Ebikes and Ebirds

Kayakguy said:
I thought I saw a variegated ditherer one time, but it turned out to be a crumpled Doritos bag.

Sadly, I became quite deaf with age, and heard almost no bird songs, though my wife can hear them breathing with her acute hearing. Hearing aides help quite a bit, but I still miss a lot. My pole walking class (a "Silver & Fit" group) did hear, then saw, a downy woodpecker when we walked around Lake Padden in Bellingham the other day. Very loud rapping for such a small bird.

Saw about a dozen birds (starlings, maybe--about that size) on a wire yesterday. 10 of them took off simultaneously, making the wire whip back and forth. The two remaining individuals had to windmill their wings to maintain balance, just like you or I do when standing on a wobbly surface.
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IF you hearing is poor then this is the app for you because all you have to do is find a quiet place and push the microphone icon in the Sound ID section. This morning I placed it by the open window and it captured the calls of a Montezuma Quail and a Eurasian Collared Dove almost right away. Just now I heard something outback so I hit the mic record button and it detected a Pileated Woodpecker ,within 21 seconds. It will detect even the faintest calls if there is no backround noise. When it detects a bird it shows you the name and a small pic and has a list of calls and songs you can play back , plus you can hit the down arrow on the right and click on "details " which will produce 5 or 6 larger pics (swipe sideways to see all the pics ) It also gives a descriptive paragraph. And it is FREE ! TRY IT ! https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/
 
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In 2016, my wife and I embarked on a 45-day road trip from our hometown to Newfoundland. One of our quests was to find and photograph the Atlantic puffins at Elliston, NF. Their low growling calls could be heard throughout the time we spent viewing them. Some have described it as sounding like a chainsaw in the distance.
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Let me tell you a story.
On the last group ride, we were approaching some swamps. Suddenly, a beautiful white heron started flying. It was too late to even take the smartphone out of the pocket to take a picture. One of our group, a guy riding an e-bike demanded a stop. He produced a decent camera from his rack bag, and then we waited. Guess what. No heron flew afterwards! :D

Later, we passed a guy wearing camo clothes and pulling rubber boots on. We were guessing who the guy was: An ornithologist? A nature photographer? Whoever he was, his rubber boots seemed inadequate: he wore short Crocs that only covered his ankles :D
 
While kayaking off Vancouver Island's west coast, we have seen the west coast version of puffins on the rocks and reefs around little off-shore islands. It's amazing how they can carry a beakful of tiny fish--up to maybe 5 or 6 or so, back to their nests on the rocks. It's pretty rare to see them on the west coast.
 
Pied Stilt…

Black-winged Stilt

Nudgee Wetlands, Brisbane​
These common wading birds are widely distributed throughout the world, but my pair chose to explore the wetlands surrounding a boardwalk section of the cycle trail that I try to ride every week. There was no need to even get off my ebike to photograph them.
 
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Upon our arrival on ‘The Rock’ we visited Cape St. Mary’s Eco Reserve. There were literally thousands of gannets, murres, gulls, and kittiwakes most of which were perched on the rocky outcroppings along the cliffs. The sight and sound of all of these birds jostling for spots along the rock face was captivating. It was impossible to distinguish the many raucous screeches and calls above and below us.
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Prairie Dog said:
Upon our arrival on ‘The Rock’ we visited Cape St. Mary’s Eco Reserve. There were literally thousands of gannets, murres, gulls, and kittiwakes most of which were perched on the rocky outcroppings along the cliffs. The sight and sound of all of these birds jostling for spots along the rock face was captivating. It was impossible to distinguish the many raucous screeches and calls above and below us.
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We took the kids on a cross Canada road trip from here to Nova Scotia but sadly we felt we didnt have time to visit the Rock. I still regret that we took the ferry South to Maine instead of East to Newfoundland..
 
steve mercier said:
We took the kids on a cross Canada road trip from here to Nova Scotia but sadly we felt we didnt have time to visit the Rock. I still regret that we took the ferry South to Maine instead of East to Newfoundland..
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Sounds like a nice trip that you had with the family. We left NS and booked the 15hr sailing over to Argentia and slept in bunks. Not recommended. On the return leg we opted for the shorter route from Port Aux Basque back to Sidney, then hopped on the Fast Cat ferry down to Bar Harbor. Wished we would have stayed longer in Maine as we did have our kayaks with us.
 
Prairie Dog said:
Sounds like a nice trip that you had with the family. We left NS and booked the 15hr sailing over to Argentia and slept in bunks. Not recommended. On the return leg we opted for the shorter route from Port Aux Basque back to Sidney, then hopped on the Fast Cat ferry down to Bar Harbor. Wished we would have stayed longer in Maine as we did have our kayaks with us.
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I have to assume that a "prairie dog" would have a land based kayak. This would surely have wheels, and might be towed as a dinghy behind a prairie schooner.
 
Prairie Dog said:
Sounds like a nice trip that you had with the family. We left NS and booked the 15hr sailing over to Argentia and slept in bunks. Not recommended. On the return leg we opted for the shorter route from Port Aux Basque back to Sidney, then hopped on the Fast Cat ferry down to Bar Harbor. Wished we would have stayed longer in Maine as we did have our kayaks with us.
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Yeah it is a long ferry ride over to the Rock.
 
Art Deco said:
That shot of the rocks deserves another WOW. Bikes and kayaks. What's not to like about that?
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That shot of my wife kayaking near the flowerpots was taken at the Hopewell Rocks New Brunswick. (Bay of Fundy) during high tide. The highest tides in the world are recorded here…twice a day. At low tide one can venture out and view the rock formations up close.

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The first thumbnail was of my wife. We paddled around Twillingate, NF and took in the views of the icebergs near the seaport. Traffic in and out of the harbor was halted for several days until the larger floe broke into bergy bits and growlers.

Sorry, didn’t mean to digress from the main discussion.
 
Prairie Dog said:
That shot of my wife kayaking near the flowerpots was taken at the Hopewell Rocks New Brunswick. (Bay of Fundy) during high tide. The highest tides in the world are recorded here…twice a day. At low tide one can venture out and view the rock formations up close.

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The first thumbnail was of my wife. We paddled around Twillingate, NF and took in the views of the icebergs near the seaport. Traffic in and out of the harbor was halted for several days until the larger floe broke into bergy bits and growlers.

Sorry, didn’t mean to digress from the main discussion.
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Must add that to the bucket list too. It's a looong list ..
 
Australasian Gannet…

Australasian Gannet, Bay of Islands, New Zealand

Bay of Islands, North Island, NZ
2005–12–14​
This gannet must have travelled a long, long way around the Southern Ocean since I photographed it on cycling holiday before I had even thought of ebikes. Times have changed… but hopefully not too drastically for long-distance seabirds.
 
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