In the past two days I've had confirmation of two "lifers" for my bird list.
I took this photo December 12/09 and had a terrible time catching this little bird standing still. I had no idea what it was and couldn't seem to pin point it in my ROM Field Guide to Birds of Ontario . Finally today I saw a photo online of what looked like the same bird but it wasn't identified. Hmmmmm, what to do??? Ding! - that's the sound of the light bulb coming on - I showed the online photo to a co-worker, Al Fewster, and he suggested it might be a Wren. Hmmmm, what to do next??? I went to Cornell's All About Birds, typed in Wren and from a list of suggestions I discovered that my little bird is a Carolina Wren! My second mystery was a large bird that flew over the trail while I was walking this past Sunday morning. At first glance I thought it was a hawk. My photo is poor (my apologies) but there was enough info that, after looking through my ROM Guide, I thought it might be a Bald Eagle or a Northern Goshawk. So, to get a professional opinion I emailed Mike Bergin at 10,000 Birds, and Mike was kind enough to post my photo and identification dilema as a Diabolical ID Challenge. And the consensus is that it is, in fact, a Bald Eagle!
You might be interested in the shots I took of a redtailed hawk eating a snake...http://picasaweb.google.com/rebeccahaegele/HawkAndSnake# or on my blog http://thedustycellar.blogspot.com/2010/01/boring-to-exciting.html
ReplyDeleteI've seen a bald eagle in the wild only once.
Gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteYour photographs are beautiful!
I could watch the birds at our feeder all day... They're a joy~ You capture that joy!
Wishing you the best~
Michelle
well spotted that lady. You did good
ReplyDeleteYes, before I even read the text, I looked at this and instantly said Bald Eagle! How wonderful- I saw one once twenty or so years ago flying over a backyard a few towns over- the local audubon sanctuary said I must be mistaken because at that time, they were very rare around here, but I was sure of what I saw- what else is that large with a white head and brown body?
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