Category Archives: Birding

Birds of Eurasia Best Pictures

There is a new site – Birds of Eurasia Best Pictures – with a lot of good pictures of birds from all of the Eurasian continent. It does not seem that pictures are professional, sooner shots are made by amature birdwatchers, but some pictures are really nice.

Pictures are updated around weekly. Here is an example:

Cinereous Vulture (Aegypius monachus)

Shoot in Mongolia by Oleg Belyalov

Another great picture:

Collared Pratincole
by Philippe Campeau,
Kyrgyzstan

Collared Pratincole by Philippe Campeau, Kyrgyzstan

References

Ural Owl

Ural Owl – Strix uralensis (Pallas, 1771)

Description

The Great Grey Owl is a large, grey owl with numerous dark and light streaks, mostly longitudinal. It lacks “ears.” It differs from the Tawny Owl by its larger size, long tail (extending well beyond the tips of folded wings), and absence of a transverse wavy pattern on the underside. Compared to the similarly sized Ural Owl, it has black eyes, lacks concentric circles on the facial disk, and has no black “beard.” Females are noticeably larger than males but have similar coloring. Juveniles replace their second downy plumage with their first adult plumage by late August to November, resembling adults but with lighter head coloring, especially the “face,” and darker, broader streaks on the body. The first adult plumage has pointed tips on the tail and flight feathers (rounded in adults), and all flight feathers are equally worn (adults have staggered feather wear). Males weigh 440-1000g, females 650-1300g, with a length of 50-62 cm, wingspan of 114-134 cm, and wing length of 33.7-37.6 cm for females and 33.7-37.0 cm for males.

Distribution

Breeds on Southwest Altai and in Kalbinskiy Altai. In winter occurs also on valleys of Irtysh and Ural rivers. One dead Ural Owl was found on road at Sarychiganak (Trans-Balkhash area) in January 26, 1989.

Biology

Very rare resident. Inhabits the fir forests with birch and asp trees at altitudes up to 1600 m. Breeds in separate pairs, to nesting uses the old nests of other birds or tree holes. Clutch contains 2-3 eggs. Brood recorded in July 31, 1971. The autumn – winter dispersals begin in the end of September.

Pictures:

Site “Birds of Kazakhstan” has moved

One of my favorite sites – “Birds of Kazakhstan” (btw – site I support, to the best of my ability) has migrated again… The new Url is: https://kz.birding.day/

So, please welcome new “Birds of Kazakhstan” site.

Meantime, at the moment, the site hosted 100+ members, who created 2400+ blog posts, uploaded 250K pictures of 500 photographed species out of 524 registered in Kazakhstan.

The original “Birds of Kazakhstan” url: https://birds.kz/ is still in place, but it hosts “Birds of Kazakhstan Best Pictures” now.

LAMP project migration

I have been involved in a birdwatching community web project for a long time. At the moment it has 250k pictures, 2500 blog posts from community members.

The site is a custom development – written by Askar Issabekov with php and MySQL and hosted under Dreamhost dedicated server.

Initially the migration plan was

  • get and configure new hosting
  • copy php scripts and media files
  • backup/restore MySQL databases
  • update hosts files and ensure everything works good
  • set source site in “maintenance” mode
    • put notification on the site header
    • set databases in read-only mode
  • backup/restore MySQL databases again
  • copy media files delta
  • set databases in r/w mode
  • ensure everything works good
  • change DNS from old host to new host

Some more data:

  • MySQL database: 120 MB

It turned out that

  • Source host uses Apache and target host uses Nginx
  • phpMyAdmin cannot import database from SQL backup

So we ended up the following

  • backup and document existing environment
  • get and configure new hosting
    • ensure php version is the same
  • copy php scripts and media files
    • remove all .htaccess and update nginx config files accordingly,
      e.g. Index etc.
    • fix files permissions (chmod)
  • backup/restore MySQL databases
    • if the database is big
      • – consider splitting database – a few tables each backup/restore
      • – consider zipping database while export-import
    • if phpMyAdmin fails – use command-line mysql
    • update database connections (user names, passwords, database names and hosts)
      as temporary measure – it is possible to allow access to old host databases from new host ip
  • update hosts files and ensure everything works good
  • set source site in “maintenance” mode
    • put notification on the site header
    • set databases in read-only mode
  • backup/restore MySQL databases again
  • set databases in r/w mode
  • copy media files delta
  • ensure everything works good
  • change DNS from old host to new host

Question: to avoid hassles with hosts files – is it possible to use a different real target name, then after verifying everything works good – change name

We’d also need to take care of e-mail migration

(WIP)

Домовый сыч Athene noctua (Scopoli, 1769) Little Owl | Байғыз © İhsan Eroğlu

Смешные названия птиц

Названия птиц, которые выглядят смешно если их применить к человеку

Ну и не из птиц:

  • Ушастая круглоголовка

Лучшие фотографии птиц: Birds of Kazakhstan best Pictures

Фото Домовый сыч – © İhsan Eroğlu

Birds of Eurasia: Best Pictures