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InternetJunky posted:My wife and I have gone a bit bird-crazy over the last couple of years or so. We both started out with a purely photographic interest, but now I'd probably describe each of us as 50% birder and 50% photographer. Our identification skills have vastly improved, although we have a lot to work on with shorebirds and songbirds. Yeah, this is the perpetual conflict these days. I haven't encountered any problems face to face with birders while I'm carrying camera gear but I've seen plenty of anger online and second hand. In a lot of cases its justified, too. We've had a couple of snowy owl irruption years recently and photographers were out in force. Most, like myself, were respectful, kept their distance, and tried as hard as possible to not flush them but others didn't give a gently caress and would charge straight up to the birds. Like this dickhead: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0_gzY2k7P0 Then there's baiting. Photographers loooooove baiting Great Gray Owls. If you google an image of a great gray and see all of those awesome flight shots of the owl coming straight at the camera, I can virtually guarantee they were baited. It's a lovely thing to do because it acclimates the owls to people and they can and have attacked humans. They will also follow humans into roadways where they can get hit by cars. It is also possible to spread disease from domestically raised mice to the owls. Here's some video of fucknecks baiting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8MNvJe0oN0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBvr4zOE-gQ I've spent a fair amount of time on bird photography forums and there is often a big difference in the mindset of a photographer versus a birder. While they will constantly repeat that you should always be ethical and consider the bird first, I've definitely seen people congratulated for shots that were obviously taken of stressed, pressured or baited birds. It's kind of gross and makes me a bit embarrassed to be a photographer sometimes. Of course, I've also seen birders do some horrendous and dumb things but never on the level of poo poo some of these photographers pull.
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Sep 3, 2013 23:24
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BeastOfExmoor posted:Here's another fuckstick from Boundary Bay. For those who aren't photographers, 40mm is a very wide lens. He was close enough to touch this bird. "This is the first time I have attempted to approach a wild owl and the decision to do so was only made after a long and careful assessment of the situation." The big issue here is that these birds were within a couple hour drive of millions of people and had tons of pressure on them all winter long. It wasn't even necessary to approach them since when I went there were half a dozen within 50 feet of the walkway. Ha, yeah, that guy posted that photo to one of the bird photography forums and it is literally one of the photos I had in mind in my post. It was met with dozens of positive responses and no one questioned the ethics of approaching the bird that closely.
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Sep 4, 2013 00:44
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InternetJunky posted:I don't bait, but lots of people think I do thanks to the swarms of others that do bait. Haha, well I gotta say I'd be pretty stoked if people thought one of my images could only be achieved through baiting! That's fantastic and I'm glad you do poo poo the right way. I'm sure most people do, it's just the few that make a bad name for the rest. By the way, totally jealous you got to sit in the snow for days and actually get some shots. Me and a buddy tried tracking down some grays in Oregon last winter and didn't even see them, let alone get any photos. Totally cross country skied in and then sat in the snow for two days for nothing. Such a bummer. Gonna try again this winter but in a place where the owls are known to be habitually seen. Anyway, I've been dying to get out to the coast. I just know I'm missing all the rad shorebirds. Someone just reported a buff breasted sandpiper on the oregon coast, with good photos. Shorebirds are so fun to watch. Running around pecking at the ground and fighting then the whole flock will blast off for no discernible reason. Flying shorebird flocks are so mesmerizing and beautiful. Plus, big flocks will almost always attract peregrines and merlins which are amazing to watch hunt.
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Sep 5, 2013 06:19
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InternetJunky posted:If you ever make it up to Alberta, Canada during the winter I'd be happy to introduce you to "my" owls. I would love to take you up on this sometime! razz posted:So much of being able to identify a bird is knowing what to look for (such as relative bill size difference with Downy and Hairy woodpeckers). Bill size and shape is a good thing to note - does the bird have a thick chunky bill like a sparrow, or a thin pointy bill like a warbler? Or maybe it has a wide triangular bill like a flycatcher? This is one of the key things, GISS - General Impression of Size and Shape, that is incredibly helpful once you've developed a basic vocabulary for the birds in your area. I am not a super pro birder by any stretch, I've only been doing this for a few years, but once I started focusing on shape and size I got much better at ID'ing quicker and more accurately. All the grizzled old birders with their ancient WWII era porro-prisms had to rely on this method pretty much exclusively before our halcyon days of HD Fluorite optics came about and we could make out eyerings and primary projections on flycatchers. Another extremely helpful bit of advice I was given early on is to know the common birds, and know them well. Know that 90 something percent of hawks you see will be red tails. Know what they look like and how they act and you will immediately know when something different soars overhead. Looking out over a mudflat filled with 46 billion Western and Least Sandpipers? If you know them well then that one Pectoral Sandpiper mixed in the crowd will pop right out at you. Just this morning I was looking out over our yard at the normal compliment of house finches, house sparrows, goldfinches and chickadees and one bird in the group immediately looked out of place. It caught my attention because it wasn't one of the familiar species and I was able to ID a female Black Headed Grosbeak, a first in my yard. This may be too much for most people and maybe I'm a nerd but something else that's been really helpful to me is to flip through your field guide whenever you've got some downtime. Just look at the pictures and read the names and try to see which species live in your area. You'd be surprised at what you pick up through casually perusing the field guide. I remember the first time I saw a Townsend's Warbler I totally surprised myself by knowing what it was and saying it out loud before I was really even cognizant of it.
