Most Vivid Memories of Birds

I'm sure that we all have terrific recall for our favourite birds and moments of birding, be it in the adjacent yard or on global excursions, but what might be your most vivid or favourite one to savour?

Mine are threefold;

Pelicans flying up and down the Bow River in S.E. Calgary on the outskirts of Fish Creek Provincial Park. So unexpected and so graceful for such huge birds. Hypnotic to watch. Sometime between 1998-2004.

Moved to S.W. Calgary from Ontario (summer of 1997) with a new baby, so walking the neighbourhood with a 'tonka' stroller became a daily habit. One path led down a dirt trail, and at the bottom was an underused entrance to Fish Creek Provincial Park, so as my baby slept and I paused to catch my breath, I turned around to discover an entire 'cliff' filled with Peregrine Falcons. It became THE daily habit after that, rain or shine. We were only in that apartment for six months then shifted from SW to SE in Jan98, then I had twins so my excursions became shorter and explored the flatter park portion alongside the Bow River. In the days before cell phones (still have no smart phone), my wee camera at the time would never have captured the distance. Kodak Advantix? No tangible proof, but it's seared in my mind.

Back in SW Ontario for the past 15yrs, and though I love my Great Blue Herons, kingfishers, Baltimore orioles, even wild turkeys or turkey vultures, etc. nothing before or since has stirred that feeling of awe, not even outside our borders. Although, I might have gotten dive-bombed by an immense owl that my sons disturbed in a remote place along Lake Erie's north shore once, but I didn't see it because I hit the ground face down with my hands over my head when it emerged from the trees. Most terrifying birding moment, bar none! The boys said that the wing span was so wide they didn't see how it could even fly.

Apologies if this topic is covered elsewhere, as I haven't had time to explore each thread yet.

For me one of the most memorable is seeing African shoebills in South Sudan (which was still part of Sudan when I saw them). I had a memorable three-day trip from Malakal to Bentiu by boat around 1984, during a period when I lived in Bentiu, and I visited Bentiu again around 2007, and I would often see this rare bird standing alone by a river or swamp. Large, grey, quite ugly, to be frank, and with the unusual shaped bill which gives it its name. Very impressive. These birds are very rare, living only in a few small parts of Africa, but Bentiu is one of them.

Seeing a field full of blue cranes in South Africa, not far from Cape Town, a few years ago. Beautiful graceful birds.

Although I've seen African fish eagles many times, notably at Lake Naivasha in Kenya, where I've seen up to a dozen on the same day, I vividly remember being in a lodge just outside the Maasai Mara with my bird-watching nephew about ten years ago, sitting on the open-air wooden decking of the bar on the bend of a river, and a fish eagle flew down the river, very low, at our eye level, straight at us until it was very close, before peeling off around the bend. A magnificent sight.

And finally, more than forty years ago, when I first came to Africa and long before I became a bird-watcher, my first sight of the crested (or crowned) crane, Uganda's national emblem. Beautiful and majestic. Nowadays I see them from time to time near my house, and it still gives me a thrill.

I have a lot of 'favourite' birding memories, but they might not be so impressive to others, so I'll go with 'most vivid':

February, 2016, I was walking outwards on Blakeney Point, on the north Norfolk coast, UK. The Point is a peninsula running parallel to the shore, enclosing a huge natural harbour, Blakeney Harbour, with lots of open water, creeks, sandflats, mudflats, saltmarsh.

I was watching one of those big columns of mixed waders, gulls and crows circling over the harbour ahead of me and to my left, when a small falcon passed over me from behind, flying fast and straight, outwards along the Point. It was no doubt either a kestrel or a hobby but the sun was in my eyes and I'm not used to seeing either flying fast, direct lines (and I was too astonished by what happened to worry about identification, anyway). Seconds later I noticed a crow--an ordinary carrion crow--detach from the column and fly equally fast and straight to intercept the falcon at right angles. I managed to have the binoculars on it as it hit the falcon really hard with beak and claws together--I can only describe as like seeing a bird of prey hit its prey. I'm not even sure the falcon saw it coming. The two spiralled down to the ground, locked together, into the middle of a few acres of shrubby sea blite. This is tough, scratchy stuff, about waist-height to me, and I had little chance of forcing my way closer or finding the exact spot when I got thereabouts, so I just waited. A few minutes later, a crow came up from somewhere not too far from where they'd gone down and flew off, disappearing in the distance. I watched for about twenty minutes, but never saw the falcon again.

I'm still astonished by that. It's the only time I've ever seen a crow, or any of the crow family, do anything quite like it.

Recalling a special avian sighting - I am in a small row boat, observing a family of Hoatzin perched in a tree in Los Llanos region of Venezuela.

I have always loved my Australian Magpies. Every 3 or so years a new generation moves in, I assume the older generation upgrade to a taller Gumtree!
I feed them (and many other birds) some mince, etc.
One year my cat, Max, who died in my bed on Australia Day (26/01/20), was doing the Phoenix thing. Paws straight out and looking regal.

Well, I opened the screen door and this Baby Magpie ran straight to me, crossing Max's paws. Max just looked at it, Yawned as if to say - "I could have caught it, if I'd wanted to"
and reassumed his pose :-) He really was NOT interested in birds. When he went outside the birds made almost NO noise. But the other Cat, Buffy, Panic attack...

