Bird is the Word...Rockhopper penguin update.

Quick photo of the recent Rockhopper chick from today:

Now at adult size, the main difference is in the plumage. Notice the yellow crest feathers are missing on the head? These distinctive feathers will grow in during the bird's next molt, giving it the adult look. Click here to see how much it has grown!

Enjoy!

Bird is the Word... King penguin update.

This big boy or girl has now been taking supervised field trips to the exhibit to hang out with the other Kings. Still a youngster, but growing up so fast. Click HERE to see how quickly he/she did grow. Amazing animals!

Bird is the Word...King Penguin.

Here is what I have been working with lately, it is amazing how quickly they grow...

Hatching.

Day one.

Getting bigger.

Bigger still.

That pretty much sums this little guy/gal up. I plan on getting a few new pictures next week. Even bigger still, this morning it weighed around 11.6kg. Amazing, amazing creatures.

Emperor penguin chick!

Congratulations to the bird crew at Sea World San Diego on the 21st hatching of an Emperor Penguin! This is the first emperor chick for them in around 8 years!

Sea World San Diego is one of only two institutions in the world to display these amazing animals, alongside 4 other species of penguin in their state of the art Penguin Encounter. Emperors (Aptenodytes forsteri) are the largest species of penguin on the planet, standing as tall as three and a half feet, and weighing as much as ninety pounds.

Normally, things like this would not get me all that excited. But this case for me is a little different. I used to work for Sea World, and am lucky enough to know how much these people in the Aviculture Department care for these birds. It is such a great thing to see good people succeed! Great job! Hopefully I can get back to San Diego before this little guy/girl gets much older! Sea World

Photos from Project Puffin...

Just realized that I have not added any photos from my time in Maine....

Matinicus Rock


Atlantic Puffin


Razorbill


Razorbill chick


One of many amazing sunsets


Such an amazing trip, hope to go back someday!

Backyard birdwatching...

So a couple days ago I finally put up a couple bird feeders in my backyard. For some reason, this has taken me quite a while, with all of the joys of home owning. It seems like every time I would go to buy one, I would get sidetracked and buy something that the house really "needed." Well, as a bird geek, this was a necessity.

After a trip to Lowes, I came home with my new feeders, and a huge bag of Black Oil sunflower seeds, and searched around for the perfect location. I ended up settling on hanging these up on the back corner of my garage, which is conveniently right outside our dining room window. This location also gave me a few other vantage points in different rooms in the house. It is always good to have options and different angles when trying to identify birds. So with the feeders in place, now all I could do was wait and see if anything would show up.

The next day, to my surprise, quite a few birds were hanging out at the new feeders. I definitely did not expect any birds to show up on the first day of being there. The first bird to show up was a single Tufted Titmouse, which was there and gone so quickly that my daughter did not even see it. I thought that would be it for the day. I was completely wrong. As the day progressed, 11 different species decided to show up. They were:

-European Starling
-House Finch
-House Sparrow
-Carolina Chickadee
-Tufted Titmouse
-Red Bellied Woodpecker
-Downy Woodpecker
-Blue Jay
-Carolina Wren
-Northern Cardinal
-Pileated Woodpecker

The Pileated Woodpecker was quite the shocker. It flew in at one point in the evening, while my daughter and I were watching, and I yelled in excitement, which startled the bird away. One of my favorite birds, and I did not expect it to show up in my back yard!

I'm not sure why it took me so long to hang up a couple bird feeders, but I am very glad that I did. This is a very easy way for me to get back into birdwatching, with very little difficulty. It is also a great way to share the joy of birdwatching with my daughter, which hopefully she will be out in the woods with me once the weather gets warmer. I would suggest anyone somewhat interested in birds to hang up a bird feeder just to see what shows up in your own backyard!

Random encounter...

For a recent bird story, at work just yesterday, got to observe a Cooper's Hawk fly off holding what looked to be a sparrow in its talons. Very cool sight. It flew out from under a bush, and then perched in a nearby Oak tree. Random encounter, but made me want to get out and bird watch some more!