What did you see in your binoculars today? (2 Viewers)

The male house finch with the growth on the side of his head, who has been a daily visitor for a while, hasn't shown up in days. I'm afraid that his head tumor has taken him down.

Also, the small Cardinal (juvenile, I think) who had the black beak hasn't been around for a few days. Hmmm. We have a lot of "regulars" at our feeders, some who I have come to recognize on sight.

Quite a few Wood Ducks in eclipse plumage. They must be either passing through or staging ready to migrate.

A mature Bald Eagle, perched on a dead tree in intermittent drizzle, and very busy preening.

Five Double-crested Cormorants, three adult and two immature.

Geese, mostly Cackling. (I think)

Cedar Waxwings hawking insects,

The usual turtles in every still body of water larger than a puddle.

And a Great Blue Heron that I forgot about.

See a herd of cows at the edge of the mountain range outside of my office windows! I used the NL 12x42 that makes the cows look abnormal large! I found one negative characteristic of the NL 12x42 that is making everything larger than life. I think that is due to the AFOV of 71degree! On the other viewpoint, I love to see the details so that is fine!

Today its been clody. Except a noisy Jacobin Cuckoo, it was the Red-vented Bulbuls, the Eurasian Collared and Laughing Doves. The Pigeons of course were having a whale of a time. I think we have some Peahens with eggs in the campus.
The stars of the morning - a pair of Small Asian Mongoose. The male slunk into the undergrowth. The female posed a lot. Her fur looked lovely through my ZFL1042s.
Arijit

ariban said:

The stars of the morning - a pair of Small Asian Mongoose. The male slunk into the undergrowth. The female posed a lot. Her fur looked lovely through my ZFL1042s.
Arijit

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Looks like a weasel, but I looked it up, and they are not as closely related as they look.

Weasels are Mustelids, Mongoose are not. (unless I read something wrong)

I saw a few Blue Winged Grasshoppers (Oedipoda caerulescens) but unfortunately for the second time didn't find the Ephippiger diurnus, just shortly heard it. Can't stand it, have the feeling I'm watching crosseyed. Must succeed. Next time...

Maljunulo said:

Looks like a weasel, but I looked it up, and they are not as closely related as they look.

Weasels are Mustelids, Mongoose are not. (unless I read something wrong)

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You are correct. The Weasel i s a typical Mustelid and favours temperate climate. Mongooses are outright tropical. I believe there is wide range of apecies distributed in Africa and tropical Asia. In these parts (western India) I have seen 3 species. The Ruddy Mongoose, the Large Grey Mongoose and this Small Asian Mongoose.
Arijit

I saw quite a bit of birds today... Most interesting was probably a group of pileated woodpeckers or a great blue heron... i see herons all the time, but not in my yard for two or three years, and that was the first year one had visited. i also saw my first northern waterthrush. i also see woodpeckers often, but i had never seen three in my yard at once!

ariban said:

The stars of the morning - a pair of Small Asian Mongoose. The male slunk into the undergrowth. The female posed a lot. Her fur looked lovely through my ZFL1042s.

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Thanks for sharing the lovely mongoose. Photo through ZFL, or (how) long lens -- how skittish are they? I've never managed a photo of a weasel, though marmots aren't difficult...

tenex said:

Thanks for sharing the lovely mongoose. Photo through ZFL, or (how) long lens -- how skittish are they? I've never managed a photo of a weasel, though marmots aren't difficult...

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I watched the pair for a while through my FLs. What a view. Then went in to fetch the camera.
It was my Nikon D500 and 500mm PF that I used for the photograph.
I still yearn for a camera viewfinder that is as bright and clear as a good pair of Binoculars.
Generally Mongooses are wary critters. The ones in the campus are bolder - guess they are used to people moving around. No one disturbs them here.
In India, at the himalayan foothills one gets to see the Yellow-throated Marten and the Himalayan Weasel. I do see some nice photos off and on on social media.
The tough ones are the Otters. Smooth Coated and Small Clawed. Rather restricted in distribution and secretive. The one that is very rare to sight ofcourse is the Honey Badger. Its nocturnal habits make it even more less sighted/ photographed.

