Thanks to Dumpsterkitty, we have finally updated our falcon family tree...

http://rfalconcam.com/rfc-main/familyTree.php

Awesome piece of work!  Thanks, Ei

Patti

Introducing Maru..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_AbfPXTKms

Lou

Thanks Lou, I've been following Maru's adventures for awhile.  Have you seen the video where his owner did a scientific study of Maru's box habits?

[Hi Aafke,The bird looks like a Scrub-Jay. Very common here in the Sacramento Valley and California and in the Pacific northwest, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Wyoming, central Texas and Central Florida. Probably a lot of places inbetween. It looks like a good picture of a Scrub-Jay. Lola]

Hi Aafke,
The bird looks like a Scrub-Jay.  Very common here in the Sacramento Valley and California and in the Pacific northwest,  Montana, Idaho, Washington, Wyoming, central Texas and Central Florida.  Probably a lot of places inbetween.  It looks like a good picture of a Scrub-Jay.
 
   Lola

Definitely a scrub jay; the specific species would depend on where Kerwin was.  The most likely is the Western Scrub-Jay, which has a pretty broad range across the Western US.  There is also a Florida Scrub-Jay (restricted to Florida) and an Island Scrub-Jay (restricted to Santa Cruz Island off the southern California coast).

Patti

I've finally gotten my full photo album finished from my "Festival of the Cranes" trip in mid November.  I've already posted several videos from that trip; they're in this album as well, so skip right over them if you've already seen them.  This was a birding/hiking trip centered around Sandhill Cranes in New Mexico (Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge).

Features:  Peregrine & Gyr-Peregrine Falcon, Harris's Hawks, Sandhill Cranes, Geese, and other assorted birds, including some successful digiscoping attempts (unusual for me).

Freebies:  Mule Deer, Prairie Dogs

Warning: Rattlesnake...if you're phobic, this is advance notice that there are several pictures of a Western Diamondback Rattlesnake (including the final photo).

Link:
http://bellhanley.smugmug.com/Birds-Bats-Butterflies/Wide-Wide-World/Festival-of-the-Cranes-2010

TinyURL: http://tinyurl.com/28jptbp

You can click the "slideshow" button in the right-hand corner if you prefer a slideshow format, or click the big photo to get a slightly larger "lightbox" format, then use the little buttons at the top to scroll through the pictures.  Or just navigate through the thumbnails!  NOTE: there are multiple pages of thumbnails.

Patti

Anne, are you out there?  Haven't heard from you in awhile...

Patti

And, are we ALL (retired?) Nurses here???
Carol
WV

No, I'm a geek instead of a nurse, so I can actually do my job from home when the streets are impassable.  My sister and brother-in-law are both hospital pharmacists and my sister-in-law is a nurse, which lets me enjoy lots of health care talk vicariously.

Patti

I have a small birdbath heater that works really well...during this really cold December my birdbath has often been the only unfrozen water in the neighborhood, and very popular with the birds.  I swish out the old water and refill with fresh just to keep it clean and healthy, but sometimes I have to fill it more than once a day if a swarm of robins or starlings shows up and bathes enthusiastically!

Good story!

[Z]

And here's my last bird as well!

Zosterops lateralis is his latin name...his English name is Silvereye, and his Maori name, being a New Zealand bird, where they get an extra name, is Tauhou.

We photographed him in Christchurch, New Zealand, and unlike many birds we saw there, he's native.

[Y]

Y is for Yellow-rumped Cacique.  I took this photo from the canopy tower at an amazon lodge in Peru.

Y is for Yellow-crowned Night Heron, of which I have too many photos.  Here are three samples:
1)  Taken in the Caribbean in the Turks and Caicos islands.
2)  Taken in the Galapagos
3)  Most undignified...looks like he's just hangin' in the hot tub.  This one I also took in the Galapagos.

Y is for Yellow Warbler -- I love the males in breeding finery, like this guy I photographed along the shores of Lake Erie.

As we rejoice in the crane migrations, others have different ideas... a lengthy piece but worth the time.

http://10000birds.com/sandhill-cranes-game-birds.htm

Yes...there has been a lot of discussion on my Kentucky birders listserv, given that Kentucky is proposing a hunting season on Sandhill Cranes in 2011.  From the sound of it, a limited number of permits will be given in a lottery, so one of the my fellow listers proposed that we all register for a permit, hoping to reduce the number of hunters who get permits.

Gosh darn it, we're socked in with clouds here...sky is spitting more ice at us!

Enjoy! 

Patti