Birdwatching?

[GaryE]

Today I have to prep for a new role, guiding (okay, driving) some birdwatchers tomorrow. We're going out to an island off the coast, where the Bay of Fundy and the Gulf of Maine connect. The Merlin birdwatching app for Cornell University in the states has become a bit of a fad here - pokemon go for nature nuts. I've been hauling out my phone and picking up birdsongs, and have realized the diversity of small birds around here is beyond what I had dreamed of. You hear them, then you see them. Some are drab, some are beauties.

I'm just getting to the stage where I see a bunch of trees or a habitat type and can predict what birds may be associated with them - yesterday walking the dog through a lakeside alder area I unsurprisingly encountered lots of alder flycatchers.

Birds are like air fishes, and we're hopeless bottom dwellers. My daughter and one of her friends have been birdwatching for a couple of years now, mainly to go to habitats. They aren't list keeper types, but they enjoy a good quest. Her friend is a photographer of birds, and a friend of mine wants to learn that art. I don't have a good enough camera, so I'll just drive them to spots suggested in a pdf I found.

So we drive 90 minutes, take a ferry for the same time and arrive on a lovely rocky island with an H shaped road system. It's my favourite destination for local whale and dolphin watching, and there are puffins in the region (though maybe not where we'll see them). I've never gone anywhere for 'just birds' before.

I've only gone birdwatching once, when I took a walk with an Austrian Ichythologist friend and discovered we had to make long stops for him to get photos of Canadian warblers. I found trying to spot them quite fun, and that was where my merlin app addiction began. You start by seeing a forest or a coast, but then the sounds reveal many wondrous things all around you, as oblivious to you as you were to them. Seabirds will be a new thing, though I have taken boats out to islands off Newfoundland to marvel at the life there. In that period of my life I loved the big picture. Now I have to learn the details. Hey, I'm retired, which is like having the lifestyle of the independently wealthy only without money.

This appears a lot like fishkeeping. I know a bunch of people here will know more about bird spotting than I do, so any questing techniques are welcome.

 

[bgarthe]

Yes…..birdwatching is a blast. I do it just for fun and don’t belong to any groups. The new binoculars I purchased a few years ago really Many years ago, I learned how to imitate the call of the Eastern Screech Owl. I could get them to come/answer it. One time while on an evening walk with my wife (newlyweds), we heard the eerie Screech Owl cry/whinnie coming from the neighborhood. I started my imitation call and within a couple of minutes, not only had it answered, but it had flown to the tree above us where I shined a flashlight on it. My wife was both surprised and impressed.

Our 1.2 acre yard is a giant clump of trees out in the vast northern Illinois cornfields and is very often a rest stop for migratory birds going south in the fall or north in the spring. We see quite a few unusual birds each time. It is SO cool to see birds one usually doesn’t see very often, if at all. Seeing them like this really gave me incentive to pursue my bird woodcarving hobby, especially in the 90s and 2000s.

 

[GaryE]

One time while on an evening walk with my wife (newlyweds), we heard the eerie Screech Owl cry/whinnie coming from the neighborhood. I started my imitation call and within a couple of minutes, not only had it answered, but it had flown to the tree above us where I shined a flashlight on it. My wife was both surprised and impressed.

So what you're saying, technically, is that this hobby could attract chicks.

 

[gwand]

I love birds too. The Merlin app has allowed me to identify over 30 species of birds that come to my backyard. I am especially impressed with the ruby throated hummingbird. Not only is it beautiful, but it migrates from the East Coast of the United States all the way to Central America. The tiny birds cross the Gulf of Mexico. It is hard to believe that such a minuscule creature can fly across vast expenses of water.

 

[bgarthe]

I agree….those little beauties not only visit our HB feeders, but also all our red flowers all over he place. Every so often, we get a nesting pair in the yard. Their nests are SO small. I also especially like the Scarlet Tanager and Baltimore Oriole visits……although the once-in-a-great-while Blackburnian Warbler visits are hard to beat.

