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Won't that cause a bunch of people to head to Las Vegas? Oh, wait a minute...

Blue Winged Teal

Tulip festival time in the pacific north west

Anhinga Anhinga Wallisville tx Rookery by johnd1964, on Flickr

My yard tonight

Virginia Rail in Ohio.

Scissor-Tailed Flycatcher, first of year by hbvol50, on Flickr

Wilson's snipe

A Violet Green Swallow They are all nesting within the rock cliffs by the hundreds. Taken near Spokane, Wa.

We used to have this thread I thought it was pretty good.

So spring is weeks away, and it's coming on really fast here in the Dallas area. I'll have to mow my grass (weeds) this week for the first time in my backyard. I looked on the calendar, and last year I put my first feeder out on March 13th. I learned a big lesson about using sugar water vs the bottle of red mess you buy in the store. My opinion is sugar water works much better and is cheaper. I'm curious, when will you be putting your hummingbird feeder(s) out, or are you able to feed year round? I wish I could get them year round, but I do have a lot because of the migration thru Texas. If you have been feeding them a long time, do you have more and more over the years?

I took a trip to a riparian preserve near Phoenix last weekend, and saw a Great Egret for the first time! However, I noticed something in its tail, which hung down into the water as it walked around to hunt. See the second photo, below. At first I thought it was long tail feathers, but I don't see any feathers like this when I look at other Great Egret photos online, so now I'm wondering if it was a reed or something. Do Great Egrets stick things into their tails? Is this normal, or unusual? Any insight would be appreciated! Bonus picture: while I watched, the egret walked over to the shore and snatched a dragonfly off a reed:

I believe they are all Double-crested. The light-colored specimen would be a first year bird. The head on a Great Cormorant would be noticeably more bulky, and even on a young Great you would see an obvious white patch behind the yellow base of the bill.

Agreed.

Semipalmated in full breeding plumage, it appears.

Lessers.

Confirmed.

I agree - shorter tail eliminates Song Sparrow. I may also see a yellowish wash on the supercilium as well.

There are a handful of records, but this is still a significant find for the area. Was this recent? If you are comfortable sharing this sighting publicly, don't hesitate to report it on eBird.

Titmouse video - ignore the noise. I don't know what that is.

BUMP!

Indigo Bunting. The richer colors may be due to fresh feathers.

Yellowlegs

Common black-hawk

Last year it took a while before I was able to get a nice photo of an Orchard Oriole, but this spring I've been able to get some nice shots early. I couldn't decide which photo I liked better, so I'm cheating a little and posting two... Orchard Oriole by Mark Goodwin, on Flickr Orchard Oriole by Mark Goodwin, on Flickr

Waterthrush, Louisiana Idaho's first state record:

Vulture, Black

unknown bird Aransas NWR unknown bird Aransas NWR mabey Sora by johnd1964, on Flickr

Thanks for sharing! What a cute bird. I took this photo long before I was "officially" into birding, but seeing this guy on a wire was something I couldn't ignore. I guess I've always had the hobby ?

There are not very many options. Song Sleuth was the first to market. It works ok but they only have ~200 species that are throughout North America, so it's really only going to work for your most recognized bird songs. I've used it a bit and as you said it's "meh". The new contender is BirdGenie from the same guys who made the Warbler Guide. It has many of the same features as Song Sleuth but has multiple songs/calls for about 100 species so far. With development you'll get more. That said I find it to be a bit buggy, and doesn't respond very well (but that will likely be fixed with updates). The problem is that with bird songs/calls there is variation and/or "dialects" among species. With Shazam you have good success because every time the particular song comes on, it's characteristics are 100% the same, making it a reliable app. Bird songs are not 100% the same every time a bird sings and that variation is incredibly hard to program. Best you can do is get a "likely species" which is why the apps give you a list of what the bird may be. Cool idea, but there is a long way to go in that development.

Just sharing a closer look at the Coppersmith Barbet, taken close to my home in Penang, Malaysia.

Eastern Bluebird by Mark Goodwin, on Flickr

I'm not so sure these two are water ducks. They appear to be sitting on land.

MN :

Orchard Oriole by Mark Goodwin, on Flickr

Here is a rough guide of bird frequencies throughout the year in Cecil county. It is from ebird.org... https://ebird.org/barchart?byr=1900&eyr=2019&bmo=1&emo=12&r=US-MD-015

Yeah I deleted a lifer Blackburnian Warbler after a year or more. I "knew" what it was in one brief look. I saw it in my binocs, promptly gasped and reached for my camera, and it was gone. I may have moved too quickly. Regardless, the passage of time has eroded any confidence I had in what I think I saw. So I will wait for a better look and hopefully a decent photo.

