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This is the time of year that we rightfully contemplate the noble Turkey. I don’t believe, but this is subject to correction, that the wild and domestic Turkey were ever called by different binomials. Photograph of a Wild Turkey at Flatrock Brook Nature Center, in Englewood, New Jersey, by Corey. And it isn’t. It’s complicated.
That last little bit is also why we call it “Turkey Day”! In Costa Rica, although I did spend a memorable one years ago in the Osa Peninsula where flocks of parrots flew into the mangroves while we feasted on turkey, pie, and the works, we have no actual Wild Turkeys , nor an official Thanksgiving.
Sometimes it is the experience that makes them memorable. My Laurelito trip was topped off by my discovery, when I walked back to my car, that it had been turned into a turkey perch. A group of exceedingly tame domestic turkeys had gathered near it, and two had decided it looked like a great roosting site.
My Best Bird of the Weekend was a turkey, actually several Wild Turkeys. While I see turkeys intermittently all year long, these birds really look best in autumn sunlight. If you’ve blogged about your weekend experience, you should include a link in your comment. What was your best bird of the weekend?
I had to hit the highway for a long-distance errand this weekend, which gave me lots of views of Turkey Vultures soaring over hillsides ablaze with autumnal colors. If you’ve blogged about your weekend experience, you should include a link in your comment. What did you find? What was your best bird of the weekend?
Second, even if we do, we have discovered through bitter experience that jewelry can either be snatched or, like very small guns, used against us. asked Marge Gibson, when I asked a group of bird rehabbers about their bling experiences. Earrings are toast with my Wood Duck and Wild Turkeys. As for nice clothing … right!
I thought for sure that Wild Turkeys on the wing would be the highlight of my birding weekend, but that we before I came upon a Barred Owl in broad daylight perched on a power line in Alma, NY. If you’ve blogged about your weekend experience, you should include a link in your comment. Hope you made the most of it!
When I saw a Turkey Vulture soaring serenely over the frozen tundra of Rochester last month, I took the sighting as an example of how confused, in a potentially fatal way, some birds can get. If you’ve blogged about your weekend experience, you should include a link in your comment. Hopefully, those of you who observe St.
Now that Thanksgiving is over, we can ease up on the turkey talk. I do regret that I saw no Wild Turkeys this weekend, only subdued, succulently prepared ones. If you’ve blogged about your weekend experience, you should include a link in your comment. How about you? What was your best bird of the weekend?
Anyway, I was more partial to the few Turkey Vultures still sticking with us up here as temperatures drop along the shores of Lake Ontario; in no time at all, even these birds will be making their tippy way down south. If you’ve blogged about your weekend experience, you should include a link in your comment. Good times!
My only other experience with an Audubon Club field trip anywhere, on a cold October morning in the American Midwest, was frankly kind of a bust. But this one was a wonderful experience. To my shock, I had also never included a Wild Turkey on an eBird list before Tuesday. Both were welcome additions.
The long Columbus Day weekend still sails on here in the United States, so if you haven’t found a worthy bird to report for the weekend yet, you may still have time… This weekend also marks the point in the year where I stop taking Turkey Vultures for granted, which made me enjoy the many spotted soaring overhead.
That trip was to take my wife and I to Turkey, Jordan, and southern Spain, with stopovers near Paris. My one sighting of the little-known Sinaloa Martin outside of summer had occurred on a 29th of February, and I hoped to repeat that experience. Three years of my experience shows that they most certainly do. (On
My kids humored me with a fun Father’s Day hike, but my best bird was spotted en route in the form of a roadside Wild Turkey (not to be confused with a Roadside Hawk ). If you’ve blogged about your weekend experience, you should include a link in your comment. Oddly for Father’s Day weekend, Corey didn’t get out birding too much.
Going back to that assumption that birds don’t have a sense of smell, it can be traced to John James Audubon (of course), who performed several experiments with Turkey Vultures and concluded that the vultures used sight, not scent, to find food. 241) that contribute to a bird’s odor.
I recently despaired of ending this calendar year without seeing a single Wild Turkey when that species used to be so reliable in my part of New York. Luckily, we spied a large flock of turkeys from the highway between Syracuse and Binghamton. If you’ve blogged about your weekend experience, you should include a link in your comment.
Corey, on the other hand, had several stellar birds this weekend, including a Sora at Central Park, a Vesper Sparrow at Willow Lake Preserve, an Orange-crowned Warbler at Jacob Riis Park, and a Broad-winged Hawk and five Turkey Vultures from the hawkwatch platform at Fort Tilden. What was your best bird of the weekend?
So, beside a lot of birds and the sunny sky, I want the coldest thing to experience year-round to be my beer. Turkey (390 / 459). While I do enjoy the first snow of the season, the second snow is a different matter. As is every one after it. Which leaves me with quite a few choices – practically the entire tropical belt, right?
A surplus of quality birding experiences kept me from making my reports, which is embarrassing. I will start by telling you about encounters in Turkey with two special bird families. But no, I had to travel to Turkey to meet them in the wild. Turkey can get really hot in the summer. (It
If you do happen to see one way up there in the canopy, since it’s more like watching a dark bug flying around than admiring the shifting colors of a dark velvet chocolate hummingbird, the Snowcap experience deserves to be enjoyed at ground level. King Vulture is regular and various other species are also possible, hawk-eagles included.
Both Black and Turkey Vultures dominate the skies on the larger island; any vulture seen on Tobago is a reportable species. The Turkey Vulture at its lower right seems bemused at the antics of a displaying Crested Oropendola (which unlike the rest of birds mentioned in this article, is also found on Tobago). American Flamingo.
