debunkshy:

Yellow-rumped Warbler
St Marks NWR, FL
2-18-18

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/172969453137.

birdsandbirds:

Greater Sage-grouse lekking!

Crowley Lake, Mono Basin

Lee Vining, CA

I saw them on this lek a couple of weeks ago! I was farther away (just off 395), so I didn’t have this nice a view. Thanks for sharing it!

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/172963591091.

jaynaneeya:

Happy Birthday to everyone’s favorite poet, whose name escapes me at the moment

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/172960573150.

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/172951846711.

renatagrieco:

May 25, 2016 – Lawrence’s Goldfinch (Spinus lawrencei)

These finches are found only in a small range from California through northwestern Mexico. Though migratory, they tend to move east and west instead of north and south. They eat mostly seeds, which they pick from plants while perching, along with some insects. Their cup-shaped nests are constructed from leaves, grass stems, and sometimes lichen. Females do all of the incubation, while males bring them food and both parents feed the chicks. Males’ songs sometimes mimic parts of the songs of other species.

#242

Seeing these felt really special. We saw a bunch of them when we scouted Jameson Lake for the Christmas Count last fall, before the Thomas Fire. Then, when we went in on the rescheduled count day (January 5), there weren’t any. They’re considered “fire followers”, and in a couple of years we’ll hopefully have a lot of them because of the new growth that will appear, but so far this year I hadn’t had any unambiguous sightings of them.

I’d had a few ambiguous hearings, though. On my hike last week up the Franklin Trail I thought I heard them a couple of times, but never saw one. I didn’t feel comfortable listing them based only one what I’d heard; I’ll do that for a bird with which I’m very familiar, but for this bird, and especially for my county year list, I wasn’t willing to list it.

In the past week I thought I heard them a couple more times; once at the Carpinteria Salt Marsh and then again at the Carpinteria Bluffs, but each time I wasn’t able to see the bird.

Guy (our Sedgwick tour leader) to the rescue yet again! He pointed out their calls several times as we did the tour, and toward the end we got great views of a pair of them feeding on a grassy hillside. Such a beautiful bird.

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/172945686935.

inthetags:

reblog this and put the book you’re currently reading in the tags

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/172944609746.

imaginarycircus:

imaginarycircus:

Take the survey. It’s fun.

The survey got over 96k responses and the kids flipped out. I was able to find the results graphed here.

And here’s a link to the local news clip of the kids finding out their survey went viral. They flipped.

https://www.facebook.com/kayjean415/videos/2003234416372613/

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/172944534281.

debunkshy:

Chipping Sparrow,

The Arb, WI, 5-3-17

#241

I know Chipping Sparrows are considered common, but for whatever reason I’ve never become very familiar with them. I think it’s a combination of having always lived places where they’re not especially easy to find, and having been a fairly casual birder when it comes to certain “hard” groups (like sparrows).

No more. One of the things being list-obsessed has given me is new motivation to get out there and find all the species I can. I knew Chipping Sparrows had been seen at Sedgwick recently, so I asked Guy, our trip leader, where they’d seen them. Unfortunately it was in a place we weren’t going to visit during the public tour, so I reconciled myself to not getting them for my list today.

Hah! The universe came through again! (And so did Guy, who actually found the bird in a tree near the end of the tour and pointed it out.)

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/172944189501.

classic-art:

The Cook’s Boy

John Singer Sargent, 1876

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/172942694341.

snailkites:

Solitary Sandpiper sketch

#240

The birding tour at Sedgwick Reserve was great. Clear, calm, and warm (a little too warm, maybe, by the end, but that’s okay), and lots of great birds. The first new one for my county year list was a completely unexpected one, a legitimate rarity, especially inland: my first-ever Solitary Sandpiper.

So cool.

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/172941173395.

jmg-photography:

Purple Martins (Progne subis)

#239

I didn’t stop at Nojoqui Falls County Park this morning to see turkeys; I was mainly there to see Purple Martins. The park is one of the few known breeding locations for them in Santa Barbara County, and they’d been reported from there a few times in eBird lately, so I knew they were back.

