Friday Evening and Office Birding

I did a little birding after work today and decided to hit the cemetery in Millbury after going to St. Philips to check to see if the Merlin was still there or decided to hightail it out of town after last nights cold front and sure enough he was a no show. Right the minute I stepped out of my car at the Millbury cemetery, I could see small birds flying in and out of trees. It was about 45 minutes before the sun would set and the birds seemed to be frantically trying to get their last meal in the day similar to a bunch of drunks for a drink right before last call!

One of the first birds I saw was the Chipping Sparrow above who was part of a flock of about 10 others. While the picture didn't come out all that great I wanted a record shot for myself as it is transitioning to non-breeding plumage.
There were also a lot of Yellow-rumped Warblers there too. This bird actually threw me off a little as I was going through my Peterson Guide because while he showed the brownish head and white eye-ring for non-breeding Yellow-rumps, (page 353), he didn't show the brown cheek the bird has (page 337), as that is part of its breeding plumage. My guess is that this bird is still transitioning and that will be next to fade. This is my first time trying to use my field guide on my own to identify the fall warblers so if I am wrong, please let me know.
Another shot that will show some of the yellow on its sides.
And one more just because!
I have made a discovery from my office window the past few days and it has to do with the dozens of Rock Pigeons that hang around City Hall during working hours. Now for the most part, these birds are fairly lazy and spend most of their time either perched up on building ledges or over at the park eating bread from well meaning folks waiting for their bus. On occasion, they just want to fly just for the heck of it and I can tell when they are flying for fun as they will always land on a ledge. They have a different way of flying when feeling threatened and it is rather chaotic to see and many times in the past, I would look out the window and sure enough, one of the Peregrines was looking for a little lunch and they certainly didn't want to be on the menu!!

Anyhow, if I happen to see this behaviour, I take out my bins and scan the skies to see what it could be that could be causing the obvious distirbance. In the past, the bins only have to go so far up the sky because the Peregrines are never that far up as they are hunting for prey and not riding thermals. This time though, I decided to put my bins up a little further and a little wider. What was amazing was 9 times out of 10, there was a bird way up in the sky riding the thermals! (even TV's so I am not sure if this is related or just a coincidence)

The birds were more likely than not, tiny specs in the sky, similar to when you are hawkwatching outside, so it gave me the opportunity to practice while at the desk. How cool is that!! One minute you are working dilligently on a spreadsheet, and the next minute you are watching a Red-tailed Hawk flying into a cloud with grace and style!!

Anyhow, I did mange to get a series of lousy photos of one bird in particular who was actually low enough that I could get a focus on it, but not low enough so it could be a decent picture. When I first put my bins on the bird, I assumed Turkey Vulture as I got gotten 4 of those today so they are fairly common to see as I have found out recently. What struck me about this bird though was that the wings were slightly bowed while soaring. Yes I have seen pictures of Turkey Vultures doing this on occasion, but never experienced it w/ my own two eyes. So is it a Turkey Vulture? Not completely convinced here........Enlarge the picture and tell me if you think this birds head looks white to you??
Look at another picture I took and notice the bow is still downward. If you own the "Hawks from Every Angle" book take a look at the Bald Eagle picture on page 130 under "bowed".
Could very well be a TV and wishful thinking on my behalf, but I thought i'd put it out there.

I also saw some Red-tailed Hawks riding the thermals and the most interesting thing besides the picture above was seeing two buteo type birds riding a thermal and gaining terrific altitude. When I say buteo type, I mean solely by the way they were flying which was lazy circles drifting upward. The wing shape did appear buteo to me from what I could see, but am not experienced enough to say that w/ confidence as they were too far away. Sure enough one other joined, and then another for a total of four before they disspeared from my view. I can confidently say they were not gulls and I can't see them being Red-tailed Hawks as why would they form a kettle if they are not migrating, so perhaps they were Broad-winged Hawks?? Will never know for certain but thought it was note worthy.

Last but not least, I just want to say that gulls are impressive flyers! I had never noticed it before this week but these birds are masters of taking advantage of thermal lifts. I was able to observe this a couple of times this week and thought they were falcons at first due to wing shape. It didn't take me long to realize they were gulls though as you could tell by the shape and color once you got your bins focussed nicely on them. They even form small kettles at times!

Take care all!