#hawk's birdwatching journal

[tigwex]

southern poland birdwatching count so far: - rock dove (saw a couple of melanistic ones!) - collared dove - mourning dove - jackdaw - hooded crow - magpie - blue tit - MANY barn swallows - ring-necked pheasant - mute swan - mallard - goosander - white stork - black headed gull (at a lake! insane) - booted eagle (insane as well)

[dertaglichedan]

It's been a rough month for Tuffy.

He was kidnapped from his parents and watched his abductive foster father eviscerate his sibling. In recent days, his humongous stepsister seems hellbent on pecking out all his feathers and making him scream.

Tuffy is a baby red-tailed hawk who was stolen from his nest by a bald eagle on May 20. He now lives with the regal looking kidnapper, her mate and their biological offspring, Lola, in a Bay Area forest. By all accounts, his foster parents are bringing him food, and he's growing quickly. Just this past week, he took a few successful flights away from — and back to — the birdnappers' aerie.

The avian drama has been playing out before a bevy of astonished birdwatchers, who describe bald eagles and red-tailed hawks as "mortal enemies." Armed with high-powered binoculars and long camera lenses, the birders insist the circumstances are exceedingly rare. The phenomenon has only been recorded in the wild four other times.

No one is entirely sure what is going on or why it happened, but several experts said the female eagle was probably getting food for her eaglet when she grabbed the red-tailed chick. Once the chick was in her nest and squawking, she probably got confused.

"I have read a few reports of similar 'adoptions' and the researchers have always concluded that the nestling hawk was delivered as prey, but was still alive," said Cheryl Dykstra, a raptor researcher and editor of the Journal of Raptor Research. "The parent eagles then began to feed the nestling as if it were their own."

[mythgirlimagines]

This Tuesday, we have a very special guest today! You may remember her for her many roles in as both harem leads and magical girl protagonists! Say hello to Myth Anon, the Former Ultimate Voice Actress!

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BACKSTORY AND TALENT

As a child, Myth didn’t really have many friends or confidence in herself, but she yearned to become an actress. Because of her lack of faith in her acting skills, she worked backstage as a stagehand and audio technician, which she proves to still be competent at, even in the present day. One day in middle school, Myth’s parents decided to sign her up for voice acting. Despite her lack of confidence, she blew people away with her performance, and managed to secure the role of the little sister of the protagonist in Branching Paths, one of the most successful harem animes of the year. It managed to do wonders to her confidence, and eventually Myth managed to audition for and secure more and more major works, eventually making a name for herself and her colleagues as the “Harem Queen”, because if the harem lead is a female, you can guarantee that Myth will voice act in it. She is also famous amongst her fanbase for her behind-the-scenes antics, with her fellow seiyuu. (Note: You’ve got to watch videos of seiyuus, for they are comic gold!)

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RELATIONSHIPS

Wyre Anon, Former Ultimate Surgeon

Wyre was one of Myth’s few friends from her childhood, and they always hung out together. But upon showing great prowess with her medical skills, Wyre was forced to attend medical school, and leaving poor Myth behind. Despite missing Wyre severely, Myth had to remain strong and positive, for it’s what Wyre would have wanted. Needless to say, Wyre was impressed when the two reunited in Hope’s Peak, and saw that their shy wallflower of a friend sprouted into a more confident person. Now that they’ve reunited in high school, they both try their best to catch up on old times, despite the totally different talent domains.

Outfit: Hair tied into small pigtails and a green surgery cap on top, intact glasses, green face mask, blood-covered green surgery scrubs and blue gloves and shoes.

Anon Scar, Ultimate Astronomer

When Myth first met Scar, she was amazed to find a real life chuunibyou, for she has seen many chuunibyous in the animes that she voice acts for. Claiming to have control and infinite knowledge of the cosmos as the “Cosmo Master”, Scar‘s eccentric attitude and elaborate, grandiose vocabulary belies a concerned mother figure for the group, constantly handing the younger Anons nourishment and reminding the Anons to go to bed. Because of Myth‘s childish and clumsy nature, Scar always breaks her facade when around Myth. Myth really loves to stargaze with Scar, and Scar gladly obliges in educating Myth about them.

