Animals you saw today

My family went to Niagara Falls for a day trip. On the way there I saw a ton of cormorants on Lake Ontario's shores. We went to a park on the Gorge's edge, where I sighted a couple of Turkey Vultures. The gorge's cliffs were relatively high up, so I was actually just a few metres from them. It was an incredible sight, to say the least.
 
Today my coolest sightings today were a Monarch caterpillar, an Osprey, a Green Heron, a Ruby-throated Hummingbird, and House Wren eggs and chicks.

A couple of days ago I saw a Carolina Wren fledgling, which is extremely exiting as there are only a few breeding records in Wisconsin. I am pretty sure it is Wisconsin's furthest north breeding record, as well.
 
Had a pretty exciting birding day today:

Saw at least 6 lifers, maybe more, which are bolded:

Mammals:
Coypu (although the range doesn't seem to extend to the Camargue...)
Camargue wild horses (not really a species, but...)

Birds:
Black-winged stilt
Glossy ibis
Mediterranean gull
Black-headed gull
Greater flamingo
White stork
Cattle egret
Little egret
Grey heron
Eurasian crag martin
Common swift
Barn swallow
Sand martin
Black swan
Northern lapwing
Common moorhen
Coot
Mallard
European starling
Mute swan
House sparrow
Common tern
European kingfisher
Woodpigeon
Eurasian collared dove
Common ringed plover
Whimbrel

Reptiles:
Red-eared slider

Pics to come in the gallery.
Two of these I was extremely surprised to see: the Coypu, which I'm still not actually sure is a coypu, which isn't meant to range so far into France (or into France at all afaik), and the Black swan, which isn't mentioned as introduced to France but is of course unmistakable. I wasn't able to get a good pic of the kingfisher, but rather an unmistakable blue and orange blur.
 
I haven't managed to go birding in a few weeks, but my feeders enticed some feathered friends to my yard this morning. Nothing particularly exotic, but nice to see nonetheless.

Mourning dove
House finch (a swarm of a flock)
Northern mockingbird
Anna's hummingbird
Black-chinned hummingbird
Eurasian collared dove
Black phoebe
A particularly striking male hooded oriole

And last but not least, my favorite local pair of California scrub-jays and their fledgling (lots of yelling at mom and dad for food, despite being perfectly mobile :D)

My nearby water treatment plant had 20+ Swainson's hawks and 50+ other species reported the other day; living in an arid area with few water sources tends to concentrate the birds. So with luck and some free time I might try to go get a look for myself.
 
Today I went to a spot known for shorebirds. Recently there had been 3 rare sandpiper sighted there at the same time. When I went they were all gone. What I did see though included 2 Common Nighthawks, a partial albino Mallard, a Peregrine Falcon, a Short-billed Dowitcher, and three American Minks fighting over a fish.
 
Coatis, capybara , common & black tufted marmosets (invasives), mallard ducks, toco toucan, turkey vultures, white eyed parakeet, anhinga, sacaya tanager, rufous bellied thrush, great kiskadee,neotropical common moorhen, terrapins, koi carp.

Hopeful to see some black horned capuchins (if I'm lucky) in a while too.
 
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birdsandbats said:
Today I went to a spot known for shorebirds. Recently there had been 3 rare sandpiper sighted there at the same time. When I went they were all gone. What I did see though included 2 Common Nighthawks, a partial albino Mallard, a Peregrine Falcon, a Short-billed Dowitcher, and three American Minks fighting over a fish.
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I saw a mystery shorebird there yesterday and I just IDed it as a White-rumped Sandpiper, which is a lifer!
 
animal_expert01 said:
Presumably you live in a regional area of Brazil? How often do you see species like you toucans, macaws and monkeys?
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Nope , I currently live in the capital of São Paulo state but I have to attend meetings within a National park.

Monkeys such as capuchins, invasive marmosets and (before the yellow fever outbreak) sometimes the brown howler can be seen fairly commonly even within urban environments like this but more so in National parks and green areas.

The toco toucan is a ubiquitous bird and can be seen in most green areas and even urban areas while macaws on the other hand are only really seen in rural areas of the interior.
 
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Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
Nope , I currently live in the capital of São Paulo state but I have to attend meetings within a National park.

Monkeys such as capuchins, invasive marmosets and (before the yellow fever outbreak) sometimes the brown howler can be seen fairly commonly even within urban environments like this but more so in National parks and green areas.

The toco toucan is a ubiquitous bird and can be seen in most green areas and even urban areas while macaws on the other hand are only really seen in rural areas of the interior.
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Interesting. I always imagined toucans as a bird that could only be seen in remote areas of rain forest in really isolated areas, however this clearly is very far form the case! What other animals do you see on a regular day to day basis?
 
animal_expert01 said:
Interesting. I always imagined toucans as a bird that could only be seen in remote areas of rain forest in really isolated areas, however this clearly is very far form the case! What other animals do you see on a regular day to day basis?
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No, it is quite the opposite actually. It is pretty common to see the toco toucan here in many areas of Brazil sitting on lamp posts in urban areas or on electricity posts by the side of motor ways. It is more of a Cerrado (savanha) and Caatinga (dry forest) habitat bird so you dont really tend to find it in tropical rainforest.

That said, some of the other larger toucan species are much more dependent on Atlantic rainforest habitat like the green billed toucan and channel billed toucan and so you don't really see them in urban areas unless it is a large park / botanical garden or there is a forest fragment nearby. Then of course you get the smaller aracaris like the saffron toucanet here in Sao Paulo state which are totally endemic to this kind of forest and are endangered primarily because of deforestation of this biome.

In terms of on a regular basis it is hard to define but on a typical day I see all kinds of birds and bats just as the day starts and quite often capybara or agouti depending in what sort of town or city I am in. On days where I'm in protected areas (though this is irregular at moment because of the pandemic) I usually see several different primate species (some very endangered) and coatis.
 
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Today I saw two Ruddy Turnstones (only my second time ever seeing this species), several American Minks, a Common Muskrat, and had a Least Bittern fly in front of my face.
 
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