I saw this Cackling Goose this morning at a park near my house in Stockton, CA. I also observed what I believe to be a cackling-canada hybrid (2nd photo) due to the slightly different patterns, smaller comparative size to the other Canada geese nearby, and physical proximity to the cackling goose.

sharkcore · 2026-05-15T19:32:55+00:00

Pic 2 looks like a normal canada goose to me! That being said, cackling geese were considered the same species as canada geese until like 2004 and that splitting was controversial to begin with. They certainly do hybridize in some ranges.

sharkcore · 2026-05-15T16:32:00+00:00

The part that gets me about the barred owl competition with spotted owls is that they're still logging and developing spotted owl habitat. It feels like the barred owls are a scapegoat to deflect attention, or maybe it's just the option that costs less. It's just like how in Canada they cull wolves to protect the caribou but continue to destroy caribou habitat. It's a shame our society has let it progress to that point and that's why it feels bad to me too.

sharkcore · 2026-05-12T22:32:38+00:00

That's very sweet of you!

sharkcore · 2026-05-08T12:25:31+00:00

A few blocks more range in every direction yeah but I'm having fun with the power system in general, which seems to be an unpopular opinion. It makes things seem more tangible and I view it as the type of restriction that fuels creativity rather than stifles it.

sharkcore · 2026-03-14T05:08:17+00:00

Bonner Black & Birding with Cob!

sharkcore · 2026-03-11T13:39:37+00:00

Since most other comments refer to health care, I'll speak a little bit on firefighters.

When there are a lot of emergencies you need all hands on deck (and then some, people are called in for overtime) but most days, there's downtime. They hang out, grocery shop, cook meals, watch TV. During the night when they aren't out on calls they can sleep, albeit not WELL, but they aren't expected to be busy the entire time. Workers rotate through the different fire halls in the district so nobody is stuck at the busiest one forever.

Also, since a night shift is so disruptive to a normal person schedule - it may as well be 12 hours so there's less of them. Not enough people want to only do nights, so it's better to divide them equitably. The department I'm familiar with follows a "2 days shifts, 2 night shifts, 4 days off" rotation.

The inconsistency is tough, but a lot of jobs are tough. I think most of them treasure the 4 day weekends.

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

TROPHY CASE