Bewick's Wren at the suet feeder this morning

[hutash]

My Chesapeake bay retriever was named "Coot". It fit him, as may Dad used to call coots "worthless mudhens."

[Viva]

and nary a Bushtit in the past month

I prefer a set of Great Tits, myself: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/sussex....reat%20Tit.htm

[iceman]

I have nothing constructive to add, but a good surprise present for a skiing birder would be a new pair of ON3P Wren's leaned up against the feeder one morning... a new species for the list, as it were.

that was smooove

[Crampedon]

I gotta say, I've seen a lot of shit in my day, squirrel tits was a new one.

Good lord.

I kept a life list as a kid and am still pissed my old green beat up peterson vanished from my childhood stuff when i went off to the caribbean. Saw an Ivory gull, saw whet owl, great gray, pileated wood pecker, red crossbills and lots of stuff that was not supposed to be in CT.

Hawaii has some rare native birds and lots of introduced, I have Java Sparrows nesting in the eves, colorfull and busy little bastards. We need a few falcons around here.

Narry a tuffted titmouse either. Rats.



Java Sparrow-

[abraham]

Fair enough. I kinda like mudhens.

Yeah, western WA has had a Snowy Owl invasion this winter. I haven't seen one this year and it's not my thing to drive for two hours to see an irregular or accidental. There was a Tropical Kingbird in B-ham last winter (no shit). People were lining up to see it but I didn't bother to drive 10 minutes out of my way. But I usually carry my compact binos when I run, tour, hike or climb.

I've seen three owls in bridle trails while running in the last 3 months or so. I dont know what kind because all 3 have been around dark but they are big, quiet and cool to see. Before that I havent seen a wild one in washington. One was just outside the kitchen door in the tree. Didnt want to scare it off so I left the lights off. I dont keep a list but I like trying to id birds when I see them.

[dumpy]

Gotta say, I've only been exposed to local bird nerdery, never hunted it down on the interwebs or anything. It's kind of weird hearing West Coast folks talk about what their "common" birds at their feeders are.
Some overlap (all of the woodpeckers you mentioned, starlings, evening grosbeaks, etc), but bushtits? Honestly, I was raised by fairly hardcore birders and I've never heard of them before this thread. I would remember that name, even "tufted titmouse" still makes me chuckle.

So Steve, you got a pileated at your suet feeder? Damn, that must've been a sight. They are impressive even when sighted in the woods at a distance. I get excited when I just hear one or see their holes (in trees, pervs).
One of my all time favorite birds.

[Crampedon]

The Pileated in the woods near my home sounded like thunk-thunk-thunk when he hit, not like the little bity woodpeckers that were taptaptap super fast. I remember how they flew around, amazing.

If you get a field guide to the birds you see all the wack names, i remember odd things, flycatchers spiral up a tree, some other little dude goes headfirst down the tree... but the big stuff, birds of prey have all the moves. In the fall we would check screech owl tapes out of the library in middle school and go out in the woods and try to call them in and shine lights on them, super cool.

[Beder]

There's an app for that. iBird West. $10 but it paid for itself the first time it got the Mountain Chickadees to sing along in harmony.

[iceman]

We have pileated's around my house, those things are impressive, they're like dinosaurs or something.

Every once in a blue moon I like to play with the mocking birds in my yard, whistle a few notes of something a few times until they pick it up, it's pretty cool when they whistle it back to you. I was trying to teach them the intro to "Crazy Train" last time, it sounded pretty cool because there's like three different pairs within close range of the house and they were all doing it but they couldn't quite get the timing down between themselves so it was like a chorus or something.

[hutash]

some other little dude goes headfirst down the tree...

Nuthatches, talk about a unique evolutionary niche, or maybe god was drunk when he created them.

Every once in a blue moon I like to play with the mocking birds in my yard, whistle a few notes of something a few times until they pick it up, it's pretty cool when they whistle it back to you. I was trying to teach them the intro to "Crazy Train" last time, it sounded pretty cool because there's like three different pairs within close range of the house and they were all doing it but they couldn't quite get the timing down between themselves so it was like a chorus or something.

It's all fun and games until they learn to mock your alarm clock, then the little fuckers go off before dawn and the bastards don't have a snooze button.