millipede Posted May 9, 2021 Share Posted May 9, 2021 Since our local audubon chapter wont have ANY field trips any time soon, I decided to try and host my own. Being the popular guy I am, one person showed up. I invited birders and non-birders. Thankfully the one person was a birder. I had near 70 species in about 5 hours I spent there. A bit long but I enjoyed it. Anyway... 1. This is probably the same cormorant I posted a few days back. In one image you can see the long body... the other image, I can only assume it was the same cormorant as it was flushed and moved to where we saw this one and never saw more than one... I zoomed in on the image to see what looks like good facial indicators of neotropic. But I like confirming when my images aren't great. 2. Raptor silhouettes. MAYBE some day I'll learn to use my camera better. Cloudy, looking way up... it just didn't pick up any detail. If only they got in front of a patch of blue sky I would have gotten something better. I am certain that I had a swainson's in there... And the last group of picks, the bird gave me a good mississippi kite vibe. There were several birds that flew over that we just didn't get good enough looks at... and the guy that was with me, had a better lens but left his memory card at home. 😞 (this is crops of the same image, nothing resized, so you can see size and shape difference compared to the vulture...Bird on left was probably a little higher but not a lot) These next few are more of at least one of the same birds, all taken at 8:08 AM so pretty sure it was one of those two. This one was a different flyover... lower but the exposure is still horrible. Wish I could correct it as it would be easier to pick up detail on this one. Same bird I believe, This next group, I THINK is the bird that had given me the kite vibe... I really, really hate that none of these came out... 5 pics in one, all at same zoom level. These next ones are 4 minutes later... don't remember if it's the same bird or not... Or maybe this is the one I thought was a kite, if it's not the same bird. 3. Sparrow 4. Bonus... I saw a mourning warbler and snapped a pic... in the binocs, perfect looks and field marks, no doubt I had a mourning there... but, I thought I got a picture as it was hopping away and this is all I found... I assume it's the bird I was shooting at but is there anything in this picture that would back that? Basically, if it's not apparent I wont upload the photo for my eBird checklist... but will still report the bird. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerry Friedman Posted May 9, 2021 Share Posted May 9, 2021 This was in Arkansas? I believe the ones you thought were Mississippi Kites were Mississippi Kites, with the flared tail and short outer primary. I'm leaving the rest to others. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
millipede Posted May 9, 2021 Author Share Posted May 9, 2021 10 minutes ago, Jerry Friedman said: This was in Arkansas? yeah, I should have been more clear on that... NW Arkansas. And thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Leukering Posted May 10, 2021 Share Posted May 10, 2021 Neotrop -- note the shape of the back edge of the gular patch Broad-winged Broad-winged Mississippi Clay-colored?? The crown looks of the right color for MOWA, so.... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
millipede Posted May 10, 2021 Author Share Posted May 10, 2021 Guess I'll add some more pictures of the sparrow... Clay-colored would be a lifer... they're not super common around here... but do happen. I can say that even in the field, the bill seemed big and orangish. I just wasn't sure what I was looking at. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
millipede Posted May 10, 2021 Author Share Posted May 10, 2021 This one probably doesn't help any more than the others... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
millipede Posted May 10, 2021 Author Share Posted May 10, 2021 I'm looking at a guide and can't make this anything but a clay-colored at this point but would like confirmation... 🙂 I am glad I trusted my instincts and followed this bird for pictures. We had it out in the open on some brush and neither of us could figure it to what we'd expect there... I had the camera with me and just had to go follow it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aidan B Posted May 10, 2021 Share Posted May 10, 2021 1 minute ago, millipede said: I'm looking at a guide and can't make this anything but a clay-colored at this point but would like confirmation... 🙂 I am glad I trusted my instincts and followed this bird for pictures. We had it out in the open on some brush and neither of us could figure it to what we'd expect there... I had the camera with me and just had to go follow it. The sparrow is definitely Clay-colored 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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