SIGforum.com    Main Page  Hop To Forum Categories  The Lounge    Birds that you like to watch flying?
Page 1 2 3 4 
Go
New
Find
Notify
Tools
Reply
  
Birds that you like to watch flying? Login/Join 
Baroque Bloke
Picture of Pipe Smoker
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by tigereye313:
I love watching pelicans. Both when the glide along the beach and plunging into the water.


Pelicans seem to trudge across the sky, doggedly making their way from point A to point B. They don’t appear to have the joy of flight that seagulls have. But there’s this:

A wonderful bird is the Pelican.
His beak can hold more than his belly can.
He can hold in his beak
Enough food for a week!
But I'll be darned if I know how the hellican?
–Dixon Lanier Merritt

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Pipe Smoker,



Serious about crackers
 
Posts: 8854 | Location: San Diego | Registered: July 26, 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
We get Gannets here in September as they are passing through. They have six foot wing spans, and they dive into the water like a needle. Beautiful.


----------------------------------------------------
Dances with Crabgrass
 
Posts: 2180 | Location: East Virginia | Registered: October 12, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
The Sandhill Cranes, as they fly over in the spring.

 
Posts: 3580 | Location: Texas Hill Country | Registered: July 24, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
half-genius,
half-wit
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:OTOH, starlings are so awkward in flight.


You think?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOGCSBh3kmM
 
Posts: 11305 | Location: UK, OR, ONT | Registered: July 10, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
His diet consists of black
coffee, and sarcasm.
Picture of egregore
posted Hide Post
I don't know what kind of bird, but on several occasions I have had black ones with maybe an 8-10-inch wingspan fly ahead of (~12-15 feet) and slightly above (~5-6 feet) my car when I drive to work in the morning, as if racing it. I paced one at over 25 mph, which is probably like a human running at 100 mph.
 
Posts: 27834 | Location: Johnson City/Elizabethton, TN | Registered: April 28, 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
Over my home here in southern Pennsylvania we see hawks, an occasional eagle, barn swallows, bats and buzzards. Also cardinals, bluebirds, robins and blue jays and humming birds.

The hawks and eagles are kind of royalty, beautiful, purposeful flight. Barn swallows are the smaller fighter planes - having fun, fast and highly maneuverable. They come around when the mower stirs up the bugs in the yard. The buzzards just soar, large lazy circles in the sky.
Bats come out at dusk. As a kid I used to shoot my BB gun at them. In short order I learned I could never hit one, but their radar hears/sees the bb coming and they think it is a bug and they swoop after it. The bb is moving too fast for them and they move too fast for me.
We also have a Barred Owl in the neighborhood. A pair actually. We hear the hoot most, occasionally see one resting in the trees but rarely see them flying. As I understand, their feathers are SO refined that when flying they make almost zero noise.
 
Posts: 2130 | Location: south central Pennsylvania | Registered: November 05, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of maladat
posted Hide Post
My favorite bird to watch fly is the scissortail flycatcher.

Their long split tails make them extremely maneuverable, they perform the most extraordinary aerobatics flying around eating bugs. They look like they're having a hell of a lot of fun.
 
Posts: 6319 | Location: CA | Registered: January 24, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
I found eagles rather boring to watch while flying.

But hunting is another story.
The
Rio Verde River, no. East of Phoenix
Had an Eagle there one spring

I watched him sit on a dead tree limb, on the bank of the river.

He waited and waited, then dropped down on top of a trout ( I think),
He carried it up to the limb, peeled it and had a fine lunch.

That was great fun.
( Through a spotting scope)





Safety, Situational Awareness and proficiency.



Neck Ties, Hats and ammo brass, Never ,ever touch'em w/o asking first
 
Posts: 54500 | Location: Henry County , Il | Registered: February 10, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Bookers Bourbon
and a good cigar
Picture of Johnny 3eagles
posted Hide Post
California Condors at the Grand Canyon.



BIDEN SUCKS.

If you're goin' through hell, keep on going.
Don't slow down. If you're scared don't show it.
You might get out before the devil even knows you're there.


