The Networked Bird Observatory Blog

Here are a few of my favorite shots from the last few days.

On the night of July 3, avatar99 got what I think is the best shot so far of the Barred Owl:

A number of us have been getting shots of frogs in the pond. Here’s a nice one taken on the Fourth of July by leacox:

Finally, this afternoon rafa got a couple of shots of the male Painted Bunting that I think are the best shots anyone has obtained of him with CONE Welder yet:

Those are pretty spectacular, but if you want some real Painted Bunting fireworks, check out these two shots that user Sabine on the Steve’s Digicams site uploaded back on July 1:

I really love the views we get with CONE Welder, but it sometimes takes a shot like these, or better yet, a trip out in the field with my binoculars (like the visit I paid this afternoon to the Carpinteria Bluffs, where I got to watch a Black Oystercatcher bathing in a tidepool), to remind me of how neat birds really look.

We were having fun this morning trying to figure out the following “mystery bird”. rafa got a shot at 6:10 a.m. in the dead tree (which really seems to be a magnet for great birds):

Later, it showed up several times on a particular plant just above the water fountain. At first I was thinking it might be a Myiarchus flycatcher. But when it came back and we got some good looks at it (including seeing it feeding on the plant’s seeds) I abandoned that idea pretty quickly.

Here are the two best shots I got (I kept a few others, too, and I haven’t seen yet what the other users got, since their shots are still embargoed):

I’m pretty comfortable calling this a female Painted Bunting. There’s a delicate beauty to the markings of female buntings that I really like. They’re not as showy as the males, but I like looking at them.

Update: Here are my favorites of the images other users got. anneelizabeth got this cute shot:

And birdbrain got this great action photo:

Several users on the late-night crew were rewarded last night with great images of the Barred Owl. Here’s my favorite, taken by achadamaia:

How could you not get excited about a shot like that?

I almost forgot: Yesterday kryptonkay got this shot, one of three from this bird’s appearance that have been ID’d as Bewick’s Wren:

Pretty snazzy!

Back on June 29 one of the CONE Welder users emailed me to report that a White-tailed Deer fawn had died, and players had been photographing its body with the camera. In her email she sounded upset, and wanted to know if I knew anyone’s phone number at Welder so they could be alerted to the situation.

I forwarded her email to Dr. Selma Glasscock. She replied shortly thereafter saying she would check it out, and mentioning that she doesn’t monitor the camera regularly. She also wrote the following:

One thing that ‘watchers’ should be aware of is that this is not a ‘park’ where animals are protected against nature. It is a wildlife refuge where nature happens. I wish there was some way to educate the public about the realities of nature.

I know I’m as guilty as the next person of anthropomorphizing the cute little “Bambis” that have been wandering around the camera the last month or so, and I’m sad to see that this one died. But I think Dr. Glasscock has a point, and I’m not sure it’s wrong of people to have photographed the dead fawn.

I didn’t see any of the images of this until after the fact, when I noticed that we had a new ID in the game: Turkey Vulture. Here are some of the images users took. I’ve taken the unusual (for me) step of putting some of these images (ones that include the dead fawn) “after the break” below; you’ll need to click through to see those images, if you want to. That way users who would prefer not to see them can avoid doing so.

Oh, but first, I wanted to post the following images that were taken this morning by vanilla:

So life at CONE Welder goes on, and while it’s certainly sad to be confronted by the reality of death, I remind myself that it’s part of the natural cycle that includes us all.

Anyway, here are some shots of the Turkey Vultures. The first is by avatar99, the second is by rafa:

Additional photos (including the dead fawn) after the jump, below.

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A really nice Orchard Oriole duo (an adult male and one of its offspring, an immature male, I assume) were photographed on July 1. Here are three shots by tinyang, txbird, and tinyang, respectively:

Great shots of a great bird!

Back on June 28, a bird that has been ID’d as a Summer Tanager showed up on the water fountain. Here are three shots by txbird:

It’s not an adult male, but it’s still a new bird for the game. I’ll take it.

So, I apologize (again) for being lax about posting updates lately.

Here are some interesting shots from the last few days. avatar99 got this great shot of a male Bronzed Cowbird doing his “fluff up and look menacing” behavior back on June 30:

There have been several appearances by the Great Kiskadee (which I still haven’t seen myself; I’ve gotta spend more time on the camera), including one that produced this very nice shot from loughman1 on June 30:

idbirds got this cool shot of a dragonfly on July 1:

redheadedwp got this really interesting (and a little bit off-putting) photo of a bunch of insects and a spider (I think?) on July 2:

I think what’s going on there is that we got one of those rare shots where the camera focuses extremely close, and we get to see what’s crawling around on the camera housing itself.

