What is your favorite golf course bird and why?

[Rich Goodale]

You gotta love bird links..The Arctic Tern (looks like a Bandon bird to me) http://puffin.bird.audubon.org/virtual/arte.html

Great website, John.  Thanks.

[Rich Goodale]

OT, slightly, but when choosing one's least favorite golf course bird, how do you choose between the Canada Goose and the Coot?

[Bill_McBride]

Isn't that coot sh*t all over Sharp Park's otherwise pristine fairways?

[Kyle Harris]

I'll second the Sandhill Crane, especially since they can be trained to stay off fairways (they can do a number on short grass digging for insects).

I find Sandhill Cranes to be very noble and graceful birds, especially since they mate and pair off for life. If one of the mates dies, the other will look after the young until they mature, and then die as well.

I also named a pair after my fiance and I and used to send her pictures every day of them while out on the course at Mountain Lake.

Smaller birds of prey are neat too, including Red Shouldered Hawks.

For the early morning golfers, Owls have ALWAYS intrigued me. We had one at Mountain Lake that would sit in the giant Live Oak behind the 18th green in front of the Colony House every morning and I used to sit there and watch him while I was changing cups.

I like Bald Eagles for their distinctive strong flight and Ospreys for their distinctive wobbly flight.

The turkeys at Huntingdon Valley were always very territorial and generally moody, but were nice to watch roam about the tiger country. HVCC also had a pair of Red Tailed Hawks that would patrol the creek, moving upstream as the season progressed. They sat on the ground a lot but when they were feeding around the 17th, you could stand on the tee and be eye level with them sitting 20 feet up in the tree to the right of the tee box next to the 11th green.

[Dan Kelly]

OT, slightly, but when choosing one's least favorite golf course bird, how do you choose between the Canada Goose and the Coot?

All of the coots I know can't stand Canada geese.

[Joe Bausch]

Brent, a pileated really is quite a sight, eh?  Just a couple of months ago up near Valley Country Club (a Tillie course near the Poconos) I visited my father-in-law's place to survey the damage from a storm/tornado that touched down in the woods behind his yard.  A super wide swath of trees were mowed down.  As I snapped some photos of what such a storm can do to a forested area:



I heard some really loud bird noises and basically was crop-dusted by a pair of pileated woodpeckers whose cover was blown by the downed trees!  They are a pretty shy bird but I was able to get one decent pic of one of the pair, albeit from long distance.  But even so you can see how big these dudes are:



Another bird frequently heard while playing golf around here is the red-bellied woodpecker.  They are a dime a dozen, but still a neat bird.  Here's one raiding the food at my bird feeder:

[Sean_A]

Sean,

I think Huntercombe's logo is by far the most attractive and desirable of any club's. I just wish I'd bought more than one shirt the day I was there because now I have to ration wearing it just every other month or so to avoid wearing it out before my (inevitable) return visit.

Brent

I am more keen on the bird than the Huntercombe logo.  So far as birds and logos go, Machrihanish is tough to beat.


Ciao

[Brent Hutto]

Around our neighborhood the Red Bellied are, as you say, a dime a dozen as are Flickers (can't remember if ours are the Northern or the other one). But for reasons of preferred habitat, around golf courses I more often see Red Headed.



I think they like margins bewteen cleared and wooded areas which is largely what a parkland course consists of.

[Dan Kelly]

I am the only one who is surprised that no Tut-Tut Bird* has yet appeared to leave some of those characteristic Tut-Tut droppings on this thread?

* (Aggressive, thin-skinned member of the Tsk-Tsk family.)

[Kalen Braley]

I've seen a few of these in the Monterey Penisula area.  Watching them soar about the waves is always kinda cool

[Jason Connor]

I grew up in Maryland and played a lot of courses along the bays. So I always loved seeing the many waterfowl.  Cranes, herons, etc.

But the single course with the best bird watching I've ever played was Roy Kizer in Austin.

It's a converted water treatmentment facility with tons of ponds around.  I saw birds there I've never seen before or since.  If you like seeing new/strange birds while golf, give it a shot.

[Bob_Huntley]

I'll go out on a limb and say we won't get any votes for...


My favorite is the Red Tailed Hawk that patrols my home course.  I enjoy watching them soar overhead, and have also seen them pretty close up hanging out in one of our pine trees.


Jamie,

I think that is the same hawk I saw yesterday at MPCC. My favourite bird.

Bob

[Mark Chaplin]

I have to agree with Brent the sound of a Skylark's singing whilst soaring far above the links is like a thousand angels cooing in your ears. They are tough to spot though as they inhabit the long grass and fly very high

[Joe Bausch]

Regarding red-tail hawks, I have a story involving a red-tail and a another large bird while playing the golf course in Death Valley back in 2000 that I'll never forget.  Sorry if this takes too long.  

I was playing late in the afternoon and the course had a good amount of waterfowl, mostly American Coots.  While walking down the 9th fairway about 15 minutes before sunset a red-tail hawk comes swooping down to land with a coot still alive in its talons.  It landed no more than 50 feet from me.  It took the hawk a few minutes to kill the duck, but eventually he did.  I waited around for a few seconds, then decided to finish the hole as it was getting dark.  Well, the next hole looked awfully nice, so I decided to play it, then come back around and play #9 again before quitting.