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Sep 6, 2013 04:47
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Pablo Bluth posted:Plus I'm jealous of your wilderness. You know, it took moving to Oregon to really appreciate just how much wilderness we have here. I lived in southern California my whole life and just assumed that the entire country was a paved over suburban strip mall hellscape. Turns out the western US has a lot of natural areas that are still pretty well protected. And big! Pablo Bluth posted:Not to mention your wolves, Yeah about that...
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Sep 6, 2013 21:03
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Yeah, doesn't Humboldt have a pretty steller wildlife department? You might approach someone there through the local Audubon and try to get an interview or something. Oh and does the Arcata marsh host white-tails year round? We get them periodically in Oregon and I've never managed to find one here. I do drive through California fairly regularly, though, and that would make a nice stop...
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Sep 6, 2013 22:49
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e: ^^^^omg gently caress gulls. Hey what's that is it a third year california x herring hybrid? Who knows? I have a thick rear end book of gulls and half the photos have a caption that's something like "we think this is a juvenile hybrid of x and y but really we don't know have fun learning gulls!" I saw a peregrine feasting this morning as well although my shot isn't nearly as nice as yours:  I also located a roosting pair of Western Screech Owls the other night but, being owls, the only thing I really saw was the silhouettes. My headlamp didn't have enough power to light them up. Had to ID by call. Whats cool is that they are in a restored riparian area that runs right down the middle of my girlfriend's school. Next time I go down there, I'm gonna try to find them in the day. I spent all day today looking for shorebirds that were closer in than a quarter mile. I finally found some Sanderlings and Westerns on a beach along the Columbia river that were more than happy to let me walk right up to them. I took literally 1000 photos. A thought on binos: I've gone super cheap and lower midgrade and I've got to say it isn't worth it, really. A decent set of binoculars in the $200-300 range makes a world of difference. I use a higher end pair of Alpen 10x50's and I love them. They cost me a little over $200 I think. Vortex is making some awesome optics in their HD line that are fantastic for how little they cost. I have friends that swear by Eagle Optics. No matter which brand, birding with good optics really improves the experience. When I got my girlfriend some better binoculars she was astounded at how the dark blobs flitting about the bushes would pop with color and detail. It makes ID'ing a lot easier. 800peepee51doodoo fucked around with this message at 07:42 on Sep 10, 2013 |
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Sep 10, 2013 07:39
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It's weird that y'all would say there are more men than women birders. In my experience, it seems like the opposite. It may be because of where I live (Portland) but I would say that women birders equal, or possibly outnumber men. When we did the Christmas bird count last year, I'd say that the gender split was just about 50-50. Now, it does seem like men are a bit more...intense about the hobby but women certainly don't seem underrepresented here. As far as leadership roles go, yeah that seems to be almost all men but that's your typical entrenched patriarchy at work.
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Sep 10, 2013 17:31
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That does seem to be the way, right? I think the youngest women I've seen out birding or know personally are in their mid-30's. I have seen a bunch of teenage/early 20's guys though. I remember this one time I went up to Bonney Butte where they have a Hawk Watch banding and counting station. There were probably a dozen people there at any given time scanning for migrating hawks. It was a pretty even mix of men and women, mostly in their mid-30's to mid-50's. This one guy brought three teenage girls with him, presumably a daughter and friends, to get them interested in birds. You could feel the palpable, near physical force of their intense boredom coming off of them in waves. There was no cell service OMG why is there no cell service ugh! Granted, systematically scanning a huge expanse of sky with binoculars for tiny flying dots is probably not the best introduction to birding. What's interesting is that I think that gender divide switches with botany. I've known tons of young women who are fascinated with plants but almost no young men. Around here, all the cool girls are covered in native plant tattoos.
