I had to use 3200 ISO to get any shutter speed, but the images are decent. I'll post several shots, two of which have a Lesser Goldfinch also in the view and another with a Black-crested Titmouse to lend credence to the location. Those are two species that would not normally be seen with an Evening Grosbeak. The grosbeak flew back up into a Live Oak and vanished from view, and Mike and I headed in to our lunch engagement. Mike's wife kept an eye on the feeder and as of this writing (2:15 PM CST) the bird has not returned. Rain storm conditions are brewing and it was drizzling when we left. If the bird returns and/or establishes regular visits to the feeder we will let local folks know so hopefully others may enjoy this special visitor. The last time I saw an Evening Grosbeak in Texas was 29 years ago in 1986:
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/162675
which is some indication of the rarity of this bird in the state.

Update 6 PM, 20 March: The bird did not make another visit to the feeder all day. We'll see about tomorrow.

Update 12:30 PM, 21 March. Unfortunately, the bird has been a no-show since this initial observation.

This will be way overkill in regards to photos but this was a very exciting discovery for @upupamartin and me.

Elegant Tern
Thalasseus elegans
North Padre Island,
Kleberg Co., Texas
18 July 2017

Details: Martin Reid @upupamartin and I decided to make a day trip to the Corpus Christi area to look for dragonflies. We spent some time in Kingsville as well as Corpus Christi and by 1 PM it was so hot that our enthusiasm for continuing to walk in the sun and heat was waning (or at least my enthusiasm was waning!) so we decided to do a little beach driving to see what birds the late summer might be returning to the Texas coast before we had to drive home to San Antonio and Austin. We drove down to Padre Island National Seashore and checked out Bird Island Basin and Malaquite Beach and noted many flocks of hundreds of Black Terns as well as Least Terns, Royals, and the other expected Texas coast species of late July. At about 3:30 PM we drove north on the beach heading north toward the Bob Hall Pier and left the national seashore. We were about 3/4 mile north of the national seashore boundary when we noted a juvenile Royal Tern pestering an adult so I thought I’d try to get a few shots of this interaction. I turned the front of my vehicle toward the surf so I could take some shots out the driver’s window with the sun more or less from behind but still quite high overhead. As I am taking the shots of the two Royals:
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/7118108
something in the background caught my eye. There was another tern with a very long, very slender, and very bright orange/red bill with a full black shaggy crest. I thought to myself that it looked like an Elegant Tern, but then thought to myself…this is Texas, that is normally a Pacific coast bird. As I am still looking through my camera I saw a second bird that looked like an Elegant Tern. Then both birds started preening and the bills were no longer visible. I told Martin that I think there are two Elegant Terns here. Martin was also looking but at the moment the birds had their bills hidden while preening. The two suspect terns were physically smaller than Royals, perhaps the size of Sandwich Terns or a little larger by direct comparison. Martin said something to the effect of “Are you sure?” and at that moment I started to doubt what I had seen, but then one of the terns picked its bill up and I said rather emphatically “Those are Elegant Terns!”. Martin said something like “uh…yes, yes yes!” or words to that effect. We started taking photos, and in the end together we likely shot 600+ images of these birds. We were with the birds for just over an hour and 15 minutes. The information on these birds was posted to various bird alerts by Sheridan Coffey, Martin’s wife, and we sent her an image or two from the back viewer on the camera. We called several people, but most were too far away to get to our location the same afternoon. Both Mel Cooksey and Jon McIntyre got to us within about 45 minutes and were both able to see and photograph the birds extensively. Jon @mako252 has some shots on iNat at:
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/7110585

Elegant Tern has six previous records for Texas, so this should be the 7th.

Description: These were medium to large terns, perhaps slightly larger than adjacent Sandwich Terns. They seemed to be ca. 80% the size and bulk of adjacent Royal Terns; but obviously smaller. One of the Elegant Terns was still in mostly breeding plumage with more or less a full black, shaggy crest. There were a few white spots showing up on the forehead. The second Elegant Tern had a mostly white fore crown but still displayed a shaggy crest. Their bills were bright red/orange, as long or longer than Royal Terns, but very thin and almost slightly de-curved looking. Refer to the images for more information. Martin and I both have seen many Elegant Terns in California, Mexico and various South America locations so we have some experience with the ID of the species.

Image 1: shows the adult and juv. Royal Tern I was photographing for:
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/7118108
and in the center of the shot you can see what caught my eye…an Elegant Tern.
Image 2: Elegant Tern with Sandwich and Black Terns
Image 3: Good view of bill shape and structure of one of the Elegant Terns
Image 4: Elegant Tern in center
Image 5, 6: Two Royal Terns in front, Elegant in rear
Image 7, 8: both Elegant Terns
Image 9, 10: side by side comparison of the bills of a Royal Tern and an Elegant Tern
Image 11: Elegant Tern
Image 12: Elegant Tern in front on Royal Tern. Even though the Elegant is closer to the camera, note the larger size and bulk of the Royal.
Image 13, 14: Two Elegants and two Royals
Image 15: both Elegant Terns
Image 16: one Elegant Tern
Image 17, 18: wing stretch by an Elegant Tern near two Laughing Gulls
Image 19-26: Elegant Tern bathing