One other story of exception.

Rainbow lorrakiets are tough, beautiful and noisy.

I once had 15-20 (they jump about, making counting them difficult)on my feedind area.

That was really beautiful.

Guido.

Guido47: How have you been affected by the catastrophic fires?

Hi >6 tropics:,

I live in Melbourne, really in the very South of Australia (OK I once did spend some time in TASMANIA, almost the real most Southern part of Australia - the real definition of which I will leave
to other Aussies :-).

Well a few weeks ago the sky (in Melbourne) was yellow for a few days. Bush Fires around Gellong ( a stallite town) about 100Km. from us.

I do still cry for the 2 Billion estimated animals who died in the fires. Not just Koalas, Roos but also think of the reptiles, birds and even fish!

I also lived in Canberra for about 15 years, and the parts I saw devistated, I once lived in or near.

YES It does hurt :-(

Guido.

ETA. I do know many parts of NSW, some parts of southern QLD, a bit of the NT.

Unfortunately not much of SA. Nothing of WA.

I have only been birding a little over a year, so my memory isn't so outstanding or unusual.

I am originally from the state of Alabama and lived there for the first 20 years of my life. The state bird of Alabama is a Yellowhammer (Northern Flicker). I had never seen one before. So when I started birding, I checked the field guides and none listed Yellowhammer. After some research, I discovered that I was looking for a Yellow-shafted Northern Flicker. I was out with a birding group one morning last fall and I turned around and looked up to see my first one! I have seen one more since then (in Alabama). It's currently my favorite bird.

A couple of weeks ago, I was at Land Between the Lakes in Kentucky on a birding excursion on a boat. As we were headed back to the marina, we spotted a Peregrine Falcon tucked up under a large bridge we going under. Very unusual to see one in this location so we were all very excited to see it.

>8 perennialreader: The moments don't have to be 'fantastic' or illuminating, they just need to be personal. It could be the first time you saw robin eggs in a nest, or geese flying in formation, or the first time you recognized a bird by its sound rather than by sight, anything and everything is what makes the variety vivid! It could be from age five or fifty, a beloved bird that you've long hoped to see (as you mention) or an unexpected event like alaudacrux's crow/falcon fiasco.

I'm in my 50s and had never thought to keep track of books before, read or collected, so this LT site is extraordinary to me, to see those who've been doing it for so many years. I like to think that I'm as welcome with my love of classic literature, as anyone who spent years in some pricey university setting. As my mum used to say, she could spend 40 years in a choir without ever lamenting the fact that she was no Renee Fleming or Maureen Forrester! Point being, I belong to no club, book or bird, have had no formal training, book or bird, but the nostalgia that I encounter now in looking back on life is meaningful. My eldest son is bugging me to write it all down, so any and all of this is for him, not me. The recording portion I mean, not the memories. Those I'm happy to share with them, anytime of the day or night.

I was researching Chimney Swifts this past weekend, and realized that they are in decline, not so much from environmental causes, but from the fact that chimneys are no longer used/built they way they once were! I think they also use bridges, etc. to nest since they need to adapt to survive. The first time I saw one at a conservation area a few years ago, it made me laugh aloud because their bodies are so stubby and their wings are wide and graceful. A flying paradox!

>8 perennialreader: - ... and I turned around and looked up to see ...

Yep, one of the cast-iron laws of birding: wherever you settle yourself down to watch ... the birds will be behind you!

One great memory is when we did a river cruise in Europe and saw the swans in the river. Usually once a year the swans are on my lake and then fly to Northern Minnesota.

>9 frahealee: Chimney swifts built a nest in our chimney in the spring after we no longer used the fireplace. She hatched eggs and we heard chirpings about every 2-3 hours--they were very loud! We called a chimney sweep and he told us what they were and they are protected by law in my State, so we had to let them live there until they flew the nest!

I am so glad that you feel welcome on LT. I'm not trained in birds or books either (as I don't think most are), but I sure do enjoy learning from others.

>7 guido47:

Guido: Absolutely heartbreaking. Devastating losses of habitat.

Here in southern Arizona we are entering a period of extreme drought related to a La Nina event.

My favorite memory is of a kookaburra, the first one I had ever seen. I was working in Perth and had taken a few days off along the southern coast in an area with old old old karri trees, Shannon National Park. The driveway by my cabin was bordered with a rail fence and, while I was walking along it one afternoon, this big bird dropped out of the trees and perched on the rail about 20 feet from me, cocked its head and studied this obvious interloper.

I was entranced by a bird this bold and edged closer and closer while he continued to be curious about me. I got to about 15 feet away before it started edging back. I took a number of great pictures, one of which hangs in my bedroom, greeting me as I wake up each morning.

As I walked away, it followed! I had never seen one of its ilk before and it acted like it had never seen one of mine, either. We played approach, edge away, follow for nearly an hour before the bird flew up into the trees and told its mates all about its curious adventure. They had a good laugh.

>12 Tess_W: Same happened to me. Had to wait for them to fly away. Though one perished when he fell down the chimney.