Today morning was cloudy. There was a slight short drizzle too. Some friends had dropped in. Saurabh was looking for macros and got a great photograph of a jumping Spider sucking the life out of a Blue Bottle fly. I had my Pentax Papilio 8.5X out today. The view of the Spider and the fly was indeed terrific. A Clematis climber has a million white flowers. Discovered a White Crab Spider with a couple of babies on its back. White on white - amazing camouflage. For such purposes, nothing beats the Pentax Palilio-II.

There was a big rain last night and the pond in the back of my house filled up. With my VP 8x25 to see a dozen of crowd and few magpie walking around the banks of the pond feeding on wormmies from the grass

I wish Connecticut had Magpies.

Corvids are neat birds.

Today I saw my first male summer tanager with my 8x32 SFs. Also some birds I see more regularly including a great egret, great blue heron, and a green heron.

birdcat said:

Today I saw my first male summer tanager with my 8x32 SFs. Also some birds I see more regularly including a great egret, great blue heron, and a green heron.

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Herons are among my favorites.

Maljunulo said:

Herons are among my favorites.

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Maljunulo, Herons are among our favourites too. In Shetland Grey Herons are called Haigrie and we adopted this name for all the Grey Herons we see on the shore in the west of Scotland. We use it as a proper name not a species name so when we see one we say something like 'Here comes Haigrie, or I can see Haigrie over there' so not a Haigrie, just Haigrie and sometimes even 'Haiggers'. They move with such grace and stand with such patience in the shallows and give an impression to our (overactive) imaginations of such wisdom.

Lee

Fascinating.

It was a bit of raptors day.
A sunny afternoon ride over The Stang, from Barnard Castle in Teesdale to Reeth in Swaledale.
In fact we enjoyed the drive to Reeth so much that instead of doing a round via Richmond, we had tea at Reeth and decided to do the return trip back over The Stang.
It was a road trip to investigate where crossbills might be seen, but along with red grouse, pheasants, kestrels hovering, and a sparrowhawk flashing by, we had truly excellent views of three buzzards soaring and two red kites hunting over the moors.
One brown falcon-like bird flew low down the road right in front of the car at about one metre from the road surface for about 50m then suddenly darted left and flew parallel to us along the other side of the hedge & trees at about two metres height. It had a white tip to the tail but otherwise appeared solid brown, must have been a female kestrel, never seen one fly like that, flying more like a merlin.
We had 8x44 Discovery and 12x42 NL, and over the open moorland views the latter proved superb.

I returned yesterday from a 4 day trip with friends. The place was Bera in Rajasthan - a flat arid plan with small hills and out rops at the edge of the Thar desert. The primary objective was to spot wild Leopards and we did - quite successfully.

Even if hasn't rained this year, there were intermittent clouds. The Leopards preferred hill sides that did not receive direct sun. So we had wide rocky expanses to scan from quite afar - low contrast and all - for a Cat that is known for its superb camouflage. I had carried my ZFL 10x42s and they came very handy in picking out the Leopards against the rocks. Had some very nice sightings.

The birdlife was typical to this season and the desert. A refractile patch of land next to a road had 5 Yellow-wattled Lapwings. The mornings saw hundreds of Rose-ringed. parakeets and a few Plum-headed Parakeets noisy flitting between Neem Trees. Grey Francolins, Indian Robin, Indian Silverbills were numerous. A solitary Quail jumped away into the grass, startled by our car. A single Nightjar, probably a Savannah Nightjar, was sitting n the middle of a dirt trail, early in the morning. It flew off as we came near. Common babblers were plentiful and actually have a melodious call, unlike the Jungle Babblers which were also easy to sight.

The area is home to traditional herdsmen - the Rebaris. Numerous goat and sheep graze on common land and hill sides. There were many Cattle Egrets following the herds. A lone Oriental Honey Buzzard kept circling a hilltop on which a male Leopard was idly sitting. It was also fun to see the hovering of a Black-winged Kite.
One morning we chanced upon a family of 3 Yellow-crowned Woodpeckers. It was fun to see them. The adults were exceptionally colourful. The Only Kingfisher seen was an occasional White-throated Kingfisher sitting on an overhead wire. Red-rumped Swallows and Dusky Crag Martins were on the wing, especially at sunset. Guessing that they roost in the rock caves that abound. Peacocks were many - always in groups, wary of the predators. A few Ashy-crowned Sparrow Larks were also sighted - busy dust bathing.

All in all - a very nice trip indeed.
All photographs were by a Nikon D500 and a Nikkor 500/5.6 PF.

Arijit

Magnificent photos!