What is your favoite bird to hear while hiking?

“Woodpeckers have brain rot becuase of how hard they peck on trees!!!!

8)”

“I love to listen to birds...
owls at night are hauntingly beautiful. The mourning dove is cool to wake up to, as is the loon.

On a more chipper note (getit? ;p) I love the busy lil chick-a-dee-dee-dee and regal cardinal, near my window.

In DR, they had night herons, which skeert the heck out of me at night. You'd be walking along the beach and all of a sudden they's emit this loud squawk as they "exploded" out of nowhere. They were very cool to watch though...stalking crabs, like shadows.”

“GS you are right, quail are smaller than Grouse.

Ruffled Grouse are cool when they beat their wings.

This last March one of them started drumming about five feet from us and one of my scouts about jumped out of his skin and came running back down the trail. Man that was funny!

Barred owls are cool to. Treebait can imitate them perfectly and can call them down to her. Well, at least get them very close.

I aboslutely love to watch Ospreys fish.

Turkey Vultures just seem like the three stooges of the bird world.

Awe hell, I just like birds.”

“This one's for RL: My fav is definately the ivory billed woodpecker. =)”

“a big fücking chicken in a frying pan”

“I favor the flushing sound of a grouse, makes me feel like I'm way off the beaten trail.

Grouse explanation: There are several kinds ruffled grouse in the east and I believe a sharptail in the SW. they are about twice the size of a bob-white quail. They taste about the same. Quail covey in groups up to 25 or so where as you would be lucky to find more than two grouse together. you find quail more in agg. areas fields and borders where you mostly find grouse in woods. Grouse are the holy grail of upland game birds and are darn hard to get, very tasty though.”

“Two large trees were having an argument. They both were looking down at a small seedling and claiming it was their offspring.

Finally they asked a woodpecker flying by to go down and see which species was the seedling. So the woodpecker flew down and soon the two mature trees heard a rat-tat-tat.

The woodpecker returned up to the canopy and the two trees asked "Well, is it a son of a birch or a son of a beech?" "Neither", replied the bird. "I haven't had my pecker in a piece of ash like that for a long time!"”

“Here in the Northwoods, I look forward to the drumming of ruffed grouse in the spring forest, and then the yodels of the loon, especially on a misty dawn at a lakeside campsite. That is the absolute perfect alarm clock in the wilderness.

Along with having grouse pop up underfoot, a good heart-stopper is having a woodcock launch. They go straight up like a little helicopter, with a whirrrrrrrr. Absolutely impossible to see on the forest floor before hand.”

“Cool, thanks for the info mtnman.”

“Ya I would have to say that all birds are very cool!!!!!

8)”

“Grouse flushing and stepping on a big black snake are guaranteed to stop my heart for a second or two.”

“Another bird that is pretty cool to hear is the Broad-tailed Hummingbird. Instead of a call, the sound is a loud whirring created by their wings. Most hummers make a similar sound, but Broad-tails are really loud in comparison.”

“I flushed a female grouse with her chicks last spring. She really had my attention when she didn't fly off very far. That's when I started looking for the chicks. I still almost stepped on one = : 0 They were adorable. The one I flushed yesterday startled me but not nearly as much as the deer that decided I was an object of curiosity.

I had stopped for a snack. There I stood, sipping water and munching peanuts and enjoying the weather and surroundings. I never heard it. The instant I took a step however, it took off running and screaming from nearly next to me. I almost had to go home and change my clothes. After that, the flushed grouse was just interesting.”

“Bird info:


http://www.mbr.nbs.gov/id/framlst/infocenter.html”

“1. Red Tail

2. Loon at night

3. SCREECH Owl . . . night hiking. Holy Mackerel . . .it is one spooky sound!”

“Ya the screech owl is cool!

8)”

“i would have to say i like the winter wren the most. my second choice would be mountain quail just cause theyre so funny to watch”

“Meadowlark. Simple. Pretty.”

“Just like you, newgirl.”

“How nice!!!!

8)”

“Don't steal my joke”

“Oh Gee, Bacpac, you are too sweet.”

“biz, I still wanna hear that double breasted back slapper you were talking about.”

“I sure havent seen any bed thrashers with condoms lately.. where was this? jersey shore?

perhaps she meant a different species?”

“I like Mocking birds. You get to hear a sample of lots of different birds. It gets old hearing the same chirp over & over & over again.
We got a mocking bird hear at the house and he sits on top of the chimney and sings away. The sound echos though the chimney and so it's heard very well inside the house. I'm listening to him now.”

“Hey WD Mocking birds are cool!I like how they just keep going back en forth!

Over and over and over!!!!

Its cool!

8)”

“Walkindude, too true! Mockingbirds are cool. We used to have one on the farm that would imitate the phone ringing, amongst other things. The clever little guy mysteriously disappeared after he started mimicking my landlord's alarm clock though. hmmmm....

BTW - I have a bird questions for any aficianoados! I have a large, solid black, but with that iridescent sheen, bird that has been handing out by my feeder lately. It is obvious that he is not "supposed" to be a feeder bird, since he has a long tail and long beak (indicating to me that he is an eater of bugs, caterpillars, etc. In order for him to get at the food, he has to perch sideways - almost upside down really, and he isn't very leary of me getting close to him.

I am wondering is he is an escapee from somewhere, rather than a local. Anybody help me out with a possible name? He also has these really cool eyes - a reddish gold. Very distinct looking!”

“I'd have to say that if I were to pick one favorite it would be a mockingbird. Walkindude, having a mockingbird piped into your livingroom must be very cool indeed.

AmyG, what color are it's feet and beak? About how long is it (in inches, please)? Does it have any speckles or discolored feathers anywhere?”

“Sounds like a grackle to me. Was it about the size of a blue jay but not as burly?”

“... on the grackle ID. We have some coming to our feeders right now, often in the company of other varieties of blackbirds. Plus they are nesting in our tall pines. Very noisy at times, too, but they usually fade from the scene by early summer. Where they go, I don't know. Crows and jays will often come around to raid their nests, then it gets really noisy.”

“ok here is my vote : veery

Veery”

“It is a grackle! Thank you thank you thank you! I looked it up and the pic matches. :)

He's a cool dude - I like watching him. Why the sudden appearance though? strange. I'll have to read up on 'em.”

“Meadowlark”

“We heard a grouse this weekend.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/22594879/22599660ocvcoyaVbW">Ptarmigans are neat”

“wood peckers”

“I keep reading the name of this thread as "What is your favorite bird to WEAR while hiking?", and so I keep wondering who would wear a bird while hiking....”

“umm ... those "birds" were discussed on a different thread :}”