I haven’t seen Purple Martins since I was 12 and visiting my grandparents in Florida. They’re super impressive birds: Big, beautiful swallows, basically.

Nojoqui Park was officially closed when I arrived so I parked a ways down the road and walked back. But where were the martins? I circled the park, seeing lots of great birds, but no Purple Martins. Then I realized with a start that I was out of time; it was 7:30 and I needed to get on the road to make the check-in time for the tour at Sedgwick. I was a little disappointed, but I had seen those Wild Turkeys, so I wasn’t too disappointed.

I hustled back to the car, and there, in a big sycamore right above where I’d parked, I found them. Still big, still beautiful. Yeah!

I love seeing birds after I’ve given up. It feels like the universe is rewarding me for being mature enough to stop. “Good little birder. You have successfully controlled the obsession once again. Here you go.”

Thanks, universe!

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/172939612992.

permagrinphoto:

Wild Turkey

#238

I’d made a couple of trips down Alisal Road and Paradise Road over the past month looking for Wild Turkeys; I know they’ve been doing their springtime displays and have been more visible (usually they’re famously shy and hard to find; that whole “getting shot at” thing). Today I was driving up early to take the birding tour at the University of California’s Sedgwick Reserve, but I wasn’t due there until 8 so I stopped off at sunrise at Nojoqui County Park and boom! Three turkeys were in the entrance driveway; two toms looking like this as they tried to impress the one hen.

She did not appear noticeably impressed. I was though! 😀

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/172938303491.

life-imitates-art-far-more:

John Singer Sargent (1856-1925)
“Lady Agnew of Lochna” (1892-1893)
Oil on canvas
Located in the Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland

Andrew Noel Agnew, a barrister who had inherited the baronetcy and estates of Lochnaw in Galloway, commissioned this painting of his young wife, Gertrude Vernon (1865-1932), in 1892. It was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1898 and put Sargent on the map. The sculptor Auguste Rodin described him as ‘the Van Dyck of our times.’ Portrait commissions poured in and Sargent enjoyed something of a cult following in Edwardian society. It also launched Lady Agnew as a society beauty.

The phrase “put Sargent on the map” seems… iffy to me. Sargent was already on the map by 1898. He’d been doing well as a portraitist in England since the exhibition of Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose in 1887, and had been well-known in France for years before that, though admittedly his portrait commissions dried up for a time in the wake of the Madame X scandal in 1884.

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/172934709062.

overdose-art:

John Singer Sargent, Portraits of Three Ladies (details)

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/172926931396.

falseredstart:

The evolution of woodpecker drums

Here’s a big update: my second first-author article was featured as the cover article in PRSB in February! It’s open access, so anyone can read about how sexual selection and body size interact to shape how this magnificent gestural display evolved.

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/172913620321.

Returning from a late night out? When I first saw it walking toward me I was briefly concerned that it might be rabid, since I’ve heard of people encountering uncharacteristically aggressive raccoons that were rabid. But it didn’t seem aggressive or unhealthy; just oblivious to my presence. So I pulled out my phone and took video.

I like the moment where it suddenly became aware of my presence (smelled me, I assume) and sort of did a double-take, then picked up the pace a little. I could imagine it saying to itself “just be cool; keep moving…”

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/172913298941.

the-hardest-of-hearts-survive:

Vincent van Gogh

The Plain of Auvers 

1890

Oil on canvas

Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States 

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/172910041840.

softwaring:

https://www.instagram.com/charlotte_annefidler/

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/172902146711.

mr-flibble-says:

postsfromthemrs:

sosuperawesome:

Moth and Butterfly Fibre Sculptures, by Yumi Okita on Etsy

See our ‘sculpture’ tag

I used to be scared of moths but I’ve seen the error of my ways now. I would like at least one of each please.

@herbertwestapologist

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/172899467711.

Sometimes when I’m birdwatching I see things that aren’t birds.

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/172894812862.