 

[gwand]

I’m sitting on my screened-in porch facing the back yard. Just this minute a crow and a red tail hawk were sparring on the lawn. I think the hawk was a juvenile. The crow was able to chase it away.

 

[Back in the fold]

I’m kind of a birdwatcher but not so much one that I devote my entire attention to it . I just happen to like seeing them when they appear . My bicycle has been a great birdwatching tool . There was the time a couple weeks ago with the hawk I got really close to and this past Thursday I was riding home from an area by the Mighty Yellowstone River and matched speeds with a hummingbird that flew alongside me for about 25 yards . That was so cool ! I see lots of unusual birds that I never see in town , probably because of cats . I don’t know what one particular bird was but it was the most bright iridescent blue I’ve ever seen . You guys that can hear I envy . I’d give anything to be able to hear birds singing . I don’t mind my deafness when it comes to people but I miss hearing the natural world .

 

[GaryE]

The expedition went about as well as all these things do. Four of us got up early and got in the car. We drove for an hour and got to the ferry, then sailed for 90 minutes through heavy heavy fog. I thought it would burn off. I thought wrongly...

So we saw very few birds. It was some of the heaviest fog I've seen in a long time. But we did see where the birds lived, and that was good enough for me. I think bird watching is partly an excuse to get out in nature and see what it is. During the about 40 minutes of sunshine on the way back, we saw harbour porpoises, Atlantic white sided dolphins and two finback whales. There were cliffs and sea (apparently) and wild flowers galore. I saw lots of fish, including huge numbers of Fundulus heteroclitus killifish. There was people watching on the ferry. So the day was a success, except for the birds.

 

[anewbie]

My cat watched birds.... and this pest watched me as i walked around the park - not sure why he was following me as it was several miles. Pity my cat isn't allowed in the park he would have known how to deal with this.

When i was in Europe for a year i worked at the ex-royalty summer hide out and their were some interesting critters (wild) that lived in that park. I never learned their names but just admired them when i would jog (the circumference was around 5 miles) - never took any pictures as this was back in the days when film was law of the land. But they were really colourful of course in the winter there was a rabbit some 3 feet tall all in white - gotta say bumping into a 3 foot rabbit is a little scary.

There is a park about a mile from me that has blue and green hearing (the blue ones are magnificent the green ones less so even if i prefer green as a colour); and a pair of bald eagles that have been nesting there for years. Of course one has to avoid the turkeys which can be quite nasty esp if you go off trail and there are always a few owls some large some small.

In truth i kind of prefer the beavers which only show up at 5 am; though you can usually find a few trees they knocked down over the years.
In colorado golden eagles were the things if you went in the mountains and if you went high enough there were wild sheeps but that was back in the 90s and i'm not sure how things have changed. Also never eat an apple by the lakes as birds will snatch them from you without a 2nd thought.

Morning was always a thing with me but dang i want my apple back.

 

[Fishmanic]

I have a birdbath in my back yard. This is the first time I’ve ever seen these yellow birds here in the northeast.

 

[gwand]

Goldfinch?

 

[bgarthe]

Yep….Goldfinches. Love them. Speaking of which, some 30 years ago, I did woodcarvings of this bird among others.

 

[GaryE]

There are a LOT of birds I've seen before, all my life really, but never really noted. All of a sudden now that I've decided to look, they're everywhere. There are a whole bunch of things I called sparrows before that are inter-related but distinct sparrow species.

Those in the photo above look like American Goldfinches to me - a really common species all along the eastern coast. Again, I had no idea how "everywhere" they were til I learned to recognize their calls. They are beauties.

 

[anewbie]

We have mocking birds when i was growing up - a whole family but they were kind of aggressive - even my cat was scared of them. But they were lovely.

The things that irk me is walking around the area (not park) and seeing a huge owl and its head just turn around as you walk past. I wish i could do that trick.

I guess i live in a nice area in that regards - lots of owls, deers, turkeys and such; though less common but quite lovely are the foxes.

 

[Back in the fold]

Hey Gary , that picture of the sea cliff in the fog is very cool ! I would half expect to see Barnabas Collins around there .