Joe Gyekis

While #birding it's important to recognize starling aerial predator alarm calls so, like the birds, we know to look up when we hear it

Forgot to tag the #birding people about my robin project. This was from 12 nights between Feb 8 and Mar 7 in State College PA, with an average of 2700 robins counted per night (max 5770, min 780).

scatter plot of robins per minute vs. offset from sunset for robin arrival at a suburban roost site

What time do robins fly into their evening suburban roost in Pennsylvania? Mostly 30 min before to 15 min after sunset (blue dots), exception the one night it started raining 30 min before sunset the robins mostly flew in ahead of the rain (pink dots).

Thanks, good reminder. In this case the key info is already in my post so I guess the image was superfluous.

Looks like a mild form of albinism, often eventually lethal because of the visual problems that increase with age. Since two key pigment synthesis genes (TYRP1 and SLC45A2) are on the Z in birds and females are the heterogametic sex, most wild birds with mild forms of albinism are young females.

The Tussey Mountain Hawkwatch in central Pennsylvania, one of the top spring observation sites for the eastern North American populations of Golden Eagle, kicks off its 25th count season. #birding

Maybe undulated tinamou?

eastern meadowlarks sitting in a tree

rough legged hawk perched on the tip of a branch

snow geese with their disorganized v flock shape in flight

a distant pair of red tailed hawks sitting on a nest

#birding today in Pennsylvania was a mix of winter feelings (super floof insulation, northern specialties) and spring feelings (northbound flocks, snuggles at the nest site).

A friend of mine suggested maybe it was just young and giving it a try out of curiousity. I think no way any mink could just swim up to an alert and healthy duck in plain view to catch it--simply fly way too fast.

I got the feeling the ducks knew exactly how fast the mink could swim and weren't going to waste energy flushing until the mink got close enough to warrant it.

Always fun when the mammals get into the action while #birding. Mink swimming up to a pair of black ducks in central Pennsylvania with zero concern for stealth.

a pair of ravens with the lower one in a stooping acrobatic maneuver

a pair of ravens with the front one half way into a sideways dive

a pair of ravens coming at the viewer with the mouth open on one bird

A #birding classic, ravens croaking and flipping

Good news for crossbills

Pennsylvania #birding

If the username grew it would help but I have found that I like discord for interest groups and blue sky for general news

For a second, I thought this was feeding my carcass to the vultures content

Does this have an audiobook?

What a great event. Wednesday is like my busiest day, teach 3 classes plus have office hours, but I'm going to try to get a student to participate if possible.

Biggest surprise #birding Yunnan-- flyby Bonelli's Eagle, a widespread but severely declining Eurasian raptor

Owlet on a ferris wheel and gulls being cooperative in Yunnan in December. #birding

Awesome, what's the difference between the black and white tracks on this map?

I forgot to tag my #birding post to connect with the people who follow #birds feeds, I never used tags before lol. So here are MOAR SOUTH CAROLINA BIRDS!

Had two chances to see white pelicans moving last week. One group was fighting a headwind below eye level crossing an inlet (Cherry Grove, SC), another group in more typical fashion high and swirly (North Myrtle Beach, SC, following intracoastal waterway canal).

I was going to only post wildlife stuff, but today felt timely to go on the record saying there are ~68,000 people killed per year and about half a trillion dollars wasted per year by the refusal to implement Medicare for all.

@ryanfm.bsky.social told me about that titmouse arrival in NYC, and it's also evident in eBird data for New York county

Researchers Reveal the Mysterious Fall Movements of a Familiar Backyard Bird New studies suggest that northern populations of White-breasted Nuthatches might also have irruptive years—and 2020 is one of them.

www.audubon.org/news/researc... a fun article if I might say so myself

to continue with the mammals found while #birding theme, dolphins in a tidal creek of south carolina by thermal

only the 5th humpback on inaturalist for south carolina seen while #birding last week

@daryllmarie.bsky.social I have some low quality whale videos that I want help with identification, is the Marine mammology group a good one to tag?

Pelican! #birding