Outfit: Hair with two pointy buns that make her hair resemble a star, a blue hoodie with yellow stripes on the sleeves and stars decorating the fluff on the hood, a dark blue scarf decorated with a star badge in the centre, a galaxy colored t-shirt underneath her hoodie, a yellow skirt with the same fluff her hoodie has, dark blue boots with yellow soles that have a star design on the bottom.

Fusion Anon, Ultimate Romantic

Despite Fusion’s odd and feminine fashion sense, Fusion’s school regards him as a fountain of romantic advice and  a sort of father figure, viewing the people who seek his advice as his children, and being very proud of them when the gain the confidence to confess to their crushes. Fusion is a fanatic for all things romance, and that extends to romantic anime. Upon finding out that the seiyuu that starred in some of his favorite anime is going to be chaperoning him on his Kibo-Con trip, Fusion was on cloud nine. Myth is amazed at just how much knowledge Fusion has about the anime she starred in, even more than her. Outfit: An ahoge shaped like a heart, a long red scarf with white hearts on it, a pink sweater with a darker pink heart on the front, darker pink mittens, glasses, pants and shoes from original design.

Fusion Anon II, Ultimate Orithinologist

Hardly seen without her pet owl, O’Rly, Fusion II is sassy, sarcastic, and regularly tries to be cool, but to no avail. Fusion II has an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of birds, has mastered the art of laying motionless in one place, from years of birdwatching, and despite claims to the contrary, is a massive nerd when it comes to nature. As it turns out, Fusion II is perfect at imitating bird calls, and regularly tries to teach Myth how to make bird calls to attract birds. Myth has eventually mastered the art, and basically became a real-life Disney princess. Fusion II is honestly really proud of her work.

Outfit: Undershirt from the original design, a grey sleeveless parka, a necklace that holds a hawk’s talon, a brown glove on her left hand that allows her to hold O’Rly, cargo pants that patch her parka, brown steel-toed boots, sunglasses from original design.

Just Anon, Ultimate Conspiracy Theorist

Janon practically lives his whole life in an iron-padded apocalypse bunker, fully stocked with food and other needs. Janon regularly uses the excuse of the inevitable end of the world to get out of doing anything, apart from prepping for the apocalypse, and managed to form other procrastinators out of his followers thanks to his surprisingly believable conspiracy theories. Because of their opposite temperaments, both of the Anons didn’t exactly get along very well. That is, until Myth found out about Janon’s secret soft spot for children, despite his vehement denial. But at least Myth managed to find a common point.

Outfit: A tinfoil hat on his head shaped into bunny ears, a camo-hoodie, formal wear and facemask from original design.

Sparkle Anon, Former Ultimate Ice Skater

Famous for her speed and grace on the ice, and her dramatic and powerful performances on the ice, Sparkle mainly specialises in musicals on ice. She is also a master at speed-skating and won a bunch of trophies for her performances. Just like Fusion, Sparkle is a massive fan of the anime that Myth voice acts in, and was ultra happy that Myth is a fellow chaperone. Myth always wanted to learn how to ice skate, and Sparkle was all to happy to teach her heroine in entertainment all about the art of ice skating. Myth isn’t the best at skating, regularly slipping and falling, but Sparkle would never dare yell at her idol, so the lessons still continue. 

Outfit: A blue leotard with a sparkly transparent skirt that has snowflakes on it, white gloves, a long blue cape with silver shoulder pads and a large snowflake on the back, sparkly white boots, glasses from original design. 

Egg Anon, Former Ultimate Puzzle Solver, and Wet Sock Anon, Former Ultimate Poet

Even though most people hardly read poetry these days, Wet Sock is still famous for their dark and grim poetry. On the other side, Egg is famous for solving puzzles at record speed, and won many records. Despite both of the Anons being famed for their intellect, they love to regularly creep people out with their cursed comments and chaotic behavior. Wet Sock would never admit it, (especially not to Egg) but Myth’s vocal performances just make them swoon. But if Myth ever catches them swooning, Wet Sock would threaten the security of Myth’s kneecaps, but not before threatening Myth with a ballpoint pen to the throat.  Egg’s Outfit: Same outfit from the original design, but without the earrings and a Hawaiian shirt that resembles a Rubix Cube.

