Your most memorable bird sighting or experience?

[Baked Potato]

A couple or so of ours:

A son was visiting and we packed some cold cut sandwiches and took a ride from Lodi, California up to New Hogan reservoir, which is outside of Valley Springs. There is a sweet disc golf course there too and also beautiful California scenery.

Anyhoo, it was raining so we just parked facing the lake and ate and chatted. All of a sudden a huge and beautiful eagle swooped over the lake, made a dive and came up with a whopper of a bass. It was an amazing sight seeing the eagle hold onto the wiggling fish.

Another sighting, but totally different experience… we were driving over an overpass and a big-ass crow flew from the left proudly carrying a Burger King bag. Well, it lost the grip and dropped the bag on the hood of our truck. A bunch of wrappers and pieces of buns, burger, and fries spilled out and spread all over the windshield. Truthfully, it was a Zen moment for us, lols.

Lastly, when driving on 8 mile road near Lodi a Peregrine Falcon was flying along the right side our truck over the ditch. I was the passenger and the falcon was about 6 feet off the side and was flew alongside us for about a half a mile. It was so beautiful.

We love all birds and animals. The daughter did a paper on raptors in college and she inspired me to write some poems about them, which I will post sometime.

[Nittersing]

1. I drove into a school parking lot

in the very early morning around 3 or 4am. I was an HVAC tech for the district, responding to a no heat call.

An owl left it's perch on one of the light posts and swooped right past my van. Mostly I was struck by how quiet it was.

Thanks for bringing up this memory!!

[Baked Potato]

3. I love owls. When we lived in Tucson there were little

owls living in holes on the ground. Thanks!

[applegrove]

2. I watched generations of blue herons fly by our cottage over the years.

They took off from a bay around the corner from us. They would be lumbering into a pretty high flight path. Then one time they were on our dock. So cool. And a great foil to the hummingbirds who fed in my parents' flower garden by the cottage up a path.

[Baked Potato]

4. Sometimes when I look up and see some migratory birds

flying I think dang they have been doing this for ages and they still keep going.

Thanks!

[applegrove]

6. Or when they start singing in the morning you are happy to be alive.

[Baked Potato]

8. True this!

[dweller]

5. A couple of hawk sightings

One was in my backyard, I’m sitting inside on the phone and see a hawk land on a low branch near my backyard, not far from where I’m sitting. I hang up, grab the video cam and go out the front and sneak around to the back. A small deck is off my bedroom provided a blind, so I started filming and zoomed in pretty close. Beautiful bird sitting there and she calls out once twice, and I hear her call answered, and another hawk swoops in beside her, flutters once and mounts her … they do the birdy deed and he flies off … and I had it all close up on video 😀

A few weeks ltr I’m on campus where I took classes and worked and was walking to my car in the afternoon. I walk by a church with a steeple and look up and see a hawk land on the top ( I think there was a weather vane on the tip) and as I’m looking at it, another hawk swoops in and they do the birdy deed. I just stand there transfixed, realizing it must be hawk mating season .

Once on thanksgiving day was driving through the countryside and saw a hawk flying low over a field with a snake in its talons … wished it a happy tday and drove on …

Last, attended a family reunion on Lake Mattamuskeet during the swan gathering, thousands of swans, and several pelicans, and many eagle. But mostly the swans …


✌🏻

[Baked Potato]

7. Dang! Nice! They just fly around and do just whatever they want!

[ShazzieB]

15. The "birdy deed"! 🤣

[Buzz cook]

9. Bald Eagle and an Owl.

Was at the beach in Edmonds Wa. and saw a large bald eagle flying along with two crows dive bombing and harassing him.
I learned later that its common for song birds to go after raptors. That's also when I learned that crows were song birds.

Late at night driving home I saw an owl ghosting above the road side ditch. It matched my speed for a while and looked like it was hovering outside my window.

[Baked Potato]

11. Sweet! I have noticed the raptors

will fly around and wait for the other birds to fly out and dive bomb them. Then, the sneaky prey birds know just where the nests are.

I am in the soththeast and every now and then I hear an owl coo-cooing. I don’t know what owl it is.

Thanks!

[rsdsharp]

10. A number of years ago we were at a local amusement park.

We happened to look up to see a pelican flying over. This was in Des Moines.

Peregrine falcons nest on building roofs in downtown Des Moines. It wasn’t unusual to see them flying right outside my 21st floor office window.

