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Ratings Appreciated!! https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/574123061 https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/574123081

The heavy canopy made sharp pictures a little difficult to obtain, but I'm pretty happy with this one of an Acadian Flycatcher @Tanager 101 and I saw at the northern edge of its breeding range! ML574354861 Acadian Flycatcher Macaulay Library

This is actually a female Red-winged Blackbird.

It's a female Blackpoll Warbler. Note the shorter bill and incomplete eye arcs.

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/574356651 Pretty happy with this one. Ratings appreciated

Black-headed Grosbeak, it’s a female.

My last two COHU photos! https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/574468141 https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/574468151

Most of the birds I saw today were distant, but I got some photos I really like. Marsh Wren and Chipping Sparrow.

Black-footed Albatross from my recent pelagic! ML574487761 Black-footed Albatross Macaulay Library ML574487771 Black-footed Albatross Macaulay Library

You are correct - Magnolia Warbler! That "dipped in black paint" tail pattern is distinctive.

My bet is on fledgling Green Heron as that neck look long...Oh and WHAT THE ACTUAL HECK!!!!!! Great shots. Never, ever knew Night-Herons were such ruthless bastards. Wow. Although looks like even really young Green Herons will still have the streaked neck. Gallinule doesn't have the spotting on the wings it looks like. From BotW - Adults, on occasion, observed to eat chicks in adjacent nests (Parkes 2005)...chicksphoto of other species, including various terns, herons and ibises, e.g. those of White Ibis (Eudocimus albus), Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis), Squacco Heron (Ardeola ralloides; Safford and Hawkins 2013), Great Egret (Ardea alba) and Snowy Egret (Egretta thula; Kelly et al. 1993), as well as Brown Noddies (Anous stolidus; Meygesi and Griffin 1996), Forster’s (Sterna forsteri; Cuthbert et al. 1993) and Common Terns (S. hirundo; Shealer and Kress 1991), stilts (Himantopus), ducks (Anas) and even Tachycineta swallows emerging from a nestbox (Kushlan and Hancock 2005).

Just hit 250!! My second ever Black-billed Cuckoo in my home County got me there. I’m 17 species behind last year’s pace, solely because of the trip to the Gulf Coast I took last March. Im doing better than I thought! Also, next week I’m going to be volunteering to do a YELLOW RAIL survey in northeastern VT! Nobody has done one before, and if they are anywhere in the state, that’s where they’ll be. I’m super excited, gonna lose a night of sleep but I’m used to that. Hopefully I’ll be back here with some audio to post! 🤞

Original: Edited: Thoughts?

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/574172751 https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/574173061 Thoughts? I think I liked the second one better

The official name in North America, established by the American Ornithological Society, and used by all North American field guides, is Rock Pigeon.

White-winged Scoter!

Juvenile Spizella sparrows are very challenging to separate. If I’m remembering correctly, at times they can be hard to separate in hand. A quick look through Macaulay shows variation, and lots of potential misidentifications. I’m currently not aware of a recent study on juvenile Spizellas, but would lean towards Clay-colored here due to the in distinct white around the eye. Yet, I think it’s currently appropriately assigned to Spizella sp., unless someone wants to provide a detailed and compelling argument one way or another.

Hawaiian Petrel!!! I'm very happy with my photos turned out, this bird was fairly distant and only did one pass. Far better looks than my first HAPE!

I’m jealous!!! My phone is disproportionate part of my professional life, and I reminisce about the time when it wasn’t.

OK you asked for it!!! 😛

We could just switch to Spanish, since the word for pigeon and dove is the same LOL! It's my understanding that there isn't a meaningful biological difference between the two, just that doves are lovely and pigeons are flying rats LOL!

I'd say this one is pretty good considering it was taken at 1/50 shutter speed https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/574361191

Good lord man, those are incredible! Great composition!

Definiely interesting. But I think the evidence is getting clear that almost any kind of activity changes your brain. I've seen similar research related to knitting and learning foreign languages (two other areas of interest to me), and I don't doubt that the same applies to playing sports, cooking, playing games, and a host of other activities. After all, isn't that what we teachers are trying to do every day in the classroom? It's long been known (if not always expressed well) that learning math, for example, isn't just for solving problems on a piece of paper, but it helps develop mental skills for solving other kinds of problems as well; learning science can help us to learn to anaylze all kinds of information to sort the true from the false. I don't doubt that all of this changes your brain, in a similar way that exercise can change your body by developing certain muscles. And yes, birding doesn't mean we are more observant in other areas, but it may help us to be able to more quickly develop that observation skill in other areas if we want to. Note that the medical students still had to go to med school, not just go birding!

Here is a Green Kingfisher I took.

Wow.. I just saw one of the near Vancouver last week. Female too.

That is good to know, thanks! I had seen them in state parks in other states before, so it was a joy to see them in my own yard.

Thank you! The Veery is a lifer for me, so this was a great day. I appreciate your confirmation.

That's a large percentage of birding, I'm afraid! 😆

Thank you! Yes, I think I was lucky to get that picture. Never imagined I'd spend so much time staring at a bird's butt. 😂

I personally prefer the pose in the first shot. Slightly to much contrast in my opinion, but very nice shots overall.

@chipperatlGo report it and make the County Rare Bird Alert. 🙂

I missed him recently as he decided to bird with a different group when I led an outing in Nashville that @hbvol50 joined. I think he's doing a presentation tour.

Yep, classic WEVI calls. "WEEer to-wAy vo"

Sounds like a Blue-winged variation. If this was taken where both species breed, calls cannot be used to determine which species is singing, as they extensively hybridize in the Northeast.

Virginia Beach is only a few miles away from the orange color for Willow Flycatcher. I wouldn't place too much stock in its absence on this map. eBird has 5 sites with multiple sightings with as many as 7 birds across multiple years in the month of May, in Virginia Beach, starting in 2013. Alder Flycatcher was only reported from one site on one day only in Virginia Beach during this same period, by a very experienced (and sadly deceased) birder. If you didn't hear your bird vocalize, it should be left was Willow/Alder as @IKLland says above.

It's a Pine Warbler!

7 months and I won't have a professional life

Hmmmm. I’m gonna hold off on my Boomer rant for now (granted this rant is heavily skewed with data from my own parents). Ultimately, smart phones should be used primarily as eBird uploading/recording devices. 😉

A smart PHONE is only as smart as the person using it....for smart things. When it comes to making/taking phone calls though, dumb phones with dumb ringtones work just as good. Especially for dummies like me that don't really want a computer to make phone calls.

Here are some colorful birds! A Scarlet Macaw, Lesser Goldfinch, and Western Bluebird.

Over a hundred Least Sandpipers still coming through foraging in the Mohawk river marshes, and I saw the first Semipalmated Plovers anyone has seen in the county this year. Pretty good amounts of Tringas for the area too.

Not a fan of the background here, but I love the pose this Parula was striking! ML572449121 Northern Parula Macaulay Library