I passed on marking a lifer White-Eyed Vireo this weekend. Several other people in the party got good looks at it. All I got was a blur of motion and maybe a bit of a wing. That wasn't good enough for me. Sometimes it's a question of whether you can justify it to the guy on the other side of the mirror. I did have a yard lifer Yellow-Throated Warbler waiting at the suet feeder when I got home. Karma.

Try this experiment: Boil water, measure, let it cool, measure again. Might not measure as much the second time. Just sayin'.

I have hummers all year, but the numbers and species vary a lot. It's the "slow" season now; I only have two species (White-Eared and Rivoli's) and there are not so many, so I only have one feeder out, and it takes several days for it to empty. In April the Rufous Sabrewings should show up, and in July the Mexican Violetears, and in September migrating Ruby-Throateds. From then until December I have all five species, and I have to put out 3 or 4 feeders and refill every couple of days. The Sabrewings and Violetears leave by the end of December, and some Ruby-Throateds may linger into January, but I'm at a higher elevation than their preferred wintering sites so not many. Interestingly, I've nver seen any on the return migration. I have definitely had increases over time. I happened to put up my first feeder during Ruby-Throated migration in the fall, and I got them immediately; but once they were gone it was several months before I started getting local species. It was several years before I got all five species. Interestingly too, I probably get 10 male Rivoli´s for every female at the feeder, and I have NEVER seen a female White-Eared at the feeders. If you're not getting birds at the feeders, try changing the location; it is always suggested to go for a spot that's visible from above but somewhat protected. I have overhangs on the roof above my terrace rooftop garden, and I hang the feeders under them. And I totally agree with the no red coloring or special hummer food! It's really just sugar and red coloring, and ridiculously expensive. I use 1:4 (more or less; I'm not obsessive about exact measuring) plain white sugar and water. I used to boil the water, but I also boiled my own water, because the public water supplies here are not reliably treated for drinking safety. However now that I have a good water filter I don't boil anymore, for myself or for the hummers. I just mix the sugar and water together and fill the feeder(s). I do buy the expensive white sugar; most sugar here is not completely white, and the molasses in brown sugar is not good for them. I buy the cheap brownish stuff for people to consume LOL! My understanding on the red coloring is first of all, not necessary; I can attest to that. I have one feeder that's not red at all and they like it better than all the others! Secondly, it is suspected that the coloring may be harmful, mostly because hummers drink such a huge amount of nectar, so they will end up getting a high dosage of red coloring. Humans don't drink something approaching their body weight in liquids every day, so a safe amount of red coloring for us may not be for hummers because the dosage is so different. But mostly, it's not necessary, so why use it? Honey can have harmful microbes and encourage the growth of mold. Artificial sweeteners are very bad for hummers because the very reason they drink nectar is that they need the sugar for energy to sustain all that flying and hovering. Brown sugar, unrefined sugar, molasses, etc. are not good because again they would get an overdose of nutrients that could be harmful to them. They hunt for small insects for protein and other nutrients, and again if they are getting iron, etc. in their nectar, they would get an overdose becasue of the large amounts of nectar they drink.

On my local Audubon group page, someone linked this. They made it sound like hummingbirds.net isn't doing a map on that site this year, and to look at this one instead. https://maps.journeynorth.org/map/?year=2019&map=hummingbird-ruby-throated-first&fbclid=IwAR0NHQ7BcV9twJFKXT997FD0pyxMCRsTwtFiGmgGxYrlL18vte9JvKEibro

They arrive in cental alabama on the third week of March every year. I watch them on the hummingbird tracker website too. I had a few more in 2018 than I did in 2017. They babies that are born around the feeders come back so if you feed every year you should theoretically see more and more every passing year.

Here in Georgia, there are reports of a few stray hummingbirds already, although I probably won't put mine out for a few more weeks. I've read a lot about the red dye, and there is thinking out there that it may be harming the birds, so I don't take the risk. Homemade is so much cheaper, anyway.

If I understand this radar correctly, there are many birds moving North across Texas in October. Is this normal? I didn't see anything in the Gulf that looked like it would drive them North. Here is a link from Birdcast. http://birdcast.info/live-migration-maps/ Thanks for you comments.

Common Nighthawk Anhauc NWR 7-18 one 5 i saw that day Common Nighthawk in flight Anahauc NWR 7-18 by johnd1964, on Flickr