[Baked Potato]

14. A pelican? Geez! The falcons are so beautiful and fast.

[ShazzieB]

12. I was standing outside a meeting venue with a group of other pro choice women.

We were all dressed in handmaid's cloaks and bonnets, because we were there to protest the appearance of an anti choice state rep who was speaking at an event inside. All of a sudden, someone said, "Look!" and we all turned to see a pair of sandhill cranes casually strolling across the street. When they got to the other side, they kept right on walking into the grass of a nearby schoolyard and continued on until we could no longer see them.

That was a treat, because I'd never seen those birds up that close, and never expected to see them parading around a residential neighborhood in the middle of town.

[Baked Potato]

16. I am in a place where we see Sandhill Cranes a lot!

They just walk across the street like nobody cares! Every now and then there is a, well ran over one, but for the most part people stop for them.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

13. I saw a scarlet tanniger close up

I was in 4th grade. This beautiful crimson bird sat in the bush for awhile he was like 15 feet away. I was trying not to move,breathe or gasp at how amazingly beautiful he was .

He perched there for around 6 minutes.
I was about to cry because he was that gorgeous. His red feathers were such a bright red he almost appeared to glow.

I have never forgot this bird. He started my love of watching birds.

Then there was this time I was riding home with a friend and a wild turkey was sitting in the busy two lane road near the yellow line it was laying down but its head was up looking around. It was unharmed it was very alive and cars were going around it. We were worried the bird might get hit so we parked and chased the turkey off the road into the woods alongside the road.

I was riding in the van to program and a peregrine falcon flew up ahead of the van and it hovered in the air at eye level and flew past us as we got real close to it. It followed the van we were in until we hit the main road.

This is not a live bird sighting but in 7th grade I was doing a display about predatory birds this would be displayed in the main lobby in a glass enclosure at my school. My mom worked for the dept. of natural resources. She arranged for me to have a stuffed bald eagle in my art display.

I had this magnificent bird in my bedroom for the night. I got to touch him,look at his feathers into his eyes look at the scales on his feet and his talons. I was totally blown away and I feel I was very lucky to have a bald eagle spend the night with me.

[Baked Potato]

18. I have not ever seen this beautiful bird! I had to look it up ! TU!

[I_UndergroundPanther]

20. The beauty of that bird is seared into

My memory. Never saw another scarlet tanniger in my whole life again .

[vanlassie]

17. My mother used to spend time at Camp Vogelsang

High Sierra camp above Yosemite. This must have been in the late 1940s. She described sitting and reading at the base of a cliff, and hearing a scratching noise, looking up, and seeing a California Condor take off directly overhead. This bird would have had a 9 foot wingspan, I believe.

[Baked Potato]

19. Oh how I wish I could see this before I croak! Nt

[I_UndergroundPanther]

21. Bet that condors shadow was totally

Impressive and huge. Like the story of the thunderbird in person but without lightning.

[RockRaven]

22. My first close encounter with a Bald Eagle.

I grew up in CA and had done a lot of camping in the West, Northwest, Rockies, including Canada, but all of the Bald Eagles I had seen were from afar, dozens or hundreds of meters away.

Then one day in my twenties I finally got a close one. I was hiking with a friend at a small reservoir in New England. We had parked at a trailhead and were walking down an access road, the trees were pretty thick and tall on both sides, and the reservoir had just come into view through the gap in the trees caused by the road. It swooped directly over us, having come from behind, maybe 12-15 feet off of the ground, following the road ahead and glided down until it was maybe 5 feet from the ground. Once it got out over the water it banked to the side and we lost sight of it because our field of view was still restricted by the trees. By the time we covered the last 50 meters or so and could look out over the whole reservoir and the trees ringing it, it was nowhere to be seen.

[Baked Potato]

24. Thanks!

[perfessor]

23. My wife and I were in northern Wisconsin a few few years back

We got up early one morning to do some fishing. Motored over to a quiet little bay across the lake and cut the engine. The water was still as glass, shrouded in heavy mist. Suddenly a loon popped up out of the water about 10 feet from the boat. It gave its haunting "lulululu" call, then ducked back into the water. It seemed to be aiming itself in our direction, so I looked down into the water and saw it swimming under the boat about 5 feet down. A few moments later it popped up on the other side of the boat about 30 feet away. Breathtaking!

I have since learned that loons are more closely related to penguins than they are to any other north American bird.

[Baked Potato]

25. Thank you! I have never been to that part of the country and I am jealous!!