Wet Sock’s Outfit: A black overcoat over a white and blue checkered shirt, a feather quill behind their right ear, black pants and shoes.

Curious Anon, Jr. Ultimate Essayist

Don’t be fooled by their age and tendency to be a total pushover for their friends (real or fake), for Curious’s essays are referenced in academic journals all over the world, thanks to how well-written they are. Because Curious is constantly busy writing their assignments, Myth hardly ever gets chances to interact with them. On the few times, Curious gets a day off, they can’t help but politely giggle at the antics of Myth, and wonders how Myth can change her voice at the drop of a hat. Myth loves Curious for their polite attitude, and being the kind of person who would be the prime person to have a cup of tea with. 

Outfit: Same outfit from the original, except with a green turtleneck instead of their tie, and longer hair that goes past their shoulders.

Nerd Anon, Former Ultimate Procrastinator

If you thought Janon was lazy, Nerd is somehow makes Janon look like Dream. Needless to say, Nerd gets very grouchy if woken up from his usual 12 hours of sleep, and he especially can’t stand the more energetic Anons of the Kibo-Con roster, but especially the adorable and childish Myth. Years of starring in anime has made Myth realise that she found her male tsundere love interest, much to the anger and embarrassment of the lazy and starving college student. Myth regularly tries to use harem tropes to woo Nerd, but they just result in Nerd releasing all of his pent-up strength on the charming voice actress.

Outfit: Messier hair, a black and unbuttoned gakuran over an improperly-buttoned white dress shirt, and matching black shoes, regularly holds a brown suitcase.

Eldritch Anon, Ultimate Speedreader

Eldritch lived in an old and dilapidated library for practically all of his life, and managed to clear the entirety of the library roster three times over. But because of his isolated upbringing and his binging of horror and fantasy novels, Eldritch shows a hostile distrust of just about everybody, even the adorable-looking and sounding Myth, claiming that she is a spiritual vessel that houses thousands of tortured high school girl souls. Myth believes that that sounds like a great anime series, but she is willing to back away from the bite-sized bookworm for now, seeing as Eldritch doesn’t trust the seiyuu in the slightest. 

Outfit: Longer and unkempt hair, black reading glasses, a patchy brown jacket over a green sweater vest with a brown stripe in the middle and a red bow tie with white polka dots, brown pants, and black and white shoes.

Dream Anon, Ultimate Trivia Master

With an energetic disposition and a love of learning the most random of things, Dream is the captain of her school’s quiz bowl team, and truly deserves her appearance and victories on many trivia game shows. Myth and Dream got along like water and Kool-Aid mix, thanks to their similar energetic, goofy, and childish personalities and dispositions. Myth loves to learn random trivia from Dream, and Dream loves to watch the anime that Myth stars in. In conclusion, both Myth and Dream gain something out of their friendship. In Myth’s eyes, Dream is like the little sister Myth never had, and Dream is happy to earn that position.

Outfit: Blue and red hairclips shaped like question marks, a oversized blue letterman’s jacket with a big yellow question mark on the back over a black shirt with a big yellow one on the front and back, shorts and shoes from original design.

Iris Anon, Jr. Ultimate Personal Assistant

With a constant need to help and assist others, Iris carries herself with an overly-positive and cheerful demeanour, despite her heavy workload, which makes her a massive hit with the people who hire her to carry out a variety of duties, such as cooking, cleaning, and entertaining guests at parties (the latter being a particular speciality of hers). But just because she‘s clumsy when off-duty, that doesn’t mean she‘s clumsy or careless with her duties, for any of her bosses could tell you that Iris does everything with precision and accuracy. Just like with Dream, Myth and Iris get along, thanks to their similar demeanours and dispositions. 

Outfit: A blue overcoat and matching skirt over a red tie and a white dress shirt, white stockings, black Mary Janes, glasses from original design.

