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Sneaks in a late one....

Ya’ll know which one I have to post… However, I have a ton of other goodies too. https://media.ebird.org/catalog?userId=USER1824290&mediaType=photo&taxonCode=normoc&sort=rating_rank_desc

rarely ever see them perch

I find this thread entertaining, so I’ll try to revive it. I have a couple stories that I think are fitting. The first takes place in south-central Oregon, at a large alkali lake. It’s a hot sunny day, with lots of heat shimmer. Luckily I’m not alone on this trip - it could’ve been worse! Way out on the mostly dry lake bed, we can see tons of gulls and shorebirds, but due to distance and heat shimmer, they are well and truly unidentifiable. “No problem” I say - “let’s just walk out there!” Easier said than done. We take our shoes off and start walking barefoot out into the muck. Farther out, there’s a salty crust on top of the muck, and with every step we break through the crust, and it scratches at our ankles. At first it’s a minor annoyance, but gets progressively worse with each step, the sharp salt crystals scraping deeper and deeper into our flesh. Not wanting to give in, I try to keep forging ahead, but eventually my friend makes the executive call that we need to turn around. It was unequivocally the right decision. By the time we get back to solid ground, both of us have raw and bloody ankles, which take months to fully heal. We never did get close enough to identify those birds! On another occasion, I’m birding alone in the Interior Coast Range south of Livermore, California. I’m looking for owls, so it’s after dusk. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a shadowy figure moving slowly and smoothly across a field towards me. Something about it feels disturbing, terrifying in a most primal way. I can’t see what it is yet, but it feels wrong. Every instinct tells me to run, but I keep my cool and slowly saunter back to my car. I close the door, put my foot on the brake to turn the car on and put it in gear - and illuminated by my brake lights, I watch a Mountain Lion cross the road behind me. Terrified, I throw the car into gear and get the hell out of there. I still go owling alone sometimes, but never go more than a few steps from the safety of my car. This last one happened just a month or so ago. I was on a camping trip with a small group of birders, and we went for a hike at Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Tuolumne County, California. After a long climb in elevation, we sat down for lunch and a break. One of the group was especially tired, so she decided to go find a spot to take a nap while the rest of us explored the area a bit more. When we were done exploring, we tried to find her, but could not. There was no cell phone service. We ran up and down that portion of trail several times, even started yelling her name at the top of our lungs, but could not find her. We began to wonder if she had started the long descent, since try as we might we couldn’t find her. Eventually, we hiked down to the parking lot - she wasn’t there either, nor was she anywhere along the trail. At this point we start truly freaking out, and flag down a park ranger, and explain the situation. He is perhaps a bit condescending, but generally helpful and a calming presence, and explains that this happens quite often. He reminds us of the “Golden Rule” - never split your group up! Feeling slightly less anxious, we wait around and about 15 minutes later she shows up at the parking lot. Crisis averted! (She still acts like we shouldn’t have hiked down without her, but she was the one that broke the Golden Rule!)

Yes, Little Blue. The bill color varies in LBHE and you can (barely) see the dusky blue tips to the primaries in both pictures.

The first image looks decent for a Common Yellowthroat. The fourth image is of a Traill's Flycatcher (Willow/Alder) I agree with the rest of the IDs.

Wood Thrush https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/598610351

Western Sandpiper: https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/598570771

My back yard, April 2022.

Yes. You can just see the dark primary tips. A Snowy would have yellow lores, and lack the droopy bill. Young LBHE have greenish/yellowish legs edit: sniped

Only one I've gotten thus far.

Mockingbird fighting a snake

These look more like Common Mergansers to me, not loons.

My first impression is great crested flycatcher.

This is a super epic comparison shot. Not my photo. Other interesting photos in the list as well. https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/598480391

So busy at work I havnt even checked this thread for months, here’s my fav

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/541603941

1 is Western 2 is Semipalmated I’ll pass on the last one

Sneaking this in this morning before the new bird is posted. I'm on vacation in Missouri so almost forgot to post.

2 and 3 palm warbler, last pic yellow-rumped

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/598570561

Orangeburg Sod Farms, Orangeburg County, central SC. Sept 2019, on a trip with Carolina Bird Club. The sod farm is privately owned but the owner is a birder. Check in at the gate first and you can drive the roads and berms between the sod. The usual targets are migrating shorebirds drawn to the wide open damp grass fields, but the same conditions can pull harriers. This one was dining on something just below the level of the grass.

I have seen many many many Northern Harrier both in Colorado (summer) when I lived there. I have seen them in Florida (winter) since we moved here. But I do not have a good a picture of one. I have a bunch of okay ones. I used the one below because it is male and you never saw as many of them as the female and it is an okay pic.

Don't know what it is about them. I see them pretty often in the winter & I've yet to get a shot of one that I was happy with.

"Y'all", not "ya'll". The apostrophe stands in for the dropped 'ou' in 'you all', not for a removed 'wi' in 'you will'. Sheesh.

Ratings appreciated: https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/598815431

Not the best, but I like its silly expression.

They are Pelagic Cormorants. Probably storing food in the crop, perhaps to feed young

Young Brown-headed Cowbird? I’m on my phone

Yep, know exactly what's going on, you toggled the BIRDING category off, but I guess you already figured that out.🙂

Great Egret, at least that's what it looks like on my phone. Yellow bill, black legs and feet, no rusty coloring, much slower wing beats than a Cattle, and much larger. Much more likely to be solitary than in a flock.

dusky was on the molt, but still a photo lifer.

Waterton lakes was squirrely this week.

Okay, so I see this bird this morning thinking it's a Finch (forgive me, I see so many Finches I think everything is a Finch) and a Cardinal comes up and feeds it. I know that's not a juvenile Cardinal, so I'm trying to figure out why a Cardinal would be feeding a Finch. Then I wonder if it could be the same bird I was unable to identify 11 days ago which two astute members suggested was a Cowbird. Then I remember that Cowbirds are parasitic nesters. Cowbird raised by Cardinals solves both mysteries. And adds the 10th species to my feeder list! I'll bump the other thread and give kudos to the Cowbird voters.

Yes.

FWIW, the filter in that county is set to 5 SESA from Jun 29 - Oct 4, and zero the rest of the year.

The needs list for this topic is pinned at he very top of the topic. Scroll up.

Some warblers showed up early here, but I haven't been able to find them. I made a quick stop looking for a Prothonotary Warbler that wasn't there: https://ebird.org/checklist/S145934782 Decent checklist: https://ebird.org/checklist/S145938519 Great checklist! I got the Western Sandpiper lifer I was after: https://ebird.org/checklist/S145948647

Oh, and I know this has been posted her before, but I'll post it again. Some of this has changed since the article was written, but it's still a useful starting point. https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/27-43 OB Vol 18%231 Apr2000.pdf

Well, juvenile does technically refer to both age and plumage, but many species cannot be aged in the field. Banders tend to use the calendar year for age, as @Avery highlighted. Bobolinks are notoriously challenging to age in the field, which is where all this started. https://www.birdpop.org/docs/pubs/Pyle_2020_The_Molts_and_Plumages_of_BOBO.pdf

I don't think it's a Pied. Maybe a Finsch's Wheatear.