After a while I came to a conclusion: I think all these passions that manifest in stages of our lives are in parallel with age and opportunity.

I wonder what will be next?

Northern Cardinal (M)

Northern Mockingbird

House Finch (F)

Brown-headed Cowbird (M)

All photographs are © H.J. Ruiz – Avian 101

I still think that when we see the birds eye to eye, something changes within our minds, the fact that they’re not just pretty colored creatures that adorn our gardens. In fact they are species of real breathing animals and we should care for them as much as we care for our dogs and cats.

“In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.”- Aristotle

Bald Eagle

Chestnut-mandibled Toucan

Ostrich

White Stork

 All photographs are © H.J. Ruiz – Avian 101

 A Photographic Guide by Steve N.G. Howell

“For some people, even if they are involved to the hobby of birding or bird-photography_ the title of this guide might not sound  very impressive just being only three kinds of birds which are not entirely well known, you might think it wouldn’t amount to much ado, however, you’d be surprised about how misinformed you’ve been about this:

From the 140 known tubenoses species in the world, 50% of them occur in North America.

Mr. Howell has compiled the most informative guide in both text and visual form into a book, 483 pages of detailed and intelligent descriptions, Geographic variations, field identifications, scientific data, comparisons, Conservation, Migrations, Oceanic currents maps, strategies of migrations, habitats and behavior. And the list would be too long to mention in a paragraph. The photographic plates are impeccable and they visually self describe the intended textual description or observation made by the author. This is a guide well structured as much as well written. It had all my attention and educated me about those magnificent birds of the sea. This guide will be happily added to my Book Library!”

Review made by: H.J. Ruiz – Avian 101 – January 26, 2012

Since the weather has improved some and got slightly warmer I’ve seen a lot of birds flying in my backyard, birds such as:

• C. Crows
• N. Mockingbirds
• H. Finches
• C. Chickadees
• M. Doves
• F. Sparrows
• N. Cardinals

Then I placed  bird seeds  in clay dishes on my deck table and I had the opportunity to shoot some pictures from inside my kitchen, through the glass door. I felt good to use my camera again.

Here I’m posting some of them.

Field Sparrows

House Finch and F. Sparrow

All photographs are © H.J. Ruiz – Avian 101

It appears that a storm and associated cloud cover was a key factor in causing the birds’ confusion, as well as a glistening parking lot surface that may have looked like a water body in conditions of poor visibility.

Eared Grebe © Alan Wilson

According to American Bird Conservancy (ABC), the nation’s leading bird conservation organization, several traits of this bird likely played a role in this incident. Grebes are only able to land and take off from water so a shimmering parking lot on a stormy night may have looked like a natural landing area. The Eared Grebe carries out the latest fall migration of any bird species in North America, putting it in this storm at a time when other migrating birds likely have already arrived South. The Eared Grebe only migrates at night, which increases the risk of the bird getting confused by city lighting and cloud cover.

“Night-flying birds use dim light from the moon and stars and the earth’s magnetic field for navigation. Adverse conditions on Monday night may have caused the same kind of disorientation that can afflict pilots in fog – the birds may have flown directly into the ground, not realizing they were descending. Urban lights attract and confuse birds, so when you bring the storm into play, I think this is a serious possibility,” said Dr. Christine Sheppard, Bird Collision Program Director for ABC.

“However, we will probably never know for sure exactly what happened, so it may be very hard to know if it is something that can be mitigated. Large kills of night-migrating birds are unfortunately not unusual, and are generally related to man-made light sources—from spotlights to cell phone towers. Even light from office windows, street lights, and decorative lighting can attract birds to land in cities, where they are at high risk of colliding with glass on buildings as they try to feed the next day. Reducing unnecessary lighting can reduce this type of mortality, but in the case of the grebes, we simply don’t know if they took tarmac for a body of water or lost orientation,” Sheppard said.

Eared Grebes are the most abundant grebe in the world. They breed in shallow wetlands in western North America. The Eared Grebe occurs in greatest numbers on Mono Lake and the Great Salt Lake in fall, where it doubles its weight in preparation for a nonstop flight to its wintering grounds in the southwestern United States and Mexico. It is a small waterbird – about 9-12 inches long – with a wingspan of about 23 inches. The bird’s diet consists of mostly aquatic insects and crustaceans, occasionally tadpoles, small frogs, and small fish.

American Bird Conservancy (ABC) is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit membership organization whose mission is to conserve native birds and their habitats throughout the Americas.

Gray and dark days, some morning are as dark as night. You can see the school buses picking up kids in the dark.

North Alabama got the worst part of this chain of storms and high winds. Also hit in lesser intensity the North west part of Georgia. Where we live. Luckily we didn’t get any tornados.

Snowy Egret

Tricolored Heron

Willet

Brown Pelican

 All photographs are © H.J. Ruiz – Avian 101

Common Grackle - Canon 20D - f/ 8.0 - 1/ 500 - ISO 800

Chipping Sparrow - Canon 20D - f/ 8.0 - 1/ 250 - ISO 800

White-throated Sparrow - Canon 20D - f/ 5.6 - 1/ 500 - ISO 640

Green Heron - Canon 60D - f/ 8.0 - 1/ 400 - ISO 125

All photographs are © H.J. Ruiz – Avian 101

Green Heron - Canon 60D - f/ 8.0 - 1/640 - ISO 125

Ring-billed Gull - Canon 60D - f/ 8.0 - 1/ 640 - ISO 125

Snowy Egret - Canon 60D - f/ 8.0 - 1/ 125 - ISO 125

All photographs are © H.J. Ruiz – Avian 101