Purple Anon, Ultimate VS Debater

Specializing in hypothetical matchups between both famous and obscure historical figures, Purple is famous for her online videos that bring attention to underrated historical figures, and pits them against each other in hypothetical intellectual and physical battles. Because she is a historical expert, this influences Purple’s vocabulary, making her speak in an old-fashioned and archaic style, much to the confusion of the majority of the con attendants and chaperones. Because of Purple’s extreme timidity when not behind a screen, Purple and Myth don’t interact much, if at all. Myth yearns for Purple to come out of her shell, though.

Outfit: A black overcoat over a purple turtleneck, a black skirt, stockings and shoes from original design.

This series revolves around a childish and dorky voice actress (aka. The Harem Queen), making friends with both her fellow chaperones and the con’s attendees.

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PERSONALITY

Despite her career as a seiyuu making her even more outgoing and energetic, deep down she’s still a massive goofy dork, which you can see very clearly in her interactions with the other seiyuus. Because she’s younger than her colleagues, she has a tendency to be babied by them, and unlike Janon, she doesn’t mind. VoiceAct!Myth is also very romantically minded, much like Romantic!Myth, but she doesn’t seem to realise that harem anime isn’t exactly the best tool to get romantic advice from. People claim that Myth doesn’t have a consistent voice, for she repeatedly switches up her voice, to impersonate one of her characters.

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APPEARANCE

VoiceAct!Myth wears her standard glasses, and her purple hair down. She also wears a brown beret on her head, and a pair of microphone headphones over her ears. She also wears an oversized white turtleneck, a long brown shirt with a bisexual heart patch on the right side, a brown side bag, white stockings, and black Mary Janes.

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I hope you like this talentswap! Let me know what you think of VoiceActress!Myth in your reblogs!

-Fusion Anon

[frontiervolunteering]

Top 5 Countries To Visit For Birdwatching

Birds are amazing creatures that are extremely diverse and interesting. From the smallest hummingbird to the tallest ostrich, from seed-eating sparrows to sloth-eating harpy eagles, this article talks you through some of the most interesting birds in the world and the amazing countries where you can find them.

Trinidad and Tobago In Trinidad, the larger of the two islands, you can find the Asa Wright nature centre, which is world famous for its sheer number and diversity of bird species. Here you can take in the warm tropical climate whilst observing some of the most fascinating wildlife in the world. Many species of finches, hummingbirds, parrots and toucans can be observed here in their natural habitat of the local forests. Larger birds such as vultures and hawks can also be seen in abundance here, if you are lucky you may even have the chance to see the rare ornate hawk eagle, which sports a black crest on the top of its head.

Flickr | Len Blumin

Colombia Colombia is home to more species of birds than any other country in the world, with 1852 recorded species. From the national bird, the Andean condor with a wingspan of 3.3m to the tiny Reddish hermit, a species of hummingbird measuring only 7.5cm, the birds of Colombia come in all shapes and sizes. With Colombia housing almost 20% of the world’s species of bird there are birds to be found in every habitat in this country. The rainforests of Colombia are home to a huge number of species such as the spectacular Harpy eagle, famous for its strength and hunting abilities as well as many smaller birds such as the colourful festive parrot and the Amazon kingfisher. As well as forest-dwelling birds many species of seabirds can be seen on the coast, such as tropicbirds and shearwaters.

Flickr | Beth Wilson

China China is obviously a huge country, so it would be unrealistic to expect to see all of the wildlife it has to offer but with so many species of birds inhabiting this country, you are sure to see something amazing wherever you choose to visit. The number of species of birds recorded in China is an impressive 1314 and again, the species of birds here are diverse. The red-crowned crane, one of the rarest and largest cranes can be found in various parts of China; this bird is a prominent feature in Chinese myths and legends and is a symbol of longevity. China is also full of many incredibly colourful birds such as the mandarin duck and the golden pheasant, which are both real show-offs of the animal kingdom.

Flickr | Bob Hall

Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea is famous for its birdlife; it is home to the well-known birds of paradise with their impressive plumage and unusual breeding displays. 33 of the 42 species of birds of paradise can be found in Papua New Guinea; with 9 of these found nowhere else in the world. The birds of paradise are spectacular but Papua New Guinea has over 700 other species of birds! This country is home to nearly everything and even three species of the elusive and fearsome cassowary. Cassowaries are known for their strange horn-like crest and extremely sharp and powerful claws. The southern cassowary is the third largest bird in the world and is also known as the most dangerous.

