Thursday, November 27, 2014

Different Kinds of Birding



If you are the kind of person who thinks that birding is sitting in the same place for hours looking for birds, you are only partly right.  You can also drive or walk and just see what you can find. That's what I like to do. Once when I was driving past a cornfield, I saw a Dickcissel siting on a wire.  Here he is:
  Over the summer I went to Tahiti and saw some birds. The birds that I did see were AWESOME Black Nodes, terns, Chestnut-breasted Mannikin, and the Common Myna bird. At least that is all that I saw, but my family went for more of a snorkeling trip, not a birding trip. The trip was great and here are some fish that we saw:
                                               Threadfin Butterfly fish
                                                   Raccoon Butterfly fish
                                             ?????????????????????
                                              Some species of Grouper
                                             Spotted Boxfish
                                                  ?????????????????
                                                 Bungalows
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 That is all that I had time to photograph, but we saw a lot more. One of my favorite things about  Tahiti was that there were crabs everywhere!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Here are some cool bird pictures.
I hope you like them.



                                   Greater-white fronted Goose

                                   Morning Dove

                                       Barn Swallow 

American Kestrel
 
                                       Tufted Titmouse

                                             Baltimore Oriole at feeder

                                                 Downy Woodpecker

                                 
                                       Northern Cardinal
                                  Song Sparrow

                                     Black-capped Chickadee

Downy Woodpeacker
 
                                          Baltimore Oriole Video

                                                  Mallard

                                      White Throated Sparrow

                                    Flock of Geese

                                        European Starling

                                   Please post a comment if you know what kind of bird this is.

                                             Baby Robins

                                                Baltimore Oriole nest
                                                  Red Bellied Woodpecker

                                   Canada Goose flying
 
Baltimore Oriole eating
 
 
 
 
 

Thursday, November 6, 2014

I went to Yellowstone and saw a lot of cool animals...especially BIRDS.
On the travel day, our flight was cancelled and we could not make our connecting flight to Billings, Montana. The flight was boring and we got in late at night. The first place we stayed was Old faithful lodge and I saw Violet Green Tree Swallows and of course, Old Faithful. Another cool thing is that wherever you look, you see Buffalo,  Elk,  Mountain Blue Birds and the occasional bear.

 
 On the second day, we went to the boiling mud pots. They are so fun to photograph.
 

 
 The next day my family and I went out to see some Geysers and we saw a flock of Mountain Chickadees. SO CUTE!
 I don't really remember what happened after that except that when we had a picnic, there was a Common Raven hanging around our table.
The next day, we went to see the Morning Glory Pool and Riverside Geyser. They were awesome except for the fact that people throw garbage in the Morning Glory Pool and each year rangers have to suck all that out. On the way back we saw a pair of Lesser Scaups.
 
 
The next day, my family and I went on (in my opinion) the best way to see wildlife in Yellowstone: Just getting in the car and driving and seeing what you see. And this is what we saw... a beaver.
 
 
The next day,  my dad and I went on a hike to Beaver Pond and we spotted a Western Tanager and a Clark's Nutcracker.We did not see a single beaver, but we did see a muskrat.
 
 
 
  The next place we saw was Mammoth hot springs. The cool thing about  Mammoth hot springs is that the Black Billed Magpie are very abundant.  
The next day was a travel day. During the trip we moved around a lot so we could see the whole park.
And doing so, we saw a moose, a petrified tree, a black bear, and some Big Horn Sheep.
 

 
When we got to the hotel, my dad and I left to see what we could see.  This is the part where I almost fainted.  My dad told me to check the distance of a hike on the guide sign and I saw a Black Bear looking for food.  He was only 30 feet away!  I rushed back to the car and said, " I just saw a bear". So we went to see if we could see it and on our way, we flushed out a Wilson's Snipe. When we came out of the forest, we saw a flock of Grey Jays. I was too startled to take pictures.

So the last day in the park my dad and I went to Yellowstone's Grand Canyon and we saw an Osprey in its nest. It was awesome.




 The trip was over and it was time for the long, boring trip back. The trip was amazing and I recommend going. If you like nature, you'll love Yellowstone. Thank you for reading. Here are some additional pictures that I think you'll like:



                                  Scat

  
                                                  Elk


                                                Pine Tree


    Little Island


                                Grizzly Bear

 
                                      Cool Picture


                                    Mountain Chickadee Nest


                          Park Entrance (one of several)


    Entrance Sign


    Baby Buffalo


   Pronghorn


 Buffalo Herd



    Prairie Dog


    Buffalo Scat


   
 

                             Geyser (I don't remember the name)