These links show your State's expected time of arrival of migrating birds...

[fadedrose]

Last edited Wed May 7, 2014, 09:47 AM - Edit history (1)

http://www.birdnature.com/timetable.html



http://www.learner.org/jnorth/maps/Maps.html

[Hula Popper]

1. Hello

while Minnesota is not included in that expected timetable, the pelicans are back on the Mississippi
River . I was surprised because there is still 60% ice in the area. Sadly the cormorants were traveling with them.
Nothing like watching pelicans land or soar!

[Paladin]

2. We just saw our first painted bunting in our central Texas back yard.

He made it all the way back from central America. Pretty impressive journey---and extremely pretty, as well.

[NM_Birder]

3. beginning birder here.......

my girlfriend is a birding fanatic, which pretty much has ended my bird hunting days. We drove to rattle snake springs outside Carlsbad nm, saw a painted bunting, and photographed a yellow billed cuckoo.

[Paladin]

4. Beautiful, aren't they?

We're always excited to see our first buntings of the season, considering they migrate all the way to Central America and back.....

[NM_Birder]

5. quite a sight

Still very green to the birding thing, but she has shown me a hell of a lot of birds and varieties I never knew were here. She has me convinced to go with her to Harlingen Texas in November for what sounds like a human migration.

[Paladin]

6. I imagine you've got a female bunting around your place.

Have you spotted her? They look like sparrows at first sight, but they're a beautiful olive green---great camouflage.....

[NM_Birder]

7. I'm virtually useless birding without my girlfriend,

I was able to kinda see the bold colors of the painted bunting, the stark color contrast helped me out. I have a fair amount of color blindness. I can zero in on movement is a split second, but knowing what color a bird is tough for me. Unless there is a pattern in the colors it's real tough for me to tell one little bird from another.

I have to admit that "I see it,...what is it" is the most often expression I use. She is doing her best to replace my bird hunting with bird watching. I can tell any drake/hen waterfowl that comes thru the Rio Grande Valley with just a glance because of the unique patterns, but the little tweeters are damn hard.

[Paladin]

8. I need help with my aged eyes.

I rely on some 10X Nikon binocs for help. And Stan Tekiela's "Birds of Texas" paperback is very helpful, as well.

[NM_Birder]

9. I'm diggin the whole birding thing,

She will never hunt with me, period, it's never even discussed.....I just "go places" with my friends, but oddly enough bird watching has a little taste of "the hunt".

There is an extreme anticipation when she is on the prowl for a specific bird, environmentals play just as significant a role in success, and aside from some obvious differences between birding and hunting, the excitement and end of the day conversations are remarkably similar.

Although I do feel more like a "birding Sherpa" more than a partner now and then. I carry the pack, along with the tripod/scope and am the official "go get the truck and meet us over the next hill" guy

[Paladin]

10. The only birds I'm tempted to hunt are the white-wing doves in the back yard.

They fly in by the dozens, and the greedy bastards really enjoy stuffing themselves on the expensive seed we set out. Ah, well---they wouldn't be there if I weren't providing the feed. I can't believe how far and wide the white wings have spread in so relatively short a time; you see them all the way up in Colorado, now. I recall a time when their range didn't extend beyond the Mexican border---"white-wing season" was quite a busy time, down in your Rio Grande valley region.

(Just for the record, the doves in my back yard are safe from any hunting efforts---I don't think my neighbors in the subdivision would appreciate my wielding a shotgun about.)

[NM_Birder]

11. Amen on the white wings !

New Mexico white wings were rare, extremely rare to the point of unheard of when I was growing up. only had big fat healthy Mourning Dove, the size of pigeons, and A LOT of them. I've got lifelong friends that grow pinto beans, and alfalfa in Eastern NM where me and my friends "go", it's impossible not to notice the extreme decrease in mourning dove population, as well as the size, most all of them are immature, or mature feathers but just not very big.

LOL, I hear you on the bird seed marauders. She has our backyard dedicated to attracting specific birds, and they all need specific bird seed, in specific feeders. I'm glad we don't have kids, because honestly I'm not sure who would get the bird seed food budget. I sit out on the deck and watch 20 dollar bills of bird seed flay away constantly, there is never enough.

[Paladin]

12. My most intriguing bird seed robbers?

A pair of gray foxes, a male and female, the female is obviously nursing. Beautiful animals, we love watching them. Who knew that foxes were such fans of hulled sunflower seed? I guess a free meal is a free meal.....

[fadedrose]

13. K