Your Most Recent "Life" Bird (3 Viewers)

Picked up a Japanese Waxwing in Century Park in Shanghai last Friday.

Two American Pipits today. Perched high in my front yard Live Oak. Didn't know there was such a bird until today.

At last, a long wished-for bird. Had my first absolute definite peregrine falcon last weekend on Lindisfarne in the UK.

My last lifer, I think, was the western Snowy Plover, plus elegant terns seen in the same spot at the same time near the Tijuana River Mouth in Imperial Beach, CA. That's a great place to see unusual birds because we get some accidental migrants from south of the border sometimes.

Hello all,

My latest life bird was a golden crowned kinglet. I attach an illustration, originally painted by Louis Agassiz Fuertes, a century, ago.

Happy bird watching,
Arthur Pinewood :hi:

Band-tailed Pigeon yesterday.

Ruby-crowned Kinglet just a few minutes ago, while standing on the deck of my house trying to see the Eastern Phoebe(s) that I can hear but not lay eyes on.

Ring Ouzel at Portland, Dorset a couple of weeks ago.. Great to finally catch up with this delightful bird as it had been a bit of a bogey.

Mediterranean Gull at Three Cliffs Bay, Gower. A decent bird at a fantastic location.

Rich

and...

two lifers for me this week...

(1) Lesser Scaup - in a slough south of my home town

(2) Loggerhead Shrike - in an apple orchard along an old road north of my home town.

Never thought I would see a Shrike, so this is/was a real treat.

Two life birds today - Mute Swan on the river in town, seen in passing on the way to a fundraising ball game, and a Broad-winged Hawk flew over the athletic field during the game....carrying a snake. I think the hawk may have inspired my daughter to start her own list.

I've add 7 in the past couple of weeks; Common Scoter, Long tailed Duck, Whooper Swan and Red throated Loon, all at the German Baltic coast near Zingst, and Mandarin Duck,Woodlark and Winchat, all from around the area of Paderborn in NRW, Germany.
I'm off to Namibia in June, so I should get a few more.

This past Saturday, got my first sighting of a great crested flycatcher. It was a good day overall, with my second-ever sightings of Cape May warbler, and black-throated blue warbler too.

Blue-winged Teal added on Friday

CB

male Ruby-crowned Kinglet today at a local park before going in to work.

Western Bonelli's Warbler at Church Norton.

Dave W

Rock Thrush today Kilnsea.

The Perks of Being a New Birder

THREE NEW "LIFE BIRDS" TODAY-ALL SUPPOSEDLY "COMMON" BUT NEW TO ME!

Eastern Towhee-Male
Rose Breasted Grosbeak-Male
Eastern Phoebe


I am fairly new to birding, so these are big deals to me... I have no problem counting common birds seen before I was "officially" a birder (crows, jays, grackles, hawks, even bobwhite quail and some ducks) but these I can't say I've ever laid eyes on before-although they are "common" in my area.

I certainly had never seen them and KNEW what I was looking at.

My wife doesn't seem impressed-she's been a birder longer than I have and knows these are "common" birds. :-C

Today is a rainy cool day and I'm already a bit sick so I didn't have big expectations about sitting outside watching my feeders, but I was quite surprised. I did have to come in and get more clothing due to the cool dampness, but I seen the Towhee across my road in the scrub brush (it never came to feeders-I'm sure there are some species that will never leave the woods/canopy). Last year I learned to stay on them as long as possible with optics to note every color and trait (beak, tail, color pattern, etc.) so I watched him from about 35 yards in the low brush. The black hood jumped out at me, and then the robin-like orange side spots on the belly...

Later, the Grosbeak landed at the feeders and then quickly darter into a nearby maple-but he hung out these for a while, so I was able to get a good view of him with my Vortex Razor 8x42 (First Gen). At first, I thought it was a woodpecker, since we have 3-4 species of those nearby and his colors were black, white, and red, but then the pale finch-like beak struck me, so I whipped out a guidebook finally as he flew away...

Later in the evening-I seen the Eastern Phoebe in the edge of some brush on the lower end of my property, and again, identified it by the book...

Also seen the common birds:

American Goldfinch-Male/Female
House Finch Male/Female
Tufted Titmouse
American Cardinal Male/Female
Eastern Bluebird Male/Female
House Wren
Carolina Wren
White Throated Sparrow (?)
Crow (flyover)

Good day so far, and it's not even 2:00PM yet...

EDITED TO ADD:
Mourning Dove
White-breasted Nuthatch
Black Capped or Carolina Chicadee (can't tell apart yet)
Probably some Pine Siskins mixed in with the ones I know are finches (?)
Two unidentified ducks
Unidentified swift or swallow-flew by before I could get binocs on him
Ruby throated hummingbird

My wife doesn't seem impressed-she's been a birder longer than I have and knows these are "common" birds.

Click to expand...

Hey, I've been doing this seriously for 13 years and there are still "common birds" I have yet to see

I've also added some pretty common birds over the past few days:
Vaux's swift
Yellow-breasted Chat
Wilson's Warbler
All seen in my neighborhood.||