Category Archives: Search Terms

My visitors came from *where* in December 2013?!?!

Below are a few notable search terms that brought visitors to this site during December 2013. You can see previous editions of this monthly post here. With this entry, the third year-long installment (prior years being 2009 and 2011) of this blog series concludes. The following search terms are listed without comment.

pictures of baby barred owls

can squirrels have oranges

SNAKES IN VOLUSIA COUNTY FL

snowy owl sightings 2013 illinois

types of wild birds found in Volusia county

funny google auto vomplete

Happy 2014 and GOOD BIRDING to all!

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My visitors came from *where* in November 2013?!?!

November was cloudy and drab here in Florida. Even my blog stats weren’t all that interesting. Sigh. Here are some statcounter finds from the month that was.

I love it when searches like gemini springs birding debary and bird watching gemini springs debary bring people here. I just hope they bring birders to the park itself! Gemini Springs is an eBird hotspot so a good place to look for information on birdlife in the park would be the eBird Hotspot Details.

Speaking of Gemini Springs, the search gemni springs alligator attack got my heart racing just a little bit. However, my own search revealed nothing of note.

The search my dog catches birds translate in mandarin is somewhat distubring, and it seems strange they’d end up on my blog rather than here.

I hope the person searching for songbird that act like bird of prey found their quarry, likely the “butcherbird” or species of shrike.

Finally, here’s one silly spelling “variation” that made me giggle this month: when do balled eagles migrate to Starved Rock, IL.

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My visitors came from *where* in October 2013?!?!

This blog had lots of visitors in October (yay!), but not too many notable searches came up in my Statcounter (boo!). Here’s what’s what:

Someone was looking for snakes in volusia county. My blog is by no means definitive but I am certainly on the lookout for snakes all. the. time. I just love them. ๐Ÿ™‚ See my herp life list including snakes here. To the person looking for information on gemini springs snakes, you should really like the following page: Fans of Gemini Springs Park. You will love the album “Snakes of Gemini Springs”!

Someone wondered, will cardinal feed cowbird babies? The answer is yes, Northern Cardinals care for Brown-headed Cowbird “offspring”. Cowbirds are apparently found in central Florida throughout the year, but I have only seen them during the winter months since we moved here (and I’m still waiting to see my FOF BHCO). Someone else wondered what to feed a baby cowbird. To which I say NO.

Someone was looking for what an e-bird kyosk cost. If they had known how to spell kiosk I think they would have found better intel: eBird Trail Tracker.

Finally, someone searched for beatiful barred owl. They are all beautiful, truly, but an individual bird very dear to me, sweet sweet Meepy, recently left this earth. My first owl love will always have a very special place in my heart. Fly free, Meeps.

Meepy and me

Meepy the Barred Owl

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My visitors came from *where* in September 2013?!?!

Not too many highs or lows from last month’s stat logs. Here we go…

Someone was searching for birding cataract surgery. I don’t think they found what they were looking for here. Hopefully they found good news. Did you know that approximately 90% of (human) patients can achieve a corrected vision of 20/40 or better after cataract surgery?

Someone wondered: saw a buzzard in barrington il. normal or not? Yes and no. By buzzard, the searcher probably meant vulture. Turkey Vultures range into Chicagoland and much further north during the summer. But vultures are not buzzards. Vultures are vultures. Buzzards are Old World buteo hawks. Please stop calling North American birds “buzzards”. Thank you.

Puzzling search of the month: what state are looney birds from? Huh? Do you mean loons?

Goofy spelling searches of the month: eagel watching in autica (eagle-watching in Utica, right?) and lake cook audbahn (Audubon is not that hard, come ON!). Someone was also searching for birding pneumonics. I assumed this was a misspell of mnemonics, but the searcher could well have been interested in avian lungs. *shrug*

Happy October!!

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My visitors came from *where* in August 2013?!?!

Notes from August’s stat logs…

Captain Obvious question of the month: are there any owls in gemini springs? Answer: There are many Barred Owls. Great Horned is very likely and Eastern Screech is possible, too.

Oddly specific question of the month: Many birds start planning their winter migration in August, but what exactly is migration?. Answer: Cornell’s All About Birds is a good place to start

Birding lingo question of the month: rcwo is the acronym for red cockaded woodpecker? Answer: for bird banders, yes, RCWO is the code used for Red-cockaded Woodpecker.

My least favorite searches of the month: kestrel trap (don’t do that) and how to feed a baby florida scrub jay (if you’re not a licensed rehabber REALLY DON’T DO THAT).

