Althouse: Count the birds.

June 9, 2008

Count the birds.

1. For beginners:

2. Advanced:

(enlarge)

11 comments:

Anonymous said...: Twelve-the falcon ate one...; 6/9/08, 5:20 PM
PatHMV said...: I've occasionally gone bird-watching with friends, trying, while armed only with my 35-200mm zoom lens on my camera, to get some interesting photos. As I stared at the birds WAY up there in the tree-tops and tried to identify them based on the pure, Audubon-esque paintings of them in the guide-book, I thought of the perfect coffee-table book: The REAL Guide to the Birds of North America.

It would consist entirely of photos like the second one, and would describe how to recognize various species when all you can see is a couple of feathers jutting out from between two leave-covered branches.; 6/9/08, 5:23 PM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: Ha ha ha.

The red wing blackbirds are harrassing the red tailed (?) hawk. Squawking like crazy at him. They do that all the time in my area. Even the little sparrows gang up and dive bomb the Bald Eagles. Brave little guys.; 6/9/08, 5:28 PM
Ann Althouse said...: I aimed the camera there because the birds were making such a racket. I took a bunch of shots because I couldn't see what was going on. It was great fun to download the photos and discover the hawk. All those other birds are really pissed off at the hawk, which is just ignoring them.; 6/9/08, 5:33 PM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: "All those other birds are really pissed off at the hawk, which is just ignoring them."

I know. LOL If birds could have expressions the hawk would have a pissed off and disgusted look on his face. Long suffering from being harrassed by the noisy and persistant little birds. Sigh.

For a few weeks our cat couldn't go outside without being mobbed by agressive robins protecting their babies. One little guy would follow her from room to room in the house and squawk at her through the windows all day long. Same look on her face too. "Sigh...why me? All I want to do is eat a few baby robins."; 6/9/08, 5:42 PM
Kirby Olson said...: I still like to watch the old serial Combat, with Victor Morrow. In one episode the boys are pinned down by German snipers in trees. The sergeant tells a pacifist painter who's with them to please tell him how to spot the snipers or else they are all going to die. The painter had specialized in painting trees before the war. He could follow the anatomical outlines of the trees and find unlikely bumps in the trees, and he pointed them out to Kirby, who countersniped all the Nazis out of the trees.

Sniping is not just for the birds, it is also for the doves stuck among the hawkish.

I hope no one reads this as I kind of overdid it.; 6/9/08, 6:01 PM
rhhardin said...: Occasionally the hawk nabs one of the birds and then they're really noisy as their feathers are pulled out.

Here's a Sharpie grabbing a Starling, Feb 19 2005, picked up by my backyard bird microphone (at 0:23 real audio). A bluejay voices general alarm.; 6/9/08, 6:47 PM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: Taking this thread completely off topic (sorry Ann)

Kirby: your name cracks me up. Remember when Sgt Saunders and his patrol would be pinned down, he would alway send Kirby out first. "You go first Kirby, and we'll cover you." Always, it was Kirby taking the run through the bullet gauntlet. We would laugh and wait for the one day that Kirby would say ..."No way! You go first and I'll cover YOU!" Of course he never did.

I didn't think that anyone remembered that show.; 6/9/08, 6:51 PM
Ron said...: Caption for the top pic:

"C'mon Hillary...admit it...I won the nomination fair and square."; 6/9/08, 6:58 PM
Methadras said...: I see 14 or 15 birds total. Am I close?; 6/9/08, 8:00 PM
Ann Althouse said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 6/10/08, 8:00 AM