The Uncaged Bird -Hummingbird feeder is up!

Saw one today.

Orange-bellied parrots catch planes to migrate to summer breeding grounds... just to avoid dangerous headwinds in Bass Strait. (To be fair, instead of alarmist or mocking, those headwinds could effectively wipe out the species)

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/sep/22/private-plane-to-fly-endangered-orange-bellied-parrots-for-summer-sojourn

Another hummer today.

I knew about Homeward Bound and the work they do both in Antarctica and in their home countries.

I hadn’t heard about the Letters to Penguins project: yep, reading schoolchilden’s letters aloud to penguins. 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-23/colombian-paola-guerrero-who-reads-to-penguins/10290196

Not sure if I spotted one yesterday. I'm having roof work done so lots of men with ladders may spook my crew.

I still have 2 hummers, the male and I think one of the kids (the one with the green back), but they're not around as much as they were a couple of weeks ago.  I also saw what I think is one of those moth hummers!  It's been buzzing around the few new flowers on the butterfly bush and I can't imagine what else it is.  Never saw anything like that in person before.

I saw a hummingbird yesterday, but it is fall now - let's talk warblers! 

I saw a black and white warbler earlier this week, and an American Redstart today.  

Fall is the season of confusing birds I don't see any other time of the year - so exciting!

finnegan said:
I saw a hummingbird yesterday, but it is fall now - let's talk warblers! 
I saw a black and white warbler earlier this week, and an American Redstart today.  
Fall is the season of confusing birds I don't see any other time of the year - so exciting!

 I'm a fan of warblers and I'm going to look up the one you refer to and the American Redstart. I got lucky with a few unusual birds this spring so I'll be on the lookout. Did you spot them here in SOMA? I have not put effort into bird watching, going out to the woods. I've had the luxury of them visiting my feeder and have part of my property which is a wooded lot so that helps.

And I spotted a hummingbird today!

Oh, I should have said I saw both birds in my yard in Maplewood. I am a lazy birdwatcher, mostly watching the backyard from my kitchen windows. It just seems that this time of year there is always something unusual out there.

Wow, out in the garden having coffee and a hummingbird was sipping on the red salvias. Still here.

Hearing a screech owl, early in the evening, around 9:00.  Such a cool sound!

I’ve just read this article about a newly discovered hummingbird, already threatened with extinction. While that sentence sounds familiar, the colouring of this bird doesn’t look familiar - I hope I’m not repeating myself! 

https://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.com/2018/09/newly-discovered-hummingbird-species.html#vHZeBA4pjFQQVeKQ.97 

well, apparently the drought is really entrenched despite s run of recent showers. An El Niño season has been declared today, too. 

None of that is comfort for the poor birds, though, who are starving, thirsty and finding life on the land somewhat difficult:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-09/eagles-hawks-flock-to-cities-to-escape-drought-ridden-outback/10355504 

We have rain-a-go-go here. Its transition time with our birds. Haven't seen a hummingbird since my last post and I'm not noticing anybody unusual at the feeder or in the bath. Although the birds are unaware that it is after Labor Day and there is no life guard at the pool.

Morganna, thought of you when I read about this project for tracking ‘native quail’. Maybe it’s something that can be adapted for projects over there?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-10/boolcoomatta-plains-wanderers-elude-scientists/10318278

I think this article suits the title of this thread best of all. @joanne this one's for you. My love of birds started with budgies. I did not like keeping them in a cage so when I was alone in my room they were free. My mother, who was frightened by their flight, loved me enough to indulge her child's passion.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1148966068584911/?acontext=%7B%22ref%22%3A%223%22%2C%22ref_newsfeed_story_type%22%3A%22regular%22%2C%22feed_story_type%22%3A%22308%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22%5B%7B%5C%22surface%5C%22%3A%5C%22newsfeed%5C%22%2C%5C%22mechanism%5C%22%3A%5C%22feed_story%5C%22%2C%5C%22...

I don’t have a FB account, so all I get is Postcard Rally (?) screen...

joanne said:
I don’t have a FB account, so all I get is Postcard Rally (?) screen...

 This is the page, @joanne

but there’s nothing there re birds, marksierra.

joanne said:
but there’s nothing there re birds, marksierra.

 LOL my mistake. I put the wrong link up. Have to find the right one.

Eagerly awaiting the right link, Morganna.

Meantime - Twitchathon is on!  https://www.birdlifetwitchathon.org.au/2018-action 

Not sure if we'll do it officially, this year. We might just do an informal headcount locally, and include this morning's 3x long-necked turtles, 1x very very long eel, and many happy hungry ducks, willy wagtails and magpies. 

joanne said:
Eagerly awaiting the right link, Morganna.
Meantime - Twitchathon is on!  https://www.birdlifetwitchathon.org.au/2018-action 
Not sure if we'll do it officially, this year. We might just do an informal headcount locally, and include this morning's 3x long-necked turtles, 1x very very long eel, and many happy hungry ducks, willy wagtails and magpies. 

 Yikes I forgot. Between the craziness with my crashed roof and kitten adoptions and vetting I'm a bit untethered. That said, I watched birds in the bird bath on this chilly autumn day. Snapped a picture, I'll see if it turned out. One bather was a starling, one a sparrow and a very portly robin.

A brilliant tale of urban renewal!  You'll love the chick pic 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-28/rare-peregrine-falcons-use-perth-apartment-as-breeding-ground/10433550

Rare Asian duck sightings, for Morganna:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-06/rarely-seen-garganey-arrives-in-west-kimberley/10466146

Photo contest and Project Feeder Watch begins today.

https://feederwatch.org/

A fabulous photo of a hummer at Yellowstone (on Twitter):

https://twitter.com/AltYelloNatPark/status/1063490118441328640

mumstheword said:
A fabulous photo of a hummer at Yellowstone (on Twitter):
https://twitter.com/AltYelloNatPark/status/1063490118441328640

Beautiful. By the way, it took a few years for my honeysuckle to bloom. It really blossomed this year and it is still flowering.

Morganna said:

mumstheword said:
A fabulous photo of a hummer at Yellowstone (on Twitter):
https://twitter.com/AltYelloNatPark/status/1063490118441328640

Beautiful. By the way, it took a few years for my honeysuckle to bloom. It really blossomed this year and it is still flowering.

 I remember one or more threads on MOL many years ago about how hard it is to get honeysuckles to bloom -- some people said it took many years; others said theirs never bloomed.  You are to be congratulated!  BTW, Happy Thanksgiving!

mumstheword said:

Morganna said:

mumstheword said:
A fabulous photo of a hummer at Yellowstone (on Twitter):
https://twitter.com/AltYelloNatPark/status/1063490118441328640

Beautiful. By the way, it took a few years for my honeysuckle to bloom. It really blossomed this year and it is still flowering.

 I remember one or more threads on MOL many years ago about how hard it is to get honeysuckles to bloom -- some people said it took many years; others said theirs never bloomed.  You are to be congratulated!  BTW, Happy Thanksgiving!

 Happy Thanksgiving! And I was about to give up. It bloomed a little late in the season but it has been non stop. Another odd thing is that deer or woodchucks ate much of the bottom but the vines that survived grew and flowered at the top of the trellis!