Backyard inquiry of the month: cooper’s hawk landed in our yard what to do ? Answer: sit back and watch! You may be about to have a Wild Kingdom moment in your back yard!

Finally, the spelling oopsies of the month: audibon park; western tanninger; baby pelacan bird; and opposite of palegic (littoral? terrestrial?).

Happy September! Here come the migrants!

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My visitors came from *where* in July 2013?!?!

Here are some highs and lows I found in my statcounter logs for July.

For some reason I found a lot of loon activity last month. Common Loons pass through Illinois in spring and fall migration, with numbers peaking around the first week of April and mid-November. They winter off of Florida, with birds recorded in most months from November through April. Since those two states feature almost exclusively on this blog, I’m pretty sure the person searching for where is the best place to hear loon during july and august didn’t find their answer here. This eBird map shows Common Loon sightings globally during those months. Again, eBird has the answer. ๐Ÿ™‚ Though I’m not sure how much calling the birds do outside of courting. Someone else wondered are there loons in chain o lakes illinois? To which I answer YES, get out there in April and your chances will be very good. You could even join a group specifically out looking for loons! Finally, someone was looking for a loon like birds in illinois. Since there are loons in Illinois, that loon-like bird may have been a LOON. However, if the bird was seen in July, my suggestion would be to look at the Double-crested Cormorant.

Owls dominated once again, with lots of searches for owls in Illinois ending up on my post (My) Owls of Illinois. Folks were also looking for information on the lake county illinois audobon owl boxes (voilร ) and other specific searches for barn owl endangered illinois and related. I like that someone wondered how many babies does a barred owl have at once. My guess would be two. I checked BNA, which indicates that clutch size ranges from 1 to 5 with the average being 2-3. Someone wanted to know Is there an owl in Illinois that has yellow claws. Some have yellow feet, but a very quick check leads me to believe they all have black talons. Finally, someone needed some more personal advice when searching for what kind of owl in my backyard? I’m not a psychic, yo.

I love that someone searched for green caterpillar with horn missouri because that’s pretty much what I do when I want to ID a caterpillar or moth or butterfly or snake or bug I don’t know – start with a Google search of the unknown creature’s physical characteristics and where it was found. I usually have pretty good luck. I hope this seeker did as well.

The person looking for bird- themed movies landed on this old post. I hope they found two upcoming titles: A Birder’s Guide to Everything and The Birder.

Someone wanted to know names & photos of the birds that preen. Um, all of them?

And last, here’s my favorite typo of the month: paragon falcon eating pigeon.

Happy August!

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My visitors came from *where* in June 2013?!?!

Here are the highlights and lowlights from my little corner of the interwebs during the last month.

Statcounter, GO!

I hope the person who searched for a list of birds at flights of wonder found what s/he was looking for… but if not, another search in a week or so might be helpful. ๐Ÿ™‚

eBird bait came in the form of the search what kinds of birds are native to volusia county? The answer can be found by using eBird’s great Bar Charts feature.

Sometimes I wish there was an eSnake, as may the persons who searched for florida snakes volusia county and florida snakes identification. The Florida Museum of Natural History has a handy List of Florida Snakes which is a good place to start. I get visitors looking for snakes and other herps coming in on my Herpetology Life List.

I was interested to see someone searching for the birds of prey maitland fl live web cam. Last month a site sharing feeds from the large flight chamber at ACBOP went live. It can be found here: Eagle Eyes on the Environment Disney Flight Barn Cams. If you tune in Thursday mornings, you just might catch a glimpse of ME! ๐Ÿ™‚

The search man made great horned owl nest made me giggle because it reminded me of this photo. And the cute typo oreo bird nest was good for a chuckle, too.

Happy July!!

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My visitors came from *where* in May 2013?!?!

Here are the highs and lows revealed in last monthโ€™s Statcounter logs for my little birding blog…

Some righteous dude or dudette searched for bigby birding rules. Yes it does. Rock on.

Someone wondered, are there hummingbireds in cook county Illinios? I love the chance to plug me a little eBird. Yes, there are hummingbirds in Cook County, IL.

And then someone else wanted to know do northern saw-whet owls live in Chicago to which I say: eBird has the answer. Unless you were wondering about non-releaseable education birds. I only know of one, Boopie.

To the folks looking for a brownish duck with red beak and a duck with red beak, I’m hoping you found what you were looking for. My best guess would be Black-bellied Whistling Duck if your search was anywhere near Florida USA.

