Albatrossity2
Posts: 2780
Joined: Mar. 2007
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A while back Wesley suggested that a wildlife thread might be fun, or even useful. Since I am teaching a field ornithology class this semester (1 hour of credit for three hours of birdwatching per week), I thought I'd kick this off with our bird sighting checklist for today. The whole list is available from a link here; just go to the column for 2008 and click on the link for the checklist for week2. There are lots of checklists from previous spring semesters at that site as well.
We say 29 species in two hours this morning. Mid-winter is not a good time to see a lot of birds, but because this is a class to teach students about the birds, they probably don't want to see a lot of birds, and keep the IDs straight, right now. There will be lots more by May! They also don't want to spend a lot of time outside right now; the temperature was just about zero F (-18 C) when we started out this morning. That should be better by May as well.
The highlight was an adult Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus) perched in good light for several minutes; our typical accipiter sighting is a flyby at about Mach 0.5 or so...
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Flesh of the sky, child of the sky, the mind
Has been obligated from the beginning
To create an ordered universe
As the only possible proof of its own inheritance.
- Pattiann Rogers
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