Share Your Best or Favorite Photo of a Bird Species!

[MacMe]

[dragon49]

Double-crested Cormorant:

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/469763721

[Johnd]

 

 

[jayD]

dbl crested

[Clip]

22 hours ago, Charlie Spencer said:

Live from Brunswick County, NC, let's do a bird I saw 103 of yesterday,

Cormorants! 

Any species but only one photo per Whatbirder!

Geez if you do more than one species you should allow more than one photo. Tis only right and in your short time making the pick you have done three this way!

As for your 102 Doubles my husband thinks they are taking over the country. They do seem to be abundant in most of the U.S.

[Clip]

Edited March 20 by Clip

[lonestranger]

23 hours ago, Charlie Spencer said:

Live from Brunswick County, NC, let's do a bird I saw 103 of yesterday,

Cormorants! 

Any species but only one photo per Whatbirder!

I just wanted to say thanks for doing these weekly birds. I know it might feel like a thankless job with some of the criticism you get so I just wanted to go out the way to say, Thank You.

[Charlie Spencer]

1 hour ago, Clip said:

Geez if you do more than one species you should allow more than one photo. Tis only right and in your short time making the pick you have done three this way!

I'm working from the ABA list.  I have a spreadsheet with a random number generator.  I check the list to which species matches that week's number.  When I post that species, I remove it from the list so it won't be picked again soon.

I don't always select the random species.  If it's a rarity, I'll skip it and generate another number.  I try to stick with species that can be found in a large part of NA for at least some part of the year.  Sometimes that means the chosen bird will frequent only the east, west, midsection, or coasts.  I may choose to add a second species or a group of species so that more people will have a chance to participate - chickadees or cormorants, for example.  I may also combine a group of birds that may not be individually common enough for many people to have photographed.

This week the species randomly chosen was one of the less common cormorants.  I wanted to use the infrequent bird, and I noticed there were a few other uncommon corms, none of which merited being the bird of the week on their own.  If I hadn't been on the road working from a tablet, I would have noticed DCCO had already been used.  I didn't, so I threw it this week open to all corms.

So my approach is select birds that are likely to have been photographed by many people, not to get as many photos as possible from each person.  There are plenty of photo galleries here, including one for postings for no reason at all, with no restrictions on anyone starting a new discussion on any topic he or she chooses.  (Indeed, in my opinion there are more threads than necessary, but not every thread has to appeal to every member, including me.)   I plan to work through the majority of ABA list but there are some birds that aren't going to make the cut.

At this time, one photo per poster per week will continue to be my standard policy.

Edited March 20 by Charlie Spencer

[lonestranger]

18 minutes ago, Charlie Spencer said:

I may choose to add a second species or a group of species so that more people will have a chance to participate

 

28 minutes ago, Charlie Spencer said:

So my approach is select birds that are likely to have been photographed by many people, not to get as many photos as possible from each person.

Its unfortunate that you needed to explain your methods/intentions @Charlie Spencer. It seemed obvious to me that your broadened selection was intended to allow maximum participation among the members, for which I will once again say, Thank You.

[Charlie Spencer]

55 minutes ago, lonestranger said:

Its unfortunate that you needed to explain your methods/intentions @Charlie Spencer. 

I've been looking for an opportunity to explain my approach.

Edited March 20 by Charlie Spencer

[Quiscalus quiscula]

I have better cormorant photos of a different species, but I'll do this one for the level of interest. This was when I had only started kind of birding and I thought it was a penguin 😆. New Zealand Pied Shag. This was on a nice secluded beach on a windy spring (for the southern hemisphere) day.

[lonestranger]

Double-crested Cormorant, and friends.

 

[lonestranger]

8 minutes ago, Quiscalus quiscula said:

I have better cormorant photos of a different species, but I'll do this one for the level of interest. This was when I had only started kind of birding and I thought it was a penguin 😆. New Zealand Pied Shag. This was on a nice secluded beach on a windy spring (for the southern hemisphere) day.