I wondered as I approached #9 again if the hawk had made a quick pile of feathers out of the duck and was gone.  Well, was I in for a surprise. As I walked over to the general area, I could see the bird was no longer in the same place, and had moved over several yards by some trees at the edge of the fairway.  But as I got closer it seemed like it was now two very large birds together, and I naively thought maybe it was a pair of red-tails sharing the feast.  Well, as I got closer, I could see these two birds weren't both eating, but were in a standoff over who got the dinner.  They were 'beak to beak', perhaps no more than 1 foot separating them, both with their wings spread wide!  The bird facing me was the red-tail, and he no longer had the bird in his talons.  I couldn't quite tell at first what the other bird was as it had its back to me.  It was huge, with a swing span as big as the hawk.  As I got maybe 30 feet away, the unknown bird was no longer unknown as my presence got its attention:  it turned its head 180 degrees to look at me quickly.  It was a great horned owl!

The owl really seemed quite nervous by my presence and he didn't know what to do.  Well, the two jostled on the ground one or twice, but the owl kept possession of the coot.  Then the owl tried to make a run for it and fly off.  He didn't get too far off the ground and the hawk took flight and sort of bullied him back to the ground.  After another quick wrestling match, with the hawk getting two points for an effective takedown on my scorecard, the owl flew off again.  It was struggling hard, flying low along the tree line to carry the duck.  Then the red-tail pulled a move that I still don't know how it happened: it took off flying right at the owl, and mid-flight somehow took the coot right out of the owl's possession.  The owl gave up at that point and flew away.  The red-tail wasted no time then to start dinner.  And I left the course with one of my more exciting encounters with nature.

Here's a pic of a great horned owl:

[JMorgan]

I don't know that it's my favorite golf course bird, but I certainly like to see the warbler migration every spring and fall as they fly through Central Park and briefly populate the golf courses in the Northeast US.  On a given day, you can see a dozen different species -- and then they're gone.



A pair of bald eagles have nested somewhere on my in-laws' course in SC.  They attack the range balls from an old live oak once in a while; and then the gulls and crows follow along because they think a meal is in the offing, and they certainly don't want to miss out.

[Evan Fleisher]

Okay...I've got an unusual one for you!

I have no idea what kind of bird it is (since I've never actually seen one)...but here in the Midwest we have a bird whose whistling tune sounds like Nelson Muntz from the Simpsons:

Nelson's Laugh

I always feel like the bird is mocking/laughing at me while I play.  Tells you the sorry state of my golf game...  

[Brad Swanson]

Okay...I've got an unusual one for you!

I have no idea what kind of bird it is (since I've never actually seen one)...but here in the Midwest we have a bird whose whistling tune sounds like Nelson Muntz from the Simpsons:

Nelson's Laugh

I always feel like the bird is mocking/laughing at me while I play.  Tells you the sorry state of my golf game...  

Evan,
   That would be the black-capped chickadee.  I'm sure you've seen them, but most people associate their namesake call with them and not this call.  Go to this link
http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/680/overview/Black-capped_Chickadee.aspx
and click on the "listen to call" link.  I think of Nelson when I hear that call, too.

Cheers,
Brad

[Tim Gavrich]

There are a lot of Snowy Egrets around the marsh holes at Pawleys Plantation.  They're pretty cool, with their long necks and big wings.

[henrye]

We get Wild Turkeys in abundance just north of Toronto.  Also, some interesting birds - Green Parrots at Tryall and Eagles at Sawgrass.

Favourite song - Tropical Mockingbirds at the course in the Turks & Caicos.

Favourite bird encounter on a golf course was with a Kestrel/Falcon at RSG.  The bird appeared domesticated as it followed my son and I around for 4 holes and would perch on the ball washers as we hit our tee shots.  When we inquired at the clubhouse about the possibility of someone losing their Falcon, the secretary claimed that the Kestrels were all quite friendly?

Kestrel on one of his perches at Sandwich.

[Bill_McBride]

I've seen a few of these in the Monterey Penisula area.  Watching them soar about the waves is always kinda cool

We see a lot of these brown Pelicans flying around our new 18th green at Pensacola Country Club, hard on the bay...

[Jim Thompson]

Gotta go with a bird I can eat.  


Though the Red Kites of Huntercombe are awful cool as well.


Ciao

My favorite bird on the golf course...

Hancock,

I can't believe you haven't put these two post next to each other yet?  Must be a busy day over there.

Cheers!

JT

[JMorgan]

Jim, that makes two of us.

[paul cowley]

I watched a Redtail Hawk tree a grey squirrel while golfing about a month ago.....and two holes later saw him fly away with his quarry.

From greens keeping I have always associated coots with poop.

[Richard Boult]

It always makes my round when I see an Osprey. One took up residence here at Monarch Dunes recently. Walking up the 7th a few weeks ago, I watched it catch a fish in the lake alongside the fairway, then fly up and perch in a tree right above my ball.  I watched the Osprey eat for a bit, then hit my 2nd shot as he observed me.  

I often see an Osprey at Avila Beach GC along San Luis Creek, as well as night herons. Enjoy watching great blue herons nest in a large euc above the 11th green at Avila and red tailed hawks nesting in another large euc above the 17th green at Monarch Dunes.

My favorite bird is the dipper (water ouzel), but I doubt I'll ever see one on a golf course!

[Norbert P]

   The Tree Swallow . . .

 . . . The Tree Swallow

These hungry debuggers are the acrobats of the skies. Especially in the late evening, when you're walking along through the grass, they'll fly around you like porpoises in the wake of a steamer,
scouring for bugs that we kick up in our jaunt.

Gotta love the rest of 'em as well.

  We have Terns in our area (actually Astoria area) but I've never seen them on a golf course.  For years they were a favorite bird of mine, from a rafting trip down a wild river in Alaska (Nowitna)
they were a constantly entertaining companion. And as was said,  - hover, dive, catch, eat . . . do it again.  When I think about it, they're sorta like giant swallows.

(Euro-trash Starlings I can do without, but they are interesting opportunists.)

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