NRA ENDOWMENT LIFE MEMBER
 
Posts: 7120 | Location: Arkansas  | Registered: November 06, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of ridewv
posted Hide Post
Turkey vultures.


No car is as much fun to drive, as any motorcycle is to ride.
 
Posts: 7039 | Location: Northern WV | Registered: January 17, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
when the house wrens are in the bird house , out back.
it's fun to watch them gathering nest stuff and then again , when they have babies , they hunt for insects for the new birds.





Safety, Situational Awareness and proficiency.



Neck Ties, Hats and ammo brass, Never ,ever touch'em w/o asking first
 
Posts: 54500 | Location: Henry County , Il | Registered: February 10, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
No, not like
Bill Clinton
Picture of BigSwede
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Vanwall:
Barn swallows


Same, so graceful and acrobatic



 
Posts: 5301 | Location: GA | Registered: September 23, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Objectively Reasonable
Picture of DennisM
posted Hide Post
I've seen several generations of Peregrine Falcons set up housekeeping across the street from my office. Because we're on the 10th floor and Mr. & Mrs. Peregrine nest in a tower that's only slightly higher, I generally see mom & dad hunting. They strike absolute terror in the city pigeons. Later in the season I get to see "flight school" in session with the young.

Strikingly beautiful animals, whether they're flying or perched.

There've been hours when very little work got done in my office.
 
Posts: 2452 | Registered: January 01, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
The 2nd guarantees the 1st
Picture of fiasconva
posted Hide Post
One of my favorites has to be the common mourning dove. They are fast and super agile. Anyone who has done any dove hunting and has tried to hit them when they are in avoidance mode dodging shots can attest to this and has to admire them.



"Even if the world were perfect it wouldn't be." ... Yogi Berra
 
Posts: 1856 | Location: York County, VA | Registered: August 25, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
hello darkness
my old friend
Picture of gw3971
posted Hide Post
Watching osprey's fish is incredible.
 
Posts: 7721 | Location: West Jordan, Utah | Registered: June 19, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of sourdough44
posted Hide Post
In the yard my favorite is the Tree Swallows. They nest in a few bird houses.
 
Posts: 6130 | Location: WI | Registered: February 29, 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
parati et volentes
Picture of houndawg
posted Hide Post
I can't stand starlings. They are everywhere around here. I love to watch murmurations though.
 
Posts: 8272 | Location: Illinois, Occupied America | Registered: February 23, 2000Reply With QuoteReport This Post
member
Picture of henryaz
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by ridewv:
Turkey vultures.

We have hordes of turkey vultures in our valley. They roost up on Yarnell Hill (about 4800 ft elevation, with the valley below at about 400 ft). They migrate every fall, usually in November, and return at varying times in the Spring, depending on the temps that year. Scouts come first. They come back any time from February to March. We jokingly tell the snowbirds that is their signal to return north. Smile
 
Taking a rest stop in our front yard:
 



When in doubt, mumble
 
Posts: 10778 | Location: South Congress AZ | Registered: May 27, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of UTsig
posted Hide Post
I don't think there's any bird I don't like watching. We have Hummingbirds and quite a few raptors around. At certain times we have simple House Sparrows, really fun to watch fly into bushes, pop out and beeline for the feeder.

For a couple of years we would watch California Condors, they were eventually chased from the area for breaking into cabins!

10 foot wingspan!


________________________________

"Nature scares me" a quote by my friend Bob after a rough day at sea.
 
Posts: 3388 | Location: Utah's Dixie | Registered: January 29, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
I love watching ducks and geese. I have the bug from hunting waterfowl. Nothing gets my blood pumping more then hearing the their wings early in the morning. Even though my kids don’t hunt with me yet they enjoy watching ducks and geese year round as well.
 
Posts: 791 | Location: PA | Registered: June 15, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
  Powered by Social Strata Page 1 2 3 4  
 

SIGforum.com    Main Page  Hop To Forum Categories  The Lounge    Birds that you like to watch flying?

© SIGforum 2024