this is one of my favorite backyard jay photos.

Patti, this is a wonderful photograph!  It illustrates to me that the only useful purpose for snow is to provide beautiful backdrops!

Gayle
A transplanted northerner

Thanks for the compliment...that was a horribly destructive ice storm where many trees were killed, power was out for half the city for up to two weeks, etc.  The silver lining was the bird photos!

[J]

With apologies for jumping the gun, I will follow Patti's corrupting example and start a new letter a bit early...

dale

In my defense (I'm not sure I should admit this, since I'll trade being corrupt for being a ditz), but I am traveling and got my time zones confused!

But...to follow Dale's lead as well, here's a Blue Jay contribution.  Even though Donna's story is much nicer, this is one of my favorite backyard jay photos.

Insistent little one, isn't she!

And you'll note that she's screaming in spite of what looks like a pretty full crop, not that a full crop ever kept anyone from screaming.  I like her change in tone...from full on screaming (FOOD, FOOD, FOOD) to a series of shorter, quieter, more squeaky vocalizations that I translated as...Oh boy, he's getting a treat out of his bag!

And while we're thanking Shaky for the great features, can I also mention that I am trying to use a very slow wireless connection (not my normal home network, which is pretty fast), and Rfalconcam's speed really rocks!  I'm getting very impatient trying to load a few of my other favorite sites (I can haz Cheezburger, Cute Overload, etc.), but Rfalconcam just pops up and refreshes blazingly fast!

Patti

Here's one from today, Patti, in case you can't get the page loaded...



Ei

Thanks for the Cheezburger fix!

Patti

I shot a short video yesterday (I'm at a birding festival) at a falconry demonstration.  Many pictures will come later (several years from now, probably, when I've had time to weed through them).  But the video was easy to post.  Warning: you might want to have your speaker volume set pretty low, because this youngster is LOUD.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCPGHgcpW4g

The story: Patti attended a falconry demonstration at the Festival of the Cranes in New Mexico.  The falconer released his juvenile Peregrine Falcon, followed by several homing pigeons on which she could practice.  She missed all of the pigeons, but chased them enthusastically.  The falconer rewarded her with a meal on a lure she caught.  After her meal, she got back on the glove, where she continued to demand more food...he fed her bits of meat to try and appease her so that he could continue his discussion.

I did not manage to get any video of the stoops or pigeon chase because those birds (both falcons and pigeons) are way too fast!

And while we're thanking Shaky for the great features, can I also mention that I am trying to use a very slow wireless connection (not my normal home network, which is pretty fast), and Rfalconcam's speed really rocks!  I'm getting very impatient trying to load a few of my other favorite sites (I can haz Cheezburger, Cute Overload, etc.), but Rfalconcam just pops up and refreshes blazingly fast!

Patti

Ibis was my first and only one for the letter I guess I didn't get up early enough!  Love those birds and can't wait to see more in Florida!!

Hey Annie, I bet none of us minds either extra pictures or extra information about any bird species, so please don't feel like you can't post something if somebody's already done it.  Dale and I have done dueling Harris's Hawks, I believe to no detriment to the fun!

Patti

[I]

I pity the letter I, if my personal stash of bird photos is representative.  I've only got:  I is for Ibis.

Below are two samples, both from Florida:
1)  Scarlet Ibis
2)  White Ibis

Sorry...I forgot to paste the link...too much sunshine today, I think!

http://classic.kodakgallery.com/bellhanley/main/patti_s_falcon_watch_2004

I'll never forget Quiver.  I can't remember exactly what year it was, but Wild Wings brought down a few of their birds for a Falcon gathering at the west end of the pedestrian bridge.  Matt B was holding Quiver.  As Quiver was joyfully shouting his very distinctive call, the Rochester Peregrines gathered above on the smoke stacks.  M&K and the young fledglings seemed to wonder, where was this pesky Kestrel?  This was during the time there were Kestrels nesting at the BeeBee Station and quite often we'd see them mix it up aka the infamous Kestrel runs.

Quiver didn't care.  He was a Kestrel and darn proud of it!  Fly Free Quiver!   

It was 2004, my first visit to the Falcon Watcher's weekend!  Here's a photo album of that event tat has a few pictures of the Wild Wings birds, including Quiver.

Patti

If you were there during summer, the other bird that might also be a possibility is a summer resident:   Black-chinned Hummingbird.  There are other summertime or "rare" possibilities, but none of them particularly looks like your photo.  Does Anna's or Black-chinned ring a bell, since you said you used to know?

It was early September. Definitely no one mentioned black-chinned. I've never heard of the beast. Maybe Anna's. I thought I knew Hmmmm....

Well, here's another list...this is from a checklist of birds at Andrew Molera State Park, which is probably pretty representative.
[ ] *  Black-chinned Hummingbird
[ ] B  Anna's Hummingbird
[ ] *  Costa's Hummingbird
[ ] *  Calliope Hummingbird
[ ]     Rufous Hummingbird
[ ] B  Allen's Hummingbird

The "B" means it breeds in the area.
The * means it's rare enough to be reported to the local rare bird alert, so you would have been lucky to have seen those.  But see if any of these rings a bell.

A lot of you have more pictures and much more knowledge than I do about hummingbirds. All I've done is sit around with Lou's hummingbird helmet on in Wisconsin, which netted no birds, and take the picture below in Big Sur. What kind is this, please? I knew but forgot. There were gazillions of them.

OK...having dug out my Western field guide, I'm going to say Anna's Hummingbird -- either a female or a sub-adult male.  It looks like only a few species would be likely to show up in Big Sur.  I don't know when you were there, but the Anna's Hummingbird is shown as being a year-round resident.  If you were there during summer, the other bird that might also be a possibility is a summer resident:   Black-chinned Hummingbird.  There are other summertime or "rare" possibilities, but none of them particularly looks like your photo.  Does Anna's or Black-chinned ring a bell, since you said you used to know?

Sparrowhawk (sometimes Sparrow Hawk) may refer to several species of small hawk in the genus Accipiter.

The genus Accipiter in the U.S. includes the Cooper's Hawk, Sharp-shinned Hawk, and Northern Goshawk, so most of these hawks in that genus (the ones whose latin names start with A.) are related to those guys, which of course we know to prey on birds.

Patti

My final contribution to the "H" list:  a Harris's Hawk.  We met this hawk while camping in the Red River Gorge Geological Area in Kentucky...we heard an unusual bird call and while looking all around to identify the culprit, noticed that the campers in the next site over had a captive hawk.  They invited us over to meet the hawk, who was very laid back.

Harris's Hawks are more social than most other hawks; they do cooperative hunting, so they are a good choice for a beginning falconer.

[H]

Northern Harrier - this guy is a juvenile.  I took the photo during fall migration in Cape May.