The Networked Bird Observatory Blog

I previously speculated that the shot I took of a barely visible American Robin at 5:38 a.m. on May 6 might be the earliest identified photo taken in the game. I just spent a few minutes plowing through the Public Gallery, and I’ve confirmed it; that’s the earliest identified photo taken so far.

Here’s that shot:

The second-earliest shot so far was also of an American Robin. It was photographed in pretty much the same place at 5:51 this morning, May 18, by noho_bird_club:

It’s only 13 minutes later by the clock, but it’s obviously a lot brighter out; I guess a couple of weeks makes a real difference as we head toward the longest day of the year on June 21. I think my “earliest shot” record is ripe for the plucking, and will only get riper for the next month or so, as the early birds shift their schedules to match the daylight.

Third place goes to this shot of two female Black-headed Grosbeaks, taken at 5:52 a.m. by gbleys on May 8:

I also looked for who had taken the latest identifiable photos. The winner in that category is this shot of a male House Finch taken at 8:15 p.m. on May 7 by keystone1111:

Second place goes to this shot of a robin, taken at 8:13 p.m. yesterday, May 17, by kryptonkay:

Third place goes to this shot of a male Black-headed Grosbeak, taken at 8:09 p.m. on May 8 by byronma2433:

Here are the top 10 in each category. Note that in compiling this list, I took the earliest and latest bird each day, and compared only those. That is, only one shot each morning and one shot each evening could be in contention. This makes it actually a competition between the different days, to see which day’s earliest bird was the earliest, and which day’s latest bird was the latest.

Earliest:

1. 05:38 — American Robin (elanus, May 6)
2. 05:51 — American Robin (noho_bird_club, May 18)
3. 05:52 — Black-headed Grosbeak (gbleys, May 8 )
4. 05:53 — Black-headed Grosbeak (elanus, May 12)
5. 05:55 — Black-headed Grosbeak (kellychitwood, May 9)
6. 06:03 — House Finch (nestera, May 5)
7. 06:05 — Black-headed Grosbeak (noho_bird_club, May 10)
8. 06:06 — Black-headed Grosbeak (kiddo, May 10)
9. 06:10 — Western Scrub-Jay (m.vogel, May 7)
10. 06:11 — Western Scrub-Jay (nchyflyer, May 4)

Latest:

1. 20:15 — House Finch (keystone1111, May 7)
2. 20:13 — American Robin (kryptonkay, May 17)
3. 20:09 — Black-headed Grosbeak (byronma2433, May 18)
4. 20:02 — Western Scrub-Jay (maggs, May 5) (tie broken by being first to get the bird in that minute)
5. 20:02 — Dark-eyed Junco (sunbird, May 12)
6. 20:01 — House Sparrow (sunbird, April 24)
7. 20:00 — Dark-eyed Junco (pabirdguy, April 27)
8. 19:57 — Dark-eyed Junco (empid, May 13)
9. 19:50 — Western Scrub-Jay (randc319, April 29)
10. 19:49 — American Robin (ephrat, April 21)*

*That 10th place finisher for latest photo is from the very first day the site went public, April 21, and it’s currently classified as a Dark-eyed Junco. But I’m pretty sure it’s actually an American Robin. Here’s the photo:

If you agree with me that that’s no junco, and if you haven’t voted yet, click through and enter your vote and we’ll get it reclassified.

Update: And now, thanks to your votes, we’ve done so. Thanks!

For the first time since May 3, and only the fourth time since the game started, a Song Sparrow put in an appearance today. harpsichordgal got this single shot at 7:58 p.m.:

As I mentioned in My Big Three, I’d really love to get a shot of one of these myself with the birdcam, but so far, no luck.

So, after the thrill of seeing Prof Goldberg clean out the birdbath the other day, I was a little put out when I noticed that the high wind (I’m guessing) had deposited a bit of grass in that nice clean water. You can see it in this shot of a Dark-eyed Junco I got yesterday at 4:18:

I might not care for vegetation in my bathwater, but apparently the birds on Craig’s deck didn’t mind, since there was plenty of birdbath action yesterday. But look at what happened today: By the time kiddo got this shot of the American Robin at 11:43, the water was looking downright murky (because of dirt carried in on the grass, maybe?):

I don’t know if the dirty water had anything to do with it, but the very next shot, taken by pabirdguy in the same minute, shows a bird standing in the same place that looks different enough that noho_bird_club, at least, believes it to be a juvenile European Starling:

But the fun with the murky water didn’t stop there. As if they found the yucky-looking water particularly attractive, the next few hours saw a steady stream of birds visiting the bath, including some species that I don’t remember seeing there before. There was this House Sparrow at 12:18, photographed by noho_bird_club:

And this robin at 12:20, also captured by noho_bird_club (note the effect of the water on its chest, which makes me think the earlier “starling” might just have been a very wet robin):

There was also a junco at 12:33 (#9414, by noho_bird_club), two House Sparrows at 12:35 (#9420, pennsylavian), and this junco at 1238 (kiddo):

A House Finch at 1:04 (lfujim0):

A Western Scrub-Jay at 1:45 (kryptonkay):

The robin again at 2:20 (#9468, by mary mactavish), the junco again at 5:15 (#9529, by lin), and a Mourning Dove at 4:55, by tedr:

So, at 7:21 p.m. I was going through all these great birdbath images, and I wondered if there might be anything else going on at the birdbath. And I panned over, and had the great pleasure of watching an Allen’s Hummingbird (I’m saying that based on the date, though all I’m sure of is that it was a Selasphorus) bathe itself by hovering over the bath and repeatedly diving into it on the wing. I hit my limit of 10 photos pretty quick, and by the time I’d deleted the rejects to try to get more the hummingbird was gone. But I managed to get these two images:

All in all, an awesome day at the birdbath. Let’s keep it dirty from now on!