Flickr | Charles Davies

Tanzania

The east African country of Tanzania is rich in bird life and many ‘bird safaris’ are offered to give visitors the best chance of seeing some of the country’s most extraordinary birds. The secretary bird is one of Tanzania’s most unique looking species. It is a bird of prey with long legs, a bright orange face and long black feathers on the back of its head, due to its unusually long legs it can stand up to 1.3m tall. Tanzania has many endemic birds that are found nowhere else in the world. The largest bird on the planet, the ostrich, can also be found in Tanzania; these birds are often seen in groups and can be an impressive sight.

Flickr | cweng50

So there you go! 5 places in the world to see the most vibrant, diverse and exciting bird life. Many wonderful species of bird can be seen all around the world, but these 5 countries promise to deliver some amazing sights as well as being fantastic destinations to explore in general!

By Gabrielle Brooks - Online Journalism Intern

Frontier runs conservation, development, teaching and adventure travel projects in over 50 countries worldwide - so join us and explore the world!

Get more from us on social media with Facebook, Twitter , Instagram and YouTube.

[tigwex]

Couple of days late because it made me suffer the consequences but!

15.12.2022

Went birdwatching to a local loch in subzero temperatures! It snowed the other day and has been cold this month, so I brought some food for the usual waterfowl that hangs out there - got 2 bags of porridge oats, a pack of oatcakes and sliced up a few old apples to give them :) The mallards were VERY hungry and followed me around a bit about it, the winter must not be treating them very well, considering half of the lake was frozen over completely and the rest of it was probably too deep for them to forage on the bottom of, not to mention people don’t really come out there much during winter I also spoke to a sweet old lady for half an hour about birds and when we parted ways she said she hopes she gets to see me again and learn more about birds if I go birdwatching there again :) Birds seen and identified in the trip: - MANY robins - rock doves - crows - magpies - herring gull - black-headed gull - pied wagtail - moorhen - eurasian coot - greylag goose - white fronted goose - feral domestic goose - hybrids of the three above - mute swans - many blackbirds digging around in the leaves - many mallards   - tufted ducks (rare for the area! they’re not common this far north, and the first time I’ve seen one!) -  bullfinches, both male and female - some kind of pipit, it flew away before i could get a good look - cormorants     - iceland gull (RARE!! and really pretty) -  common gull (despite the name, they're rare here, it’s the first time i’ve seen one) - blue tit - great tit - coal tit - a really noisy cute pheasant

[tigwex]

29/01/2023 More birdwatching time! I went out to meet up with my ornithology club for the first time and successfully scored the world record for “most adoptive grandparents acquired in the span of 3 hours”, as I was the ONLY person there under 60, but not to any detriment! The old folks taught me a lot and were very sweet :) We were out on the coast, so most of the birds we saw were coastal! Now, for the bird count! With the help I managed to ID and see a ton more birds than I usually do!

(bold are ones I haven’t seen before, italic are rare, both are both!) Spotted and ID’d: - Herring gulls - Common gulls - Black-headed gulls - Great black backed gulls - A singular fulmar! - A flock of eiders; 6 males, 1 female - A couple of redshanks - A couple of long tailed ducks - A whole bunch of oystercatchers - A singular gray wagtail! - Two pied wagtails - Lots of cormorants - A little flock of goldfinches - A singular eurasian curlew - A very distant goldeneye - A couple of european robins - A couple of house sparrows - A couple of turnstones - Whole flock of rare purple sandpipers!!! (everyone collectively went awww when they flew away) - A singular guillemot! - Maybe a couple of shags... no one could figure it out

[tigwex]

26.08.2022

Starting a little birdwatching journal :) I got a pocket bird ID handbook in town today and went to look at some shore birds!

I identified some great black backed gulls floating and feeding on the sea, a lesser black backed gull taking a nap on top of a lamp post, a couple of house martins flittering back and forth between rocks, a scraggly looking rook grooming on a lamp post and a large brown bird with a longish neck that I couldn't make the features of very well, but maybe a great or arctic skua?