Finally, in case any of you were wondering where I’ve been, I’ve been spending most of my available after-work time working on my daughter’s and my entry in the Weepies’ “Hideaway” video contest. It’s not really relevant to CONE Welder, but it does have three different bird species in it.

There have been a lot of tantalizingly mysterious birds showing up at CONE Welder over the last several days. Here, in chronological order, are a bunch that have me puzzled. (Thanks to robin54 for writing to bring my attention to these; she suggests we might want to see if we can get Dr. Selma Glasscock to weigh in on them, which sounds like a great idea to me.)

I’m going to number them for convenience in referring to them.

Mystery Bird #1

leacox took this shot on June 22 at 7:18 a.m.:

There’s a really interesting wine color going on there. It immediately made me think of finch, or maybe the Rose-breasted Grosbeak that was around the first week or so the camera was live, and hasn’t been seen since. But I assume the grosbeak hasn’t been back because they were migrating through, and are on the their breeding range now, well north of Texas, and really, that bird doesn’t say “finch” to me in any particularly strong way. What do you suppose it is? Is that color just a trick of the light? I wish we had a better shot.

Mystery Bird #2

Here are four shots of a bird from June 23 at 7:33 a.m. The first two shots was taken by txbird; the last two by rafa:

I’m leaning toward an immature Brown-headed Cowbird on these. I wasn’t familiar with what immature cowbirds looked like before this, but looking carefully at Sibley, I think this bird fits the bill pretty well.

Mystery Bird #3

These two shots were taken at 12:07 p.m. on June 23. The first is by txbird, the second by rafa:

I wish these shots were just a bit clearer, so I could get a better sense of the bird’s beak. The txbird shot looks like it shows a distinct wingbar, which has me thinking “oriole”. If I only had rafa’s shot to look at, though, I might be inclined to vote for a female Painted Bunting. But given that wingbar, I think I’d put my chips on oriole, maybe a female Orchard?

Mystery Bird #4

These shots were taken at 4:00 p.m. on June 23. The first is by vanilla, the second by tinyang:

This bird has an interesting posture. But I think maybe it’s a relatively familiar bird that just happens to be holding its body in a somewhat unusual position. I guess I’d go with a female Brown-headed Cowbird here.

Mystery Bird #5

txbird took this photo at 5:15 p.m. on June 23:

I’ve got nothing here. Could be another female Brown-headed Cowbird. Could be any of a bunch of other things, too. Really hard to say. Some shots just weren’t meant to be ID’d, I guess.

Mystery Bird #6

Update: Oops. There is no mystery bird #6. The bird I originally had here was a mislabeled shot that was taken during the same sequence posted above as mystery bird #2. I’ve moved it there now. Thanks to rafa for pointing out my mistake. One mystery solved!

Mystery Bird #7

So, what have we here? The following shots were taken around 2:07 p.m. yesterday (June 24), by txbird (the first photo and the last two) and by rafa (the second and third photos).

That’s a really interesting yellow color on the throat, especially in the first image by txbird. The plain wings pretty much rule out orioles for me, so what does that leave? Female Painted Bunting seems like a possibility, but what I can see of the beak seems too big. I could see this being a female tanager, either a Summer (which makes more sense per the Sibley range map) or a Scarlet (which Sibley shows in the area only during migration). The Welder checklist shows both of them as “uncommon” in the summer.

Or it could be an immature Brown-headed Cowbird, I suppose, with the yellow being more a video flare than a real color. I’m not seeing any of the pale edging on the back and wing plumage, though, that the immature cowbird is supposed to have. (See the mystery bird #8, below, for a nice example of that.)

Mystery Bird #8

Our last mystery shot was taken this afternoon (hm; yesterday afternoon, now, since it’s after midnight here), June 25 at 5:19 p.m., by txbird:

I’m leaning toward an immature Brown-headed Cowbird for this one.

All in all, a nice big batch of mysterious birds to argue about. What do you all think?

I apologize for my light posting schedule lately. I’ve been putting a lot of time into a contest my daughter I are planning to enter. The deadline for our submission is next Thursday, so hopefully I’ll have more time to devote to CONE Welder soon.

In the meantime, check out these beautiful shots of male buntings taken yesterday afternoon. The first is of a Painted Bunting taken by txbird; the second is an Indigo Bunting taken by vanilla:

Both birds were photographed during the same half hour. Oh, to have been on the birdcam during that half-hour!