• You do not need to register if you are not going to pay the yearly fee to post. If you register please click here or log in go to "settings" then "my account" then "User Upgrades" and you can renew.

HuskerMax readers can save 50% on  Omaha Steaks .

Any Birders On Here?

Strategery

Strategery

Recruit
Just curious -- I'm not a hunter but I'm out birding a lot. Having a good year, mostly in SE Nebraska but I've taken a couple of trips to the Sandhills and Panhandle also.

Played golf a couple weeks ago at the Dismal River Club. There was a Peregrine Falcon on the hunt while we were playing, the burst of speed from those things is incredible. Anyway, it shot out of view and I didn't think anything of it. Two holes later, we come up on a tee box, and there's about a 20 ft radius from an explosion of dove feathers. Direct hit from the Peregrine. Wish I'd taken a picture!
 

My kids are big into bird watching. They had a kindergarten teacher who incorporates birds into almost every lesson in every subject. By the end of class they could pretty much all identify something like 200+ birds and 100+ birdsongs. It's amazing, annoying, unnerving, and impressive to ask a 5-year-old, "Hey, is that some kind of sparrow?" only to be mocked , "No, dad, that's a female brown nut hatch," words dripping with disdain.
 
Last edited:
Got a neighbor kid who is in to wildlife. Always asking about deer, pheasants, fish, etc. He also would point out birds and know what they were. Pretty good at it. One evening we were all out in the yard having some cocktails and I heard a cardinal. Not terribly common up here. No one believed me. So i walked back to the backyard overlooking an open field and a treeline. Got my phone out and found some cardinal sounds. Cranked the volume and let it play. Within a minute or so the cardinal was working his way toward me. Finally he flew right past me and landed in a neighbor's tree. I turned around and the kid was right behind me, eyes and mouth wide open. He saw it too. Ran around the house and told everyone what we did. Kid was excited. Made my night. Was a lot like him when I was young.
 
Nice ... there are a few kinds of birds you can bring in with specific noises. Cardinals, juncos, wrens, some kinds of sparrows, and a few others. If you play songs you can bring in a few things. Careful with that in the spring, a Wood Thrush almost took my head off once!
 



Strategery said:
Nice ... there are a few kinds of birds you can bring in with specific noises. Cardinals, juncos, wrens, some kinds of sparrows, and a few others. If you play songs you can bring in even more. Careful with that in the spring, a Wood Thrush almost took my head off once!
Click to expand...
 
Middle-aged_Ball_Coach said:
My kids are big into bird watching. They had a kindergarten teacher who incorporates birds into almost every lesson in every subject. By the end of class they could pretty much all identify something like 200+ birds and 100+ birdsongs. It's amazing, annoying, unnerving, and impressive to ask a 5-year-old, "Hey, is that some kind of sparrow?" only to be mocked , "No, dad, that's a female brown nut hatch," words dripping with disdain.
Click to expand...


I tell you what, it's been a helluva hobby during COVID. Just find a place outside and walk around. I'm over 250 species in Nebraska this year, which is a record for me.

I've birded on and off since college, but revived it about 5 years ago. I travel a lot for work and decided I'd take advantage of it to see different kinds of birds. It helps me look forward to trips that I normally wouldn't be too excited about.
 
We started feeding birds when our son went to college, it started after we noticed hummingbirds in our back yard in the fall and loved watching them dart around and dive bomb each other. We haven't had near as many hummingbirds during the migration the last few years but have seen many different species since.

We mostly feed in winter, once the black birds show up we stop until the snow comes again. Yesterday we had dozens of sparrows, a few different types of finches, chickadees, 8-10 doves, bluejays, along with 4 male and 3 female cardinals. This is all in a modest yard on the end of town.
 
Strategery said:
Just curious -- I'm not a hunter but I'm out birding a lot. Having a good year, mostly in SE Nebraska but I've taken a couple of trips to the Sandhills and Panhandle also.

Played golf a couple weeks ago at the Dismal River Club. There was a Peregrine Falcon on the hunt while we were playing, the burst of speed from those things is incredible. Anyway, it shot out of view and I didn't think anything of it. Two holes later, we come up on a tee box, and there's about a 20 ft radius from an explosion of dove feathers. Direct hit from the Peregrine. Wish I'd taken a picture!
Click to expand...
I’ve just started getting interested in birdwatching after moving to Rio Grande Valley of Texas, which is supposed to be one of the prime bird-watching areas in North America. I wouldn’t have expected to get interested, but it grabbed me.

My back yard borders a resaca (horseshoe pond from old Rio Grande route). From my yard in the past 6 months of the top of my head I’ve see:
various hummingbirds (including a migration with hundreds buzzing around)
roseate spoonbills
great egret
snowy egret
ringed Kingfisher
anhinga (the snake head bird)
great blue heron
little blue heron
various ducks
cormerants
orioles
cardinals
green Jays
various woodpeckers
Harris’ hawk
great kiskadee
plus a bunch of the more common little backyard birds
 




It's a mecca. I was supposed to bird the Rio Grande area from Brownsville in March. If you have an interest, you are in one of the best possible places in the US to be. You are at the northern range limit of birds that can't be seen anywhere else in the US, and you get migrations from the south/north coming across you in spring and fall, with some far north birds wintering in your area. As good as it gets in the US away from a shoreline.

Recommend using eBird if you're ever interested in tracking what you see. Side benefit is that you will be contributing to the biggest citizen science effort in the world.

Whereabouts are you?

If you ever have questions, ask!!
 
Last edited:
Strategery said:
It's a mecca. I was supposed to bird the Rio Grande area from Brownsville in March. If you have an interest, you are in one of the best possible places in the US to be. You are at the northern range limit of birds that can't be seen anywhere else in the US, and you get migrations from the south/north coming across you in spring and fall, with some far north birds wintering in your area. As good as it gets in the US away from a shoreline.

Recommend using eBird if you're ever interested in tracking what you see. Side benefit is that you will be contributing to the biggest citizen science effort in the world.

Whereabouts are you?

If you ever have questions, ask!!
Click to expand...
Well, as luck has it I’m interviewing for jobs out of the area, casualty of the pandemic. I expect to be leaving by the Spring.
 
I love my Trumpeters every spring on the little lake, the loons on both big an little lake, and the pileated woodpeckers all year long.
Eagles and Osprey as well, kingfishers, too many to name, and dont know all of them.
 
Last edited:



NorthwoodHusker said:
I love my Trumpeters every spring on the little lake, the loons on both big an little lake, and the pileated woodpeckers all year long.
Eagles and Osprey as well, kingfishers, too many to name, and dont know all of them.
Click to expand...

Trumpeters are accumulating in Nebraska/Iowa/Missouri right now. Squaw Creek NWR had over a thousand a couple of weeks ago when I was there. Plus 300+ eagles.

Love loons, pileateds. Pileated are moving up the Missouri and Platte in Nebraska, you can find them now. Never could when I was a kid.
 
Strategery said:
Trumpeters are accumulating in Nebraska/Iowa/Missouri right now. Squaw Creek NWR had over a thousand a couple of weeks ago when I was there. Plus 300+ eagles.

Love loons, pileateds. Pileated are moving up the Missouri and Platte in Nebraska, you can find them now. Never could when I was a kid.
Click to expand...
They breed where I'm at, and many Pileated winter over here amongst the trees.
But we lose the Loons an Trumpeters for a time of course, until first ice out, even before, as they use the rivers til their lakes are thawed
 
Last edited:

You must log in or register to reply here.

GET TICKETS


Get 50% off on Omaha Steaks

Back
Top