Stood there for about 15 minutes trying to identify what I thought was a bird, and what I thought was a male hen harrier, but it was, in fact, a chimney pipe

As I was typing the above I saw a gull-like bird that was mostly black with a white head but I couldn't figure out what it was :( However I did also see two black headed gulls out of breeding season ambling on a pond near the coast and more scraggly looking rooks on a low beach hut roof!

I also spent like 15 minutes standing by a bush on the side of the sidewalk trying to ID a tiny bird with a really distinct "tweep" call, an unpatterned brown back and black wing tips. Gonna try to look it up later, my book didn't have anything that matched.

And now I have wandered to the other side of town and I am So hungry so I am going to conclude my birdwatching here and go to lidl to get a pizzini and then try to find a bus home

Note to self: bring binoculars next time

[tigwex]

23.09.2022

Only a little brief update! Went to the beach again!

Saw and identified:

- More oystercatchers! Very cute :)

- More sand or house martins (couldn't see colouration, going by silhouette)

- Nom breeding black headed gull hunting for food in shallow water

- A non breeding or juvenile great northern diver!!! :0 First time I've seen this bird! It was diving for food on the sea

[tigwex]

15.09.2022

More birdwatching! I went to the coast again to watch shorebirds! And forgot to bring binoculars again :(

Spotted and identified:

- A rock dove taking a nap on some grass

- House sparrow eating out of a bird feeder :)

- A group of silly looking oystercatchers, chasing each other and being silly, running very very fast and foraging for food in wet sand!

- A lesser black backed gull and a herring gull (maybe yellow-legged gull? I couldn't see its feet since it was loafing) laying around in the sand!

- A little black headed gull, non-breeding, just hanging out on the beach :) Cute

- A breeding black headed gull hunting and diving into the sea!!!

- Two or three shags flying above the sea, floating on the water and diving for food!!! Huge find!!! (Not rare but I've never seen a shag before)

- A group of house or sand martins flying above the beach!

- A strange solid dark gray, medium sized bird flying above the sea and dipping up and down... Maybe a storm petrel?

- A small black and white relatively small bird flying very fast above the sea... Maybe a black tern?

- Saw a lil guy and I was like that's a small tiny baby gull of some sort... but the lil homie was darker than the usual baby seagull, a little more brown and had a dark head point which I've never seen before. Had a pretty long beak too... the closest match is a sanderling but I don't think so ... :/ Will investigate further when I go home

That's about it though! I spent about an hour and a half out there and didn't exhaust too badly :)

[tigwex]

Update:

- black redstart :) (in polish its name is 'kopciuszek', literally 'cinderella')

southern poland birdwatching count so far: - rock dove (saw a couple of melanistic ones!) - collared dove - mourning dove - jackdaw - hooded crow - magpie - blue tit - MANY barn swallows - ring-necked pheasant - mute swan - mallard - goosander - white stork - black headed gull (at a lake! insane) - booted eagle (insane as well)

[tigwex]

P.S kind of a vibe

26.08.2022

Starting a little birdwatching journal :) I got a pocket bird ID handbook in town today and went to look at some shore birds!

I identified some great black backed gulls floating and feeding on the sea, a lesser black backed gull taking a nap on top of a lamp post, a couple of house martins flittering back and forth between rocks, a scraggly looking rook grooming on a lamp post and a large brown bird with a longish neck that I couldn’t make the features of very well, but maybe a great or arctic skua?

Stood there for about 15 minutes trying to identify what I thought was a bird, and what I thought was a male hen harrier, but it was, in fact, a chimney pipe

As I was typing the above I saw a gull-like bird that was mostly black with a white head but I couldn’t figure out what it was :( However I did also see two black headed gulls out of breeding season ambling on a pond near the coast and more scraggly looking rooks on a low beach hut roof!

I also spent like 15 minutes standing by a bush on the side of the sidewalk trying to ID a tiny bird with a really distinct “tweep” call, an unpatterned brown back and black wing tips. Gonna try to look it up later, my book didn’t have anything that matched.

And now I have wandered to the other side of town and I am So hungry so I am going to conclude my birdwatching here and go to lidl to get a pizzini and then try to find a bus home

Note to self: bring binoculars next time