Birding Bloopers #11
No Comments »28th February, 2007; Category: Birders, Birding bloopers, Owls Frogmouths and Nightjars
Here is another entry in the current series of birding bloopers from the contributors to the Birding-Aus forum. This one comes from John and Ruth who were birding in the UK at the time.
Our birding blooper happened in UK in 1997. We were staying at a B&B on a pig farm in Lincolnshire. It was wet and foggy (what’s new) when we drove out past the pig sheds. There on one shed was a horned owl of some sort.
After screeching to a halt I made a mad grab for the camera and 400mm lens. Beauty we got off a couple of shots. Being in a hurry we moved on and our films were being sent to a processor who forwarded the finished prints to our daughter in London.
When we got to London we said did you see the great owl photos, her reply was less than enthusiastic “hadn’t we noticed the hook on the owls head for hanging it up”. It must have been there as some sort of deterrent to keep undesirables away from the pig sheds.
My thanks to John and Ruth who gave permission for me to use this.
To read more bloopers click here.
Question for readers:
When did you experience an embarrassing birding moment? Perhaps it was a mistaken identification. Perhaps you didn’t look carefully enough and were later proved wrong. Maybe the bird itself fooled you in some way.
I invite readers to submit their birding bloopers in the comments section below. If it’s good enough I might just feature it in a post of its own, with a link back to your blog (if you have one).
Photo Gallery Update
Mistletoebird
My son has done an update on and a redesign of our family photo gallery. This gallery currently has over 750 photos on a wide range of subjects including birds, flowers, animals, travel and much more.
Take a look.
Leave a rating.
Link: Hampel Photo Gallery
UPDATE: our photo gallery has just passed the 300,000 views today.
Red Capped Robin
Birding Bloopers #10
No Comments »27th February, 2007; Category: Bird Behaviour, Birders, Birding bloopers, Ravens and Crows
Anthea is a regular contributor to the Birding-Aus forum. She has given me permission to quote her intriguing encounter with a Little Raven that had a very interesting taste for the unusual. And as with all the bloopers featured on my blog, Anthea thought the bird was eating something completely different.
I was on the beach at Point Lonsdale, some years ago, observing a Little Raven which appeared to be subduing prey. Heavy pecks were repeatedly directed at something on the sand, and I was pretty sure I could see a long thin tail thrashing about. It picked up the prey item and flew to a low branch. I hastily took a photo! More pecking and thrashing – was that a small black leg and foot, with claws, beside the tail ? Small mammal, say a mouse? I was quite excited by the time it dropped the item and flew off.
I hastened to investigate … It was part of a dried, black mummified banana peel divided into a number of longways strips – one narrow one was the tail, a truncated, ragged shorter part was the leg. What the Raven found to eat on it I really don’t know!
Thanks to Anthea for her contribution.
Read more birding bloopers here.
Question for readers:
When did you experience an embarrassing birding moment? Perhaps it was a mistaken identification. Perhaps you didn’t look carefully enough and were later proved wrong. Maybe the bird itself fooled you in some way.
I invite readers to submit their birding bloopers in the comments section below. If it’s good enough I might just feature it in a post of its own, with a link back to your blog (if you have one).
Silvereyes come to visit
Silvereyes are delightful little grey and olive-green birds – unless you happen to have ripe grapes on your grape vines, when they will descend upon your garden with great delight and feed on the grapes using their sharp pointy beaks to pierce the skin of the grapes.
Silvereye
Silvereyes are found throughout eastern and south-eastern Australia, as well as south western Australia. There are several races recognised with each race having distinctive colour variations. The white eye ring is conspicuous and diagnostic. Two similar species, the Pale White-Eye and the Yellow White-Eye are found in northern Australia.
Their thin call (‘psee’) as they pass by in loose flocks is a common call in many parts of their range. I’d been hearing this call in our garden for some weeks, so they have been around. Tracking them down is another matter as they tend to be a little sneaky around here. Finally one came to the bird bath for a drink, so I was able to get a reasonable photo.
They haven’t caused us any angst in the orchard – yet. We don’t have any grapes on our vines this year. I wish I could say the same about the Ringneck Parrots; they sometimes eat our pears before we get to them, and before the pears are ripe. We were sneaky and stripped the trees before they did too much damage this year. Now we have to wait for the pears to ripen.
Mallee Ringneck Parrot
Birding Bloopers #9
Here is another case of mistaken identity. This happens far too often with birders, it seems. When I put out a post to the Birding-Aus forum I didn’t quite expect to be swamped with people admitting to their mistakes.
My own embarrassing moment was spotlighting with a group from Canberra at Kingfisher Park, Far North Queensland a few years ago. We were asked to sing out if we see any eyeshine, which I dutifully did – it was a cow.
Mind you, the mistake is easily made. A cow does look vaguely similar to an owl or frogmouth. Or even a possum.
My thanks to another “Anonymous” contributor who gave me permission to publish this.
Question for readers:
When did you experience an embarrassing birding moment? Perhaps it was a mistaken identification. Perhaps you didn’t look carefully enough and were later proved wrong. Maybe the bird itself fooled you in some way.
I invite readers to submit their birding bloopers in the comments section below. If it’s good enough I might just feature it in a post of its own, with a link back to your blog (if you have one).