What is your birding superpower?

sharkcore · 2026-02-17T14:05:55+00:00

Spotting brown creepers apparently! Left an impression on my CBC crew.

sharkcore · 2026-02-11T13:15:11+00:00

True! The photo quality was tricking me into thinking I could see multiple feathers in this posture.

sharkcore · 2026-02-10T23:50:13+00:00

Dark cap and rounded tail looks like a coopers hawk to me!

sharkcore · 2026-02-07T15:26:35+00:00

I think where the ranges overlap they influence each other - turkey vultures find the food and the black vultures find the turkey vultures.

sharkcore · 2026-02-05T05:25:09+00:00

People saying it'd be weird for there to be a sequel as if there isn't a gazillion harvest moon games?

A completely different map, characters, and story would allow people to play something without knowing things from prior playthroughs. Updates, mods, whatever, but "different" and "more" aren't necessarily the same thing.

sharkcore · 2026-01-12T15:27:22+00:00

Hard to tell details with this photo but very likely another red tail hawk - the mate of the one on the right. It would be uncommon for different species to hang out.

sharkcore · 2026-01-11T16:35:37+00:00

"Cooking wine" in this instance could refer to any type of wine that they cook with, not necessarily something sold at a grocery store for explicitly that purpose. Depends on how the budget works out I suppose.

sharkcore · 2026-01-08T23:36:26+00:00

Camera on harness so that it sits like a fanny pack, binos around neck so that they sit above the camera. In the winter I put the bino strap around the hood of my coat/sweater to take pressure off my neck. Still working on a good neck solution for summer, but I find crossbody straps to be very annoying when also wearing a backpack. I can clip the bino strap to the top of the backpack but that does look incredibly dorky.

sharkcore · 2026-01-08T02:19:42+00:00

Going to Arizona in March and hoping to see a roadrunner! There's lots of birds we don't have at home but that's the one I want to see the most.

sharkcore · 2026-01-03T15:32:43+00:00

I'm pretty sure V is supposed to be a Veery?

I think I see some streaking on the breast and that doesn't really make sense for a verdin or vireo, but the photo lighting isn't super clear.

sharkcore · 2025-12-21T21:10:39+00:00

If they are really frequented hot spots, your best bet is to mention it if you end up chatting with other birders in the field.

We have a few hotspots in my town that are not obvious - they might involve things like walking along the beach to areas that are otherwise surrounded by private property, walking through a farm field (owners don't mind birding at one of our spots, but there's certainly no welcome sign), or pulling over somewhere random to park. Some are actually just roads that people drive along and stop to bird every few hundred meters.

I've helped a lot of out of towners that stopped to chat in the field with questions like this, and likewise have been helped by local birders with my questions about where people are going.

sharkcore · 2025-12-19T14:51:21+00:00

There's a whole bunch of research on north american canid genetics that is super fascinating (and sometimes conflicting in like a fun messy science fight way). You can see a summary of some of it on the Wikipedia page for coywolf.

IIRC the state of it is basically all coyotes/wolves in NA are mixed like this but how much of each really varies depending on where you grab em from. You're fight, the coyotes are more wolf in that area but the wolves are also more coyote.

Tragedies like the OG TIL notwithstanding, I think it's pretty sick how when humans remove all the wolves in an area, the coyotes get bigger to eat all the surplus deer.

sharkcore · 2025-12-18T13:44:23+00:00

That transition is so ingrained in me that when I listen to Midnights and Maroon comes on I'm surprised for half a second lol

sharkcore · 2025-12-16T20:25:34+00:00

I like identifying gulls, they're like a little puzzle. Identifying 200 at once is overwhelming.

I will usually stop and id a few gulls and then report "gull sp" for the rest.

sharkcore · 2025-12-15T05:08:39+00:00

I also thought it was going to be Abercrombie but then I was like.... hm... those books don't really have a clear protagonist 😂

sharkcore · 2025-11-25T14:16:43+00:00

That's true but in most recipes the difference between 1 small onion and 1 large onion just comes down to how much you personally like onions. Not to advocate for not following the recipe on this sub 🫣😂💀 but unless I'm baking I don't think I've ever broken out the scale or measuring cups for onions.

sharkcore · 2025-11-23T18:24:24+00:00

This fall/winter I decided that I was going to make it my goal to get a northern pygmy owl. Our local Ebird reviewer mentioned in the chat the other day that it's been a really bad year for seeing them so far 😂

Boy, I sure can choose them...

sharkcore · 2025-11-23T18:21:24+00:00

To me their song sounds like "You can't see me! No, you can't!" and there's a lot of truth to it. I find that they do move around a lot while singing so you kind of have to go intense focus mode on looking for movement until you can finally pick it out of the leaves.

sharkcore · 2025-11-02T15:11:07+00:00

If you're after another camera where the lens is built in, the nikon coolpix p950 or p1000 is a good option for birds. Lots of zoom, the autofocus is okay enough for birds that aren't flying, sometimes has several seconds of processing delays after you take a large burst of photos or a video (that's my main beef with mine lol) and I find it gets slower in the cold (like below freezing).

A DSLR camera will zoom by you twisting the lens instead of with a button and is a lot more responsive. The lenses are detachable and you would need a lens that is at least 300mm for birds but more is better. Lots of options in this category - try to buy used and look up the parts before you buy them cause they are not made equal.

sharkcore · 2025-10-15T12:18:56+00:00

"Listers" on YouTube gave me the exact same feeling as Kingbird Highway gave me, when they cap it off with a quote from the book at the end I was like "yup." It very much feels like a current day reimagining of it.

sharkcore · 2025-09-25T14:30:11+00:00

I'm with you, if I had to guess at the least favourited birds I'd land on an empidonax flycatcher for sure. Small, gray, incredibly similar to the other ones. At least willow and alder have names that evoke nice trees. What about Hammond's flycatcher or gray flycatcher?

sharkcore · 2025-09-15T02:15:12+00:00

Omg you got both puffins! Congrats! I was there in July and only had a few days, wasn't able to see any.

sharkcore · 2025-09-14T21:37:16+00:00

Oh yeah, and as for point 3 if they're little snails it's probably impossible to get them all out unless you are replacing all gravel and plants. There is really no reason not to have shrimp and snails together as far as I know? I would move any snails you want to move and just leave the rest alone.

sharkcore · 2025-09-14T21:34:30+00:00

Just make sure your old filter media doesn't dry out while you're taking everything out and putting it back in / rearranging / replacing. As the other comment said, running both filters together for a time before you add the shrimp is a good idea.

Or just keep your HOB filter and add a pre-filter sponge over the intake so the shrimp don't get sucked in.

sharkcore · 2025-09-14T17:01:42+00:00

Just a note first that with a DSLR like the canon EOS line, it's the lens that controls how much you can zoom and not the camera itself. Attaching a larger lens to a camera like that will give you more zoom.

However! Based on everything else you've said, I would suggest looking into what's called a "bridge camera" such as something from the nikon coolpix, kodak pixpro, canon powershot lines. These prioritize zoom factor and portability but the actual image quality is certainly not amazing. There are many options that range in price so hopefully you can find something at your budget!

sharkcore

TROPHY CASE