Pre-Thanksgiving pond feast for birds

Tri-colored heron

Birds are feasting at the big pond!

A front passed through and it's breezy and cool. Here is the weather (from the forecast link in the sidebar). 

When this happens, birds visit the large pond in numbers. I heard their delighted calls before I saw them. 

Here is what made me pause. A Fish Crow's call.

And a lot of geese.

Then, the geese took flight. What is that about, I wondered. 

(Look at this Florida fall color.)

I scanned the sky.

This bird landed at the top of a Norfolk pine. An American Bald Eagle!

When the Eagle left, the birds settled. Time to eat. This Brown Pelican (with a Wood Stork) eats fish after fish.

Great Egrets

A Florida Southern Softback turtle poked its head up to check out the action.

Lesser Scaups were in the middle of the pond away from the other birds.

Pied Bill Grebe

So many feathered visitors today.

I watch them as they watch me.

Saturday, November 16, 2019

Neighbor Debbie and Butch asked, "What do you see?" A noisy gathering of crow and a beautiful Lesser Scaup.

NOTE: I wrote this in June and forgot to post it. I was photographing near the big lake.

Debbie popped her head out and introduced herself and her husband, Butch. "What do you see?" she asked as I clicked photos of this social group. I told her that there is a Palm Warbler right above her on the gutter. This one.

And promised to post photographs of the other birds. So here they are.

Fish Crow.

A Peninsula Cooter turtle (left), Florida Soft-shell turtle, and a Lesser Scaup.

Here is a better photo of that gorgeous duck, the Lesser Scaup. Just look at that baby blue bill.

A pair of Common Moorhen. 

Fish Crow or American Crow?

Last week I headed to the big pond just before sunset. What a flock of crow! 

(No, a group of crow is not a murder of crow. Audubon says that some group names such as a wisdom of wombats or a chain of bobolinks are barroom trivia and not terms used by scientists.)

Crow is one of my favorite birds to watch. They are smart. How smart? They use tools, and, well, look at this 2-minute video. Here is a longer video, a TED talk on the corvids about their smartness. 

Have you read the story that went viral a few years ago (IT'S HERE) about a young girl named Abby who feeds crows in her Oregon backyard—and the crows return the affection by bringing her little gifts! 

I've tried a couple times to get identification confirmation for crow photos. I thought my photos would provide adequate information.

The response? It's impossible to be 100% sure if it didn't vocalize. (They were socializing, so yes, I heard their calls.) The next question the expert asked, "Did it sound nasal or like the "caw caw" stereotype crow sound?"

This flock made more of the regular caw caw sounds. 

I think. 

So, my first guess is American Crow. 

Want to learn how to identify them?

Here is the call of the AMERICAN CROW.

And, the FISH CROW. 

Other clues offered by All About Birds, Cornell University:

Fish Crow - often seen walking or hop-skipping along the ground while foraging; when calling from the ground, it often leans forward and fluffs up its feathers

American Crow - along the coastline, often forages at the water's edge; flies with a rowing motion, rarely glides

Bluejays and magpies are in the same family as the crow. When I was in Steamboat Springs, Colorado a few months ago, I photographed a magpie. Can you see the family likeness?