Animal Log of your native fauna

[bmathison1972]

...and so today I went to Liberty Park and documented:

mallard
Canada goose (maybe cacklers mixed in; damned if I could tell)
American coot
common goldeneye
California gull
rock dove
black-capped chickadee
brown creeper

note, the brown creeper is somewhat tentative. It seemed more gray than brown, but it was subtle, unlike the white-breasted nuthatch which is more boldly marked. The bird was scaling up a pine tree, periodically pecking among the bark.

walking to and from Liberty Park, I also saw:
American crow
Eurasian collared dove
European starling
fox squirrel

[Isidro]

Yesterday, besides the usual stuff (magpies, house sparrows, common and wood pigeons, a feral cat...) I saw a not so common fly (Suillia variegata, seen 5 times in my lifetime), and the first LIFER of the year: the moth Alsophila aescularia!!

[Advicot]

Heard my first chaffinch sing on the 14th while out for a walk with my partner and my first blackbird sing on the 16th while on a walk with my mother.

I'll need to write these in my season firsts book 

[stargatedalek]

The starlings have learned to use my upside down feeder. They hover like hummingbirds and peck at it, which is really cool to watch but also kind of a problem.

[bmathison1972]

today I went back to City Creek (where I was this past Saturday), this time with my new binoculars! Man, IDing birds is soooooooo much better with them.

I saw:
-dark-eyed juncos
-song sparrow (new for me, officially)
-spotted towhee
-American kestrel (new for me, officially)
-American robin
-American dipper (maybe the same one I saw on Saturday, was at about the same place in the creek)
-fox squirrel

[Isidro]

Yesterday was a somewhat interesting day. Saw the usual stuff of magpies, common and wood pigeons, house sparrows... Plus a white wagtail (was very common in January but became suddenly rare in February with this being the third sight in this month), a Great Cormorant and a Great Tit (first of the year), plus the first diurnal buttefly in the year (a speckled wood, Pararge aegeria) and another lifer for me, despite being a domestic micro-moth, the Monopis crocipella.

[bmathison1972]

went back to the lake at Liberty Park, this time with the new binoculars! Saw:

1. Canada goose
2. domestic goose (feral?)
3. ring-billed gull <new for me>
4. California gull
5. American coot
6. hooded merganser <new for me>
7. mallard
8. rock dove
9. European starling

[Isidro]

Yesterday I heard first thick-knee of the year. Today I heard a blackcap

[Gwangi]

Yesterday I heard first thick-knee of the year. Today I heard a blackcap

Is that a sign of spring where you're from? I ask because just last week I heard my first "konk-a-reeee" which is the song of the red-winged blackbird, a sign of spring where I'm from.

[Isidro]

Blackcaps are found more in winter where I live, abandoning the zone by summers. Thick-knees are found throug whole year.

Signs of spring are the numerous male serins that are starting to sing from perches now, announcing the females and the rival males their territory.

[JimoAi]

Saw some sort of white egret

[Arctinus]

Didn't see, but I heard the singing of a mistle thrush, Eurasian siskin, coal tit and great tit in the forest (thanks to the BirdNET bird song analysing app). 

[Gwangi]

Blackcaps are found more in winter where I live, abandoning the zone by summers. Thick-knees are found throug whole year.

Signs of spring are the numerous male serins that are starting to sing from perches now, announcing the females and the rival males their territory.

I get it. For some reason I thought maybe "thick-knee" was the sound that the blackcap made, but now I see that it's the name of an actual bird.

[Isidro]

Yes thick-knees are Burhinidae, a kind of waders that specialized in live far from water, even in subdesertic zones. The European one is also known as stone-curlew. They're nocturnal birds and developed big yellow eyes. They're found sometimes in the abandoned land near to my work place, but it's extremely difficult to actually see them (I think I only saw once in this place, they was a couple), but relatively easy to hear at night.

Blackcap is a very different bird, a small insectivorous passerine that have grey plumage with a black (male) or chestnut (female) cap.

[Gwangi]

Spring is upon us in Maryland, U.S.A. At the birdfeeder is the typical spring mix of migrants; red-winged blackbirds, common grackles, and brown-headed cowbirds. Most people don't like these birds at their feeder because they arrive in large flocks and gorge themselves. I don't mind them, they're a sign of spring, they need the food, and the red-wings are a favorite species of mine. Also, I can hear the eastern bluebirds singing atop my bird boxes. I guestimate that I'll be hearing frogs within a week and will start making herping trips.

[Lanthanotus]

We got a very warm spell here, temperatuers reaching up to almost 20 degrees and the sun`s shining brightly, so naturally, spring begins... a lot of birds to see,
also spotted the first lizard for the year (in my garden, but its no captive) and tonight I am gonna aid the toads (Bufo bufo, and possibly other amphibians) on their
migration to their spawning ponds.


So, beside the usual suspects as great tit and crows I spotted during the last days
Circus cyaneus, female colored
Phasianus colchicus, male , calling
two Picus virids
two Dendrocopus major

Podarcis muralis, male


felled by beavers, which is just returning to the small river running through our township,
after several parts of it have been renaturized during the last ten years.


Yeah, it was quite dark already..... common pheasant, male, calling.

[Isidro]

Today I saw the first ant Aphaenogaster senilis worker exploring out of the nest by the warm temperatures. Also the first wolf spider (a Pardosa) of the year. A cormorant landed in am still nude tree that was full of wood pigeons and I wish to have had my camera with me because it would have resulted in a curious pic of "odd one out".

[Gwangi]

I really enjoy reading about the different wildlife you all have around you. There aren't a lot of active members here but we all come from such different places it seems.

[bmathison1972]

@Gwangi it's this thread that made me formally get into birding!!!!

[Advicot]

Well I am glad I got you into birding Blaine, it's such a wonderful thing!   

Today it was very nice weather, however I was at school (online) but I managed to get some observations down.

Our lapwing (Vanellus vanellus) flock returned from who knows where but they seemed to enjoy relishing themselves on the worms in the sheep fields. And I heard them too, you can't beat a whooping and whistling lapwing I tell you, for our North American friends here's a link where you can hear them:  https://ebird.org/species/norlap/

I also went into my woods as the rain had finally been laying off, and it was wonderful, songs of turdus philomelos (song thrush), turdus merula (blackbird) and many different parus (tits) songs filled it, it was pure bliss