Friday Night Photos Feathered Friends Edition

Happy Friday everyone. Post whatever you got.

The San Diego Zoo has 5 walk-through aviaries. These photos were all taken in the Africa Rocks aviary where all the birds are from, you guessed it, Africa.

White-fronted Bee-eater
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Southern Carmine Bee-eater
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Exclamatory Paradise Whydah
_DSC9731_18578.1

White-fronted Bee-eater
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janis b's picture

Thank you for treating us to such brilliantly coloured and detailed residents. You are lucky to have the SD Zoo nearby.

I will post some photos if the power lasts. It's been very stormy, lots of rain and gales, and the power has been going on and off for the last hour or so.

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Socialprogressive's picture

@janis b
Hope you're able to maintain power. No storms here. Just the opposite. Temps in the mid 80s along the coast and mid 90s inland where I'm at.

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I'm great at multi-tasking. I can waste time, be unproductive, and procrastinate all at the same time.

janis b's picture

@Socialprogressive

The dramatic changes here are disbelief inducing. They might be quite valid reflections of the times.

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janis b's picture

Does anyone know this fruit? The exterior look of it disguises a very delectable creamy white interior * (answer below).

Broad Bean/Fava Bean

* "Mark Twain called the cherimoya "the most delicious fruit known to men". The creamy texture of the flesh gives the fruit its secondary name, the custard apple.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherimoya

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QMS's picture

@janis b

sounds a lot like my brain

The creamy texture of the flesh gives the fruit its secondary name

the custard apple

thanks Janis B and Socialprogressive for keeping this alive!

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janis b's picture

@QMS

for all that you do to support community. And thanks for sharing the matter of your creative brain.

[video:https://youtu.be/E_gZb__3rfc]

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QMS's picture

@janis b

why can't I?

brain matters

28417.jpg
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7 users have voted.
janis b's picture

@QMS

At least you get to fly over the waters. All I ever get is seasick ; )

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orlbucfan's picture

@QMS Great LP selection. Smile I have it on import vinyl. "Marrying Maiden" is also a very good album by the group. Saw them in concert lightyears ago. Rec'd!!

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Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.

Socialprogressive's picture

@janis b
I remember eating raw beans off the vine from a neighbors garden when I was a kid. I don't know what type of beans they were, but they were good.

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I'm great at multi-tasking. I can waste time, be unproductive, and procrastinate all at the same time.

janis b's picture

@Socialprogressive

I don't have a recollection of enjoying them in childhood, but somehow they are innately mouth-watering to me.

The beans pictured are perfectly enjoyed by minimal cooking. Pouring boiled water over them does the trick.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@janis b

but I don't recall it looking anything like that. Thanks for the pics.

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

janis b's picture

@enhydra lutris

You be well and good also.

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dystopian's picture

@janis b Great pics Janis! I had heard of the custard apple, never seen one, would really like to taste one. Neat photo of it! I thought it was a shroom at first glance.

be well!

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

janis b's picture

@dystopian

now that you mention it.

Maybe one day in the future taste and fragrance will be delivered over the tubes. If I'm still around at the time I'll send you the essence of this fruit.

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2 users have voted.

@janis b The Cherimoya is in the same family as our (north american) PawPaw tree. Another custard apple. The PawPaw is available at my favorite nursery in Oregon (PawPaw description at link). Might need to plant a pawpaw patch..

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janis b's picture

@peachcreek

Why not?

I had no idea that the cherimoya was related to the pawpaw, which is related to papaya. It all makes more sense now. Thank you.

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QMS's picture

our flying friends are starting to come back now
getting time to fill the feeders, left empty for the summer
except for the hummers, but they too have gone now

this from last winter, which is starting to knock on the door again ..

IMG_2570.JPG

ain't no bird, no how, no way
almost crazy in fact
sounding like a skipping record
some things just can't get enough of ..

[video:https://youtu.be/NwgEELSShrU]

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Socialprogressive's picture

@QMS
Cool snowman.
My feeders get birds all year round. Right now I'm getting a lot of White-crowned Sparrows.

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I'm great at multi-tasking. I can waste time, be unproductive, and procrastinate all at the same time.

QMS's picture

@Socialprogressive

under the roof overhangs in my shop
I usually get up before dawn
so when I go out, I tend to wake them up
hear the scratching about and wish them
a good morning
think they may be house sparrows?
call them hangover sparrows (sometimes)

305874101-720px.jpg
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dystopian's picture

@QMS Yeah man you got it QMS! That is a female House Sparrow. Formerly known as English Sparrow in field guides from before the 80's. Here is a male as if you don't know.

HouseSparrow070519a.jpg

I am fairly adamant about non-natives being problems, and certainly House Sparrow and Eurasian Starling are much of why. I have watched House Sparrows evict Eastern Bluebirds and Purple Martins from their nest boxes. Both are larger, but neither is as aggressive. As a non-native species this does not sit well with me. Certainly Bluebirds were in a major hurt from it and the Bluebird Society and their nest box programs broke the cycle and stopped the collapse anywhere there were House Sparrows. Of course in many city urban areas they are not doing such things, and for many one of the few bird contacts they might have besides Pigeons - also non-native. I am amazed at how different the country rural House Sparrows are out here in the middle of nowhere versus the city sparrows. Completely different animal behaviorally. But they still look the same.