The following examples are some of the birding experience that awaits on Poas Volcano, Costa Rica: The Voices of Understory Birds. This shimmering mega species is regular on Poas and, when feeding, is often joined by the Black Guan , an arboreal black turkey-like bird with a blue face.
Indeed, even though I just celebrated 40 years of living in Mexico, we have never been to Cabo San Lucas, and our only experience with Cancún was going though immigration in that city’s airport. These turkey-sized birds were everwhere! Further inland, the West Mexican Chachalaca is often heard, but rarely seen.
For me, that experience encompassed an entire trip to Picayune Strand. Red-shouldered and Red-tailed Hawks remained the most common, while Black Vultures and Turkey Vultures sailed overhead on warm updrafts. Located near Naples, FL, Picayune Strand is part of the wider Everglades.
As such, it offers some unique birding experiences. Since I have limited experience with eastern Mexico, and even less experience with tropical species, I enthusiastically accepted. On the way to Jonuta Road, Rolando informed me that in this region, Lesser Yellow-headed Vultures are common, but Turkey Vultures are unusual.
But here goes, a list of my favorite sightings for 2023: You stole my heart, you rascal you: We made a major trip to Europe, North Africa, and Turkey in late October, November and early December, combining work with some down time. In 2022, while in Turkey for our first time, I saw my first Dipper , a White-throated Dipper.
New World vultures of the genus Cathartes ( Greater Yellow-headed , Lesser Yellow-headed and Turkey Vultures ) look much alike. I would certainly be nice to set up an experiment to learn what the Lesser Yellow-headed Vultures use to find their prey in the thick grasslands they favor.
During the sit there were lots of good birds as is only to be expected but the one he nominates for his Best Bird of the Weekend was any of the three unexpected Turkey Vultures that came soaring through near the end of the day, mostly because they were so unlikely and came directly over the platform. What was your best bird of the weekend?
Asking for a friend… Though I was unable to mount any sustained outdoor activity this weekend, I couldn’t help but notice a few Turkey Vultures tipping and teetering about. If you’ve blogged about your weekend experience, you should include a link in your comment. What was your best bird of the weekend?
I found myself in fine company on the hawk watch platform at Braddock Bay, where streaming flocks of Turkey Vultures were infiltrated by a variety of hawk species. If you’ve blogged about your weekend experience, you should include a link in your comment. Did you join the party? What was your best bird of the weekend?
Corey’s Best Bird of the Weekend was the coolest turkey he’s ever seen, the Ocellated Turkey of Central America, seen in a wonderful place: Tikal in Guatemala! If you’ve blogged about your weekend experience, you should include a link in your comment. How about you? What was your best bird of the weekend?
The first Turkey Vulture of the year is definitely the best one! If you’ve blogged about your weekend experience, you should include a link in your comment. Of course, a green bird wouldn’t fare well in these parts, where the trees are still leafless and rimed with frost. What was your best bird of the weekend?
Kirby Adams had a magical experience with his Best Bird of the Year and he blogged about it on his blog, Sharp Tern. While I had heard Yellow Rails in North Dakota in 2010, to see this Ohio Review Species fly, not once but twice, right in front of me was an incredible experience.
This large, arboreal turkey-looking bird is endemic to Trinidad and recent estimates put their total numbers at around 300 individuals. What birders value most in this village does not frequent the shore, however. After stopping for afternoon coffee, our two-hour journey to Grande Riviere was made in pouring rain.
Most of all, the time and effort is worth it when we see new birds, surpass our goals, and when we share those trying, challenging, exuberant and triumphant times with others because the birding party is always better, always stronger, when you you can enjoy the experience with like-minded souls. White Ibis – Eudocimus albus; Tambor, 3-Jan.
The week before I had tried to walk this trail with my parents and son in the baby jogger, but the constant need to veer off the pathway to avoid those less observant of CDC guidance made the experience more stressful than enjoyable. Overhead soared Purple Martin s, Turkey Vultures, and Anhingas.
I don’t consider my little garden to be a terribly birdy patch, although years of observation have resulted in my seeing 59 species there (64, if you count the White-throated Swifts , Black and Turkey Vultures, Red-tailed Hawks and Common Ravens that may fly high overhead).
I enjoyed observing Wild Turkeys , clearly feeling bolder on Easter than Thanksgiving, foraging openly along the Palisades Parkway. If you’ve blogged about your weekend experience, you should include a link in your comment. What was your best bird of the weekend?
If you’ve blogged about your weekend experience, you should include a link in your comment. The count totaled 119 species, which is historically a very good number. How about you? What was your best bird of the weekend? What was your best bird of the weekend?
And I have lots of experience with my long lens drawing attention. But my bird of the day was a member of the wheatear genus, which I had recently met in Turkey. This was due, oddly enough, to my binoculars. But no one had ever been concerned about my binos before. And yet, concerned they were. But I thought it was just a bit cuter.
As for me, I’m just glad Turkey Vultures are back to Western NY. If you’ve blogged about your weekend experience, you should include a link in your comment. How about you? What was your best bird of the weekend? Tell us in the comments section about the rarest, loveliest, or most fascinating bird you observed.
The conversations with family and friends have already begun about "Turkey Day." And of course if you correct someone and say "Dead Turkey Day," you're "buzzkill," or imposing your beliefs or being judgmental. Everyone clearly doesn't include the turkey and the other animals on the table.
Along this journey from pass to valley and back again, we spotted Wild Turkey and Western Wood Pee-wee , Ravens and Red-tailed Hawks , mule deer and elk, even the white-striped tail of a Dark-eyed Junco disappearing into the shadow of the trees. But the highlight, of course, was the camas fields.
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