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5 hours ago, Charlie Spencer said:

Yay, Purple Finch!

What kind of stinks, is I saw the bird, was like "what's that?" and fired off some pics, because I couldn't get a good look through the binoculars. It was really sunny, and the bird was moving a ton. I didn't see it was a purple until I zoomed in on the photo. If I had known, I would have taken more time to try to see it with the binoculars!

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1 hour ago, meghann said:

What kind of stinks, is I saw the bird, was like "what's that?" and fired off some pics, because I couldn't get a good look through the binoculars. It was really sunny, and the bird was moving a ton. I didn't see it was a purple until I zoomed in on the photo. If I had known, I would have taken more time to try to see it with the binoculars!

If it makes you feel any better, when I got mine in MA in October, I thought she was some type of sparrow.  She was way up in a tree and the angle distorted her proportions through my binos.  Like you, I didn't ID her until I looked at the photos in detail.

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9 hours ago, meghann said:

Glad you got to go see the celebrity! Were there a bunch of birders at the library?

Thanks.  I wasn't able to find a way to sneak out from work until the 3rd afternoon, so there was a relatively small group of about 20 people for much of the time.  The first couple days had a lot more, and I suspect tomorrow will be busy, since it will be the first weekend day available.

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  • 2 weeks later...

It's always nice when you see a lifer and you actually get a decent photo of it.  I just returned from two weeks down in the Yucatan, we often stay in a condo by the beach in Playacar, which is about 40 miles south of Cancun.  We've been going there for years and I always walk the neighborhood looking for birds.  These days I don't often pick up lifers in that area, just the usual native birds.  I always check out this one small park as I often see several species of orioles there.  On this trip I got a glimpse of this bird and initially thought it was an oriole, but as soon as I got a decent look at it I knew it was something different.  I stalked it through the park for a while and finally got a few decent photos of the bird.  At the time I thought it might be a Cacique, but I wasn't sure until I was able to check the guide.  It is a Yellow-winged Cacique and going by the guide, it was pretty far out of its usual range.  I saw it several times in that park, so for whatever reason it seems to be living there or close to it.  

46864775422_85135b95c0_b.jpgYellow-winged Cacique by Mark Goodwin, on Flickr

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well it has been a looooooong time and many chases over the years, but I finally got a Gyrfalcon(#620)! I wasn't planning on going today due to weather and work(so did not have scope or regular camera)... but got done a bit early.  I got some super crappy digi-bin pics of it looking away from me, as it did pretty much the whole 1/2 hour I spent viewing it from my car as the sleet/freezing rain fell in Cape May county, NJ. A few head turns by the bird  and the sheer size made ID easy(There is a pic from the original finder floating around showing the size difference with a Peregrine... just amazing. So no postable pic yet, as I won't amuse you with my pics from today... but if it sticks around, I will be going back this weekend when weather is better and will update here if I get a good shot.

 

EDIT to add: This is NOT MY PIC... it is the one I was mentioning from the original finder Dustin Welch showing the size difference. The bird on top is a Peregrine...Image may contain: sky and outdoor

Edited by birdbrain22
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Red-cockaded Woodpecker from last Saturday. We saw two and possibly a third. Their range is limited to the southeast. RCWs are somewhat endangered. They are the only woodpecker to nest in live trees and they only nest in Longleaf pines. The pines have to be about eighty years old before they are large enough for nesting purposes. In years past, many Longleaf pines were harvested and replaced with fast growing Loblolly pines. More recently, steps have been taken to restore Longleaf pine habitat. Much of this has been done on military bases. Locally we have a few colonies on the Fort Gordon Army base. This is also the first banded bird I have seen. Virtually all RCWs are banded. The photos aren’t great but good enough for ID. As always, woohoo!

Red-cockaded Woodpecker 1.JPG

Red-cockaded Woodpecker 2.JPG

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