Let's start anew for May shall we? Moving forwards from The thread "Bird Photos - April 2018" in Gardening for Butterflies, Birds and Bees forum

I'll start with a solo photo from today of female King Parrot. More to follow...

This turkey vulture made the loudest thump landing on my roof, it was really funny. I guess grace is not one of its charms. I see them in the neighborhood a lot keeping the streets clean.

I'm not sure I'd like a vulture on my roof!

Love that parrot, Carole! They look so intelligent, don't they?

@honeyx4 I can imagine it might make a thump! Interesting bird to observe.

@cliftoncat the pair of King Parrots have a good food source here for the moment so it was nice to have something to aim my camera at today.

Here's another

So exotic - both parrots and vultures! I envy you both!

As I mentioned in my last post, I did spend a bit of Sunday in the Lehigh Parkway, without seeing much in the way of waterfowl (three mallards!). Actually, a Mallard pair quickly emerged from the stream and did some posing near me:


The hen then crossed the bridal path: , continued through another grass strip, across the road and up the adjoining embankment:
The drake intently watcher her for a bit, and then went back to the stream:

Our hen continued up the hillside until perching on a downed tree trunk:

At first, I thought that maybe she was heading for or looking for a nesting site. However, despite occasional calls from the drake she remained anchored o the tree trunk for over a half hour, with only the occasional stretch:


She finally wore out my patience, so I threw in the towel headed for the nursery without the hoped for flight image.

How funny about the vulture, Honey! Vultures do great work keeping things clean!

Black vulture (not a turkey vulture) at work ~

I believe you meant to say Black Vulture Christine. Honey has the Turkey Vulture. Blacks have a black face & Turkey's have a red face.
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/...
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/...

We've had Vultures land on our roof before & yep, they sure do make a heck of a thump. We especially freaked out when they landed on our new metal roof (in a different house). All we could think about was those claws scratching the protective finish on the metal.

Thanks for the new thread Carole! Those parrots are so colorful.

Nice Mallard shots Robert. Can't blame you for hitting the road. You can only hang out just so long waiting and waiting.......

Hawklets!!! - in Eastern Oregon. (dirtdorphins and I attended the clinic (and festivities) described in this thread:
The thread "Kevin Vaughn Hybridizing Clinic April 27-29, 2018" in Sempervivum forum
what a great trip!!)

Yaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy! Babies! And gosh, I see 3 of them.

Awesome photos!! I love how parrots eat with their "hands" lol. I always watch the turkey vultures fly effortlessly on the currents. We got to see ducks and hawks, and baby hawks!! Way better than the zoo!!!
😀

Mindi

@wildflowers Christine, great photos of the Vulture; they sure do look like they'd make a good clean-up.

@flaflwrgrl Ann good to have us all moved on. I might make it to the new month a little sooner than many of you so I was sure I didn't jump in too soon

@evermorelawnless Asa loving the hawklets; what a great shot; you got lucky!

Just a thought for all of us.

Might it be worthwhile, next month, at the beginning of June, rather than to make a new shift to a new month...

That we make an ongoing thread for the year; Bird Photos - 2018. Would it really matter that we make that change into the middle of the year? I don't really think so.

Just a once-a-year bird forum inside of Gardening for Butterflies, Birds and Bees still.

Feedback welcomed; this is the spot for all to come to and enjoy birds of the world; by us.

the male King Parrot was out on a limb (until it realized I was there with my camera a moment too long). Just in the past twenty minutes this was happening; my Wednesday a.m. now.

Got these three photos before it moved further away inside the tree.

been digging a new sprinkler syst. for the back yard. the cardinals must have babys, cause the y have been coming by every 10 min to carry food.








then one of those incarserated wood peckers came by. haven't seen one for a spell




poor guy or gal had an obvious bad hair day.





and a hawk showed up . he was pretty close











life is good

Awesome Hawk shots Johnny!

Carole, lovely shots of the King Parrot.

As to the new thread every month. I'm sort of divided. I think a year would be intimidating to new people plus a year can get into a pretty long thread. I think it was originally done monthly to make it easy for people to reference -- what birds are where in what month type of thing plus it keeps the individual thread much shorter & as was already mentioned -- the intimidation factor.
I would like to propose splitting the difference. How about change threads with the seasons? Spring, summer, fall, & winter. It doesn't have to be on the exact day that season begins either; just close enough will do. I would be very happy with that set up.

OK, I put in my 2 cents, now it's everyone else's turn.


And I'm going to remind everyone that in 4 days is the Global Big Day Bird Count
https://ebird.org/news/global-...

@carolem, great pics of the King Parrots.

It took me a bit to tell the difference....red headed male, green headed female.
How close were you to them when you took the pictures? Right in your yard?

@cliftoncat,

So exotic - both parrots and vultures! I envy you both!

That pheasant of yours is no slouch.......quite impressive.

flaflwrgrl said:

As to the new thread every month. I'm sort of divided. I think a year would be intimidating to new people plus a year can get into a pretty long thread. I think it was originally done monthly to make it easy for people to reference -- what birds are where in what month type of thing plus it keeps the individual thread much shorter & as was already mentioned -- the intimidation factor.

Thanks Ann; I considered this the reason, and it stands to reason too.

A few from today. I should have been out working in the flower beds, but I decided to do some bird watching instead!
A friendly little hawk scaring off all of my song birds!

If my vote counts, I'd vote monthly or quarterly rather than annually. Gets to be so unwieldy . When it comes to data (and pictures are data), my general rule is "the more specific, the better". Especially when it comes to finding things again.