Brewbirds

brew birds

i have a small collection of beer bottles that feature birds and various other winged creatures (moths, satan, etc). at this point, new selections are difficult to find. it usually involves travel, and lord knows i don't get to do that enough. Pennsylvania's regulations regarding the sale of alcohol are stuck in the 19th century, so variety and convenience to the consumer suffer. it's nearly impossible to find single bottles or sixes of interesting brews. there's always case sales, but variety is also hard to find there, and where available, prices are generally inflated beyond what i'd like to pay for a beer i've never tried, bird or no bird on the label. i complain about it a lot. luckily i live near New Jersey, so i can pop across the bridge for non PA-approved brews. here's a good one:

Hitachino Nest Beer is a white ale brewed in Japan. i'm allergic to white ales, but i tried this one anyway. seem to recall that it was fresh and tasty, and that i would have finished it if the throat and tonsils hadn't begun to swell. really hate that...very uncomfortable. the owl is cool. there are other varieties of this available with variations on the owl, but i haven't found them yet, thanks to Ye Olde PA Liquor Control Board. they still refer to themselves as 'Ye Olde'. isn't that wierd? i've heard that they work by candle-light and maintain ledgers with ink and quill. good quills are difficult to obtain these days, so they'll go for weeks without accomplishing anything at all. apparently the chairman sports a cape and top hat...

Blue-winged Teal

I've been watching a pair of Blue-winged Teal for the past few weeks. Tonight, the drake was quite busy harassing a pair of mallards. He was relentless, following the larger birds closely and yapping away at them. Blue-winged Teal aren't known to breed in the county, so I'm not sure what this display was all about. Will be interested to see how long the teal remain on this little pond. A few Wood Ducks and a pair of American Black Ducks were the only other ducks present this evening.

While fairly plain, the hen is a pretty little creature none the less.

Mallard gets an ear full!

hybrid gulls pt 1

Just spent about an hour posting these photos cuz i don't really know what i'm doing here yet and windows collapsed just before i saved it. That's never really happened to me before actually, but i'm complaining anyway. Bill Gates you owe me 60 minutes of my life back you robber baron doofus bastard.

I have a few gull pictures that people might find of interest. Not normal people of course, but maybe Gull People. Here are a few shots of a "Nelson's Gull" that i found at Lake Nockamixon in Bucks Co, Pennsylvania on 22 Mar 2004. It's a hybrid of Glaucous Gull x arentatus Herring Gull. Nice chunky young bird, with that 'about to nod off' look typical of young Glaucous Gulls. Primaries are quite dark. It's seen here dwarfing a pair of Lesser Black-backed Gulls:

Here's a shot that's been cropped and brightened to show the sooty primaries. Again, sleepy lookin' and huge compared to a 2nd winter Lesser Black-backed:

Have more pics of a totally different strange gull, but it's now quite late so i'll have to get to it later...

Exotic beast

Photographed a beautiful male Painted Bunting in York County PA today, but here's something completely different. Meet Bucks County PA's Canada Goose of 2024. This bird is just one of a steadily increasing Bucks Co population of Egyptian Geese. Three have been hanging out at Lake Nockamixon for several weeks; they bred last summer on a small farm pond adjacent to Nockamixon State Park, producing 8 or 9 young. Apparently waterfowl collectors often release these birds due to their habit of systematically seeking out and destroying every egg that isn't their own. Nasty quarrelsome nuisance birds, but kinda cool looking anyway.

Here's that Painted Bunting. Photo kinda sucks...distant and not exactly focused. This bird is wary and doesn't tend to sit still for long. Came within about 2/10ths of a second of getting a nice focused zoomed in well-composed photo, but the bird jumped as my finger hit the trigger and never reappeared. Rats...

That's it for now.