I jumped ahead to your photo right after reading the "different species" part and wasn't the least bit surprise when I continued reading to see that you mentioned the penguin confusion. I did a double take when I saw the photo because that was my initial thought. Cool bird.

[Clip]

4 hours ago, Charlie Spencer said:

I'm working from the ABA list.  I have a spreadsheet with a random number generator.  I check the list to which species matches that week's number.  When I post that species, I remove it from the list so it won't be picked again soon.

I don't always select the random species.  If it's a rarity, I'll skip it and generate another number.  I try to stick with species that can be found in a large part of NA for at least some part of the year.  Sometimes that means the chosen bird will frequent only the east, west, midsection, or coasts.  I may choose to add a second species or a group of species so that more people will have a chance to participate - chickadees or cormorants, for example.  I may also combine a group of birds that may not be individually common enough for many people to have photographed.

This week the species randomly chosen was one of the less common cormorants.  I wanted to use the infrequent bird, and I noticed there were a few other uncommon corms, none of which merited being the bird of the week on their own.  If I hadn't been on the road working from a tablet, I would have noticed DCCO had already been used.  I didn't, so I threw it this week open to all corms.

So my approach is select birds that are likely to have been photographed by many people, not to get as many photos as possible from each person.  There are plenty of photo galleries here, including one for postings for no reason at all, with no restrictions on anyone starting a new discussion on any topic he or she chooses.  (Indeed, in my opinion there are more threads than necessary, but not every thread has to appeal to every member, including me.)   I plan to work through the majority of ABA list but there are some birds that aren't going to make the cut.

At this time, one photo per poster per week will continue to be my standard policy.

Didn't need a lengthy explanation of the process. I just don't see how you can justify not allowing one of each species that person has when you do multiple species for one week. No one said anything about "as many photos as possible from each person" except you. One per species is what the topic asks for. One per species should thus be allowed as Kevin use to do if he named more than one for the week.

[Charlie Spencer]

Double-crested Cormorant.  Grafton, central New Hampshire, October, 2018.

I walked out of the hotel and got my gear out of the rental car.  Too late, I realized I had locked the fob in the trunk, something I thought wasn't possible.  I called the rental company, then started birding as I'd planned anyway.  Adjacent to the hotel was a mini golf, small train for kiddies, and other touristy amusements.  This corm was keeping company with Mallards in a pond around the fun park, in water I would have sworn wasn't deep enough to interest a diving bird this large.

[Kevin]

When I turned this thread totally over to Charlie, it came with no strings attached and he can make whatever rules he wants to(assuming it is within the overall forum rules of course).

As Charlie has already stated, there is plenty of other topics to post photos in, and if anyone does not like the rules of this thread, they don't have to participate. I don't want to hear any more complaints about how this thread is run, if you don't like it leave. A polite question or suggestion is alright, repeated posts of annoyance about the photo limits are not!

[Charlie Spencer]

@Kevin, is there a way to insert a poll in an existing discussion?

Thanks.

[Birds are cool]

[Kevin]

4 hours ago, Charlie Spencer said:

@Kevin, is there a way to insert a poll in an existing discussion?

Thanks.

Don't think so, let me try something though. 

[Charlie Spencer]

3 minutes ago, Kevin said:

Don't think so, let me try something though. 

Thanks.  I'm also trying some stuff I may wind up asking to have deleted.

[Kevin]

Just now, Charlie Spencer said:

Thanks.  I'm also trying some stuff I may wind up asking to have deleted.

If you run across my test, please send it my way, it just disappeared on me 

[Kevin]

@Charlie Spencer, if you will make the poll in a new thread, I can move it here.

[Snake Fingers]

@Kevin I can see your test.

Edited March 21 by Snake Fingers

[lonestranger]

2 hours ago, Kevin said:

If you run across my test, please send it my way, it just disappeared on me 

I can see your test at the top of the page but it won't let me vote. It looks like a poll but doesn't function like one.

 

[Kevin]

1 minute ago, lonestranger said:

I can see your test at the top of the page but it won't let me vote. It looks like a poll but doesn't function like one.

 

That's because I locked it.