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5 users have voted.

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

QMS's picture

@Socialprogressive

but that was as far as I got
before my fingers froze up

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enhydra lutris's picture

when I was a kid. This is the only African bird I've got a decent picture of loaded in Flickr - a Pale Chanting Goshawk:

pale chanting goshawk

Not a bee eater, but a bug eater, and local

swallow3

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Socialprogressive's picture

@enhydra lutris
Nice pics. Your local bird looks like it might be a Starling.

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I'm great at multi-tasking. I can waste time, be unproductive, and procrastinate all at the same time.

enhydra lutris's picture

@Socialprogressive

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

dystopian's picture

@enhydra lutris @enhydra lutris I love yer Pale Chanting Gos pic EL! I have admired that bird in my E. Africa field Guide... what a beauty! The Barn Swallow is nice too. Here is another one:
It would pick off the green seed head of crab grass, and mud it up for gluing into the nest.
barnSw050320a-crop.jpg

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5 users have voted.

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

QMS's picture

what a concept ..

today with the gusting winds, it was snowing leaves from the trees
in a blizzard fashion
thinking of things to come
leaves are easier to rake
than snow is to shovel Wink

abalone-shells.jpg
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Bollox Ref's picture

Don't have many feathered friends, so this will have to do.

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

Socialprogressive's picture

@Bollox Ref
The B&W adds a nice touch.

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I'm great at multi-tasking. I can waste time, be unproductive, and procrastinate all at the same time.

janis b's picture

@Bollox Ref

What a beautiful bird bath and photo.

I have a complementary bird bath that I will photograph when the weather settles, and we can share hemispheres from a distance.

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QMS's picture

looks to be well watered

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dystopian's picture

Great pics SP! Outstanding images! Did you use fill flash on the second White-fronted Bee-eater photo? It appears there are two 'suns' in the eye. That Carmine Bee-eater is fancy in the field guide. Don't think I have even zoo-seen one of them. Amazing color they are. From images it seems like different light, or perhaps times of year, they can vary in how the intensity of red appears. The Wydahs are nest-parasites, like our Cowbirds. They lay eggs in the nest of other species, mostly weaver-finches I think. Some in socal think the escaped Wydahs may be parasitizing Red Bishops, which are also non-native escapes there now breeding.

Thanks for hosting, love that song ...

Hope all are well!

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3 users have voted.

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

dystopian's picture

Like the Stones song said... I am outta time so just a quickie. BTW, heard my first cranes of the fall yesterday and today, southbound too high up to spot/see. Sandhill here.

If I could have seen them, would have looked something like this. Cranes fly with their necks fully outstretched straight. Herons and Egrets coil theirs back in a loop in flight, except just after takeoff or on landing.
cranes022520b_0.jpg

American Goldfinch in summer/breeding plumage. They will be back here soon with the drab olive upperparts of winter/non-breeding plumage.
amgo042521a.jpg

This is a first spring male Blue Grosbeak. The blue feathers are adult type, the dull ones are the worn feathers of its first winter plumaged not yet replaced in spring. So the females know its a male, but not a full adult. Many smaller songbirds take two years to acquire the full (definitive) adult plumage.
blgro1stYr050920b_0.jpg

Hope all are well!

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5 users have voted.

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

janis b's picture

@dystopian

the grosbeak sports.

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Socialprogressive's picture

@dystopian
Nice shots of the Goldfinch and Grosbeak. As common as the Goldfinch is I never see them here. Rather disappointing. Did you get another camera yet?

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I'm great at multi-tasking. I can waste time, be unproductive, and procrastinate all at the same time.

dystopian's picture

@Socialprogressive Negative on a replacement camera. It is going to take a few to several weeks is my guess, at least. Sept. and Oct. are always the slowest worst months for our biz, so too squeaky right now to pull the trigger on one. Will probably do another cheapie just to get by like I had. For me I just need something to document finds. Birds and insects mostly, you have to have pix to claim a record if anything rare.

For goldfinches try walking riparian areas, along streams or drainages with willows and sycamores. Most love Sycamores. You have Lesser and American there, and more inland the coast ranges to desert side of them, you should get some Lawrence's, which is the prettiest of them all to many. Males are stunning.

best,

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5 users have voted.

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

Socialprogressive's picture

@dystopian
where to look for Goldfinch's, dystopian. Mission Trails Regional Park has lots of Sycamores and a stream and it's only a stones throw from where I live. I'll go check it out.

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I'm great at multi-tasking. I can waste time, be unproductive, and procrastinate all at the same time.

The Liberal Moonbat's picture

It's hilarious just to say.

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In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!