Tag: identify

Photo Birding

Katoomba, NSW
Wongabel NP, QLD
Blue Mountains NP, NSW
Daintree Village, QLD

The view out my window on a recent morning was solid white. I was looking at four inches of what the weather folks called “it may or may not snow, and surely there won’t be much accumulation.” Schools were on a delay, temperatures hovered in the mid-teens, and visibility was nil. Yup, I wouldn’t be birding that day. (I don’t mind getting snowed on—it’s navigating the snowy roads that poses the difficulty.)

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January Bird Quiz

With the start of a new year, I thought I might do something a little different with the monthly quiz. No, I’m not going to tell you what it is. You’ll figure it out eventually!

This year the photos won’t be cropped. Instead, I’ll start you out with an easy one. This bird was photographed in Arizona in April. Can you identify it? The answer appears next Monday.

01 Tucson-AZ_LAH_4467

It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane…

Red-tailed Hawk_ElPasoCo_LAH_9836r

I thumbed through the field guide. Let’s see… a Red-tailed Hawk is 19 inches, head to tail, with a wingspan of 49 inches. A Rough-legged Hawk is a couple of inches longer, 21 inches tall with a 53 inch wingspan. And a Ferruginous Hawk is larger still, 23 inches tall and 56 inches across.  Or, it could be a Northern Harrier, checking in at 18 inches by 43 inches. So which hawk was it sitting on that pole, silhouetted against the sky? I was glad that there were only a few real options in eastern Colorado at this time of year.  I flipped the page to a Golden Eagle, 30 inches in height, wingspan of 79 inches. No, surely I’d be able to tell if the bird was that large! It had to be a hawk.

Continue reading “It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane…”