Someone wanted to know: do american goldfinches remember things? What a wonderful thing to wonder. ๐Ÿ™‚

Someone searched for field museum free admission bring bird… does that mean raptor handlers get in for free? Sweet.

To the person searching for Gardening robins nest in our arborvites, should we remove it?: NO

To the person wondering American robin chicks affect of taking picture, Cornell’s NestWatch site is a wonderful resource for information on nest monitoring. Read the educational materials and take the online certification to become a nest monitor and share your data with ornithologists.

Two searches that made me giggle: what is a wood duck afraid of? and duck imprinting on high school student.

That last one seems oddly specific so it struck me as funny, but in reality a bird imprinting on a person is a serious matter. It is illegal to take a wild bird and keep it. It is nesting season now and I was extremely disturbed to find this search in my Statcounter: what to feed a baby bard owl. Two days later from the same IP address came the following search: how often do you feed a baby barred owl. An IP lookup tells me the search came from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Dear person who is caring for a baby Barred Owl in Cedar Rapids: Please get your bird to a licensed bird rehabilitation center as soon as possible. If your bird has become imprinted it cannot be released into the wild as it would never be able to fend for itself. Licensed rehabbers can properly care for injured or abandoned wild birds, and can facilitate nest replacement if feasible. No one can raise a bird better than its own parent. Please don’t keep the owl. Thank you.

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My visitors came from *where* in April 2013?!?!

April was a blur, and May is starting out just as hectic! Here’s a quick post to share a few gems from April’s stat-logs.

I had a lot of traffic coming from searches related to audubon park deltona. There was an official opening dedication for Audubon Park in April and it seems the park is neither unloved nor unknown. Later in the month I discovered that park access from the East Regional Rail Trail is now open, too! Woo hoo! Other related searches included city of deltona fl public works; deltona audobon park; ledford stormwater lush volusia Audubon; ledford water treatment volusia; and deltona “audubon park” west volusia audubon.

I still follow the Illinois birding scene online (as much as I can as a cyber-bystander living out of state) so I was surprised to see reported magnificent frigatebird in illinois 2013 and anyone seen a magnificent frigate bird in illinois 2013 in my stats, seemingly coming out of nowhere. Do any Illinois friends have some insight on this?

Someone searching for ospreys invading red-tailed hawks nests? was kind of wondering the same thing I was, apparently. I don’t think I previously revealed that our new house is within sight of the bizarre raptor drama nest (it’s just off the back yard), but I have not had the opportunity to keep tabs on this nest to see exactly what is going on. I know I see Osprey flying around back there, making a racket sometimes. I saw a Red-tailed Hawk perched above the nest again a couple of days ago, though.

As always, there were a few typos in the stats that made me chuckle: is this pegieon sun bathing or injured? (probaby sunbathing – they can contort their wings all kinds of crazy sometimes); vagrabt birds in florida; do loom migrate in illinois; all pigions breeds (really? is p-i-g-e-o-n so hard?); and himemade bird feeder poles.

To the person who searched for florida caterpillar identifier: I hope you eventually found this.

To the person searching for hoary redpoll meme: I hope you found this.

Finally, to the person searching for limpkin bird how to get rid of it: seriously!? I have been trying to figure out what kind of situation one could have where a Limpkin might be causing a problem. I have a vivid imagination so I can come up with some scenarios, but they’re all pretty outlandish. This search stings on a personal level because I only managed to get my FOY (First Of Year) Limpkin on April 24th. So if you need to “get rid” of a Limpkin, please send it to me. I’m really running low this year.

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My visitors came from *where* in March 2013?!?!

A quick little post for last month’s update! March was busy and April is going to be even more so!

To the person who searched for just hatched baby kingfisher: I hope you checked Flickr? Belted Kingfishers nest in burrows so I imagine spotting chicks isn’t too easy.

To the person who searched for are long eared owls seen in chicago: I’m sure you learned the answer is YES!

To the people who searched for yellow headed vulture pet and eurasian vulture pet: NO.

To the people who searched for audubon park deltona and audibon park lush rd deltona: If you have been birding at the park, I would love to hear from you!!

To the person who searched for is a peregrine warm or cold blooded: Seriously?

To the people searching for creative commons cat catching bird and cat with dead bird: I hope you found the Keep Cats Indoors Flickr Group and/or the Cats Outdoors “what i really do” shareable graphic (shown below). (Side note: I was happy to see this image shared on Facebook quite a bit lately, possibly in reaction to the whole Ted Williams/Audubon thing).

Cats Outdoors (original)

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