chipperatl

Snow Buntings perhaps,

I posted to state listserve and got a response back from one of the more active banders. He said he hadn’t seen that much white on tails. Max for birds he bands is 60% white on r4. The wing-bars he sees on 5-10%, mostly young. I’ve tried to get pics near other juncos but they are pretty respectful “personal space”. I can say naked eye it doesn’t stick out size wise from 25-30 feet away. I can’t pick it out clearly in the group. But the .5-.6 inches I’m not sure if it would be noticeable to me. I cannot find any side by side pics of Slate and White-winged. Realizing how improbable this would be I know I would have to tick off at least that size box before I’d submit to eBird or even the Records Committee.

I've had a Junco with white wing-bars hanging around. I assumed it is just one of the uncommon Slate-colored that have this trait. Today I managed to get a very rough shot of it in flight with tail feathers spread. I count up 3 full white ones, with white on the 4th. Obviously this would be extremely unlikely to be around this area, but 2 traits make me at least have to get some other opinions. Not sure what else I could do to get some more "proof". Looking for thoughts and appreciate it in advance. First shot from 2/6 - I'm pretty sure the same bird as the other pics. This shot is from 2/10 These next two shots are from today 2/13.

Sorry about the photos. I'm hosting from my own site now that flickr went $$. Thanks for Coop confirmation. I was looking side by side with a SSHA photos I took recently from relatively same distance and it definitely had more noticeable differences. Just used to Coops having that flat top look to them.

Really thought this was a Cooper's Hawk when it flushed all the feeder birds. Looked bigger (it was only about 30 feet away), didn't look bug-eyed, tail looked uneven. Head looks awfully round though and appears rather broad in the chest. I still think Cooper's Hawk, but wanted any other thoughts. Never seen a Coop with it's head so round before.

I called this Red-tailed Hawk in the field. But looking at what appears to be a full crop, and knowing it was facing into the wind...is it causing what looks like some separation in the streaking. I've not seen the juvenile RTHA around here have the extensive streaking on the sides going up to the neck or even from the throat into the chest. Usually pretty clean belly-band with all white chest on the juveniles. Thanks in advance. _91A9388 by chipperatl2, on Flickr _91A9288 by chipperatl2, on Flickr

I was thinking that head looked more Rough-legged, but looks like there is a grey belly-band.

It took about 24 hours but it seemed to work perfectly on all my Flickr pics. A little end of year bonus donation to eBird for pulling that off. I was trying to manually update. This saved me H-O-U-R-S of time.

Lightroom has a maps feature if you have GPS on your photos, or you can map them manually.

Raptor with a stare that says “I don’t care how big you are, I will eat your body and soul” equals Merlin.

Looks like Sunday was last reported day. Lots of Goldeneyes reported yesterday. Saturday it appeared out of nowhere while 3 other birders were watching a group of COGE. It apparently has some ninja skills.

Thayer’s is what Photo Sleuth came up with, but bigger than the Herring Gulls even? I was probably 1/5 a mile away and looks like the wall is maybe 20 feet across. Would I be close enough to have angles play with size that much?

Barrow's Goldeneye today on an inland lake in SW MI. _91A6776.jpg by chipperatl2, on Flickr

That is a lot of white on the wings of #4, I'd lean yes on that. #9 the nail on the bill looks small I think that is Lesser.

Took a trip to Lake Michigan this afternoon. Ran across this big juvenile gull that was matching up size-wise with GBBG adult. It isn't checkered, and has some light grey coming in to mantle, not dark so I really don't think it is a GBBG juvie as the bill isn't very chunky either. I thought maybe Glaucous, but the bill looks mostly dark. Really big Herring? Again at that age bill wouldn't be mostly dark. Thanks in advance. _91A7046.jpg by chipperatl2, on Flickr _91A7069.jpg by chipperatl2, on Flickr _91A7084.jpg by chipperatl2, on Flickr Not 100% sure this is the same bird with wings spread. Those look like fairly pale inner primaries. _91A7239.jpg by chipperatl2, on Flickr _91A7253.jpg by chipperatl2, on Flickr _91A7257.jpg by chipperatl2, on Flickr