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Sep 10, 2013 21:15
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ntrepid posted:Is there a resource out there that shows the more common vs rare species? I saw a Wilson's Warbler and a Connecticut warbler this weekend, as well as a few others that I couldn't ID. Just curious how often certain species are spotted. Depends on your area. In Oregon we're kind of lucky because we have a phenomenal resource in the book Birds of Oregon, which is a compilation of sighting records, species accounts and scientific studies. Its really comprehensive and a wonderful go-to for frequency, behavior, habitat, etc. Also, one of the dudes who wrote it is super active on the listserv and seems like an all around Good Dude. Your state or may have something similar. You can report your findings to eBird. If it's considered rare I think it will get flagged and some volunteer will email you for confirmation. I got an email from them when I reported the Red-Breasted Merganser I saw in Klamath Lake. You could also submit it to a local listserv and see what people there think. Mostly, though, it seems like you just have to rely on experience since everything is so dependent on specific location. Sparowe posted:What I'm interested in is how it's such a broad spectrum of people who are into the entire birding thing, and how accepting everyone in the local communities are towards differences in taste, etc. I come from a hardcore-punk background - as does the boyfriend - and we always get asked questions about our specific tattoos and shirts and patches by the older members, because they are simply interested. I love the fact that you can be into practically anything, and you'll be accepted simply because you all share the same passion. I remember the boyfriend (fellow goon under the name meso) telling me about one woman looking at his "ABOLISH CAPITALISM - SMASH THE STATE" patch and responding with, "I agree! Capitalism is evil! I don't know what we'd replace it with though..." What up punk birder buddy. A lot of the activist-y, punks-is-hippies types are into birding around here, too. Usually the older ones though, heh. I know that when you live in a place your local species don't seem all that exciting anymore but it just blows my mind that people in SA would be twitching out on some drab-rear end chickadee lookin motherfucker when you have like secretary birds and bee eaters and rad as gently caress rollers and poo poo everywhere. I mean, I know how it goes, but still.
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Sep 11, 2013 04:56
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BeastOfExmoor posted:eBird is great for this. Go here and plug in your state/province and county (or multiple counties, for more complete records) and you should get a nice set of graphs showing how often each species is reported throughout the year. I print these out whenever I travel so I have a good idea what unfamiliar species I need to research and be on the lookout for. I've never used this aspect of eBird. I guess I never realized you could filter for hotspots which is actually kind of amazing. I've really only used eBird for looking for a specific species and seeing where it's been reported most recently. Thanks for pointing this out!
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Sep 11, 2013 19:06
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BeastOfExmoor posted:All the reports you can pull from ebird under the "Explore Data" Do you know if there is a way to filter or search for lists people have submitted for specific hotspots by date? Like, for instance is there a way I could look up what people have reported seeing in the last 7 days at X location? The only way I could figure out how to do that was to search for some common species on the map and check the recent lists. Obviously, this isn't going to get everything because a lot of people won't report the common stuff but will report the less common species.
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Sep 11, 2013 19:45
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BetterLekNextTime posted:I'm not sure about 7 days, but if you zoom in enough on the map to see individual reports, those <30 days are in red and the rest are in blue. Yeah, that's what I usually do, but you have to search for a species. You can't just put in a name for a hotspot, at least not on the map.
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Sep 11, 2013 20:11
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Those pics are great! I have The Shorebird Guide, which was linked earlier I think and is really pretty excellent. Shorebirds of North America, Europe, and Asia is also very good, but might be a bit too broad since it covers just about the entire world. For the gulls, Gulls of the Americas is the best I've found with tons of examples of plumage variations and comparisons between the species, hybrids, the different age groups and such. Gulls and shorebirds are really challenging!
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Sep 15, 2013 18:36
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BeastOfExmoor posted:I'm lukewarm on the Gull Guide. Tons of photos, but they're all pretty small and have a distinct color cast to them that really hinders them. I think the photos were taken on film which resulted in fewer, lower quality shots. Steve Howell did the text. He tends to, in my experience, be very thorough but verbose. I have a hard time making it through more than a page or two before I get bored or sleepy. I'd say that it's a good book to check out from the library first or buy used for cheap. Those are all totally valid criticisms. I just havent been able to find a guide that's better. Is there one you would recommend? I wouldn't mind getting my hands on another guide that made learning gulls less of a chore.
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Sep 16, 2013 00:18
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BeastOfExmoor posted:From what I can tell, Gulls of Europe, Asia and North America is the only other similar book and it's price is...high to say the least. That does look pretty good from what little I can see on Amazon. Paintings are almost always preferable to photos. I might actually lay down $60 just for that. Or I could just go out to the coast/river/sewage treatment plant with some legit good birders I guess. Which sparrow guide did you order, InternetJunky? Was it this one? A friend of mine has it and it seems pretty solid. I should probably get that one as well. On the subject of books, Owls of the World is loving fantastic. It has phenomenal photographs and tons of info. The person who put it together must be utterly obsessed with owls. Here's some sample pages.
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Sep 16, 2013 04:12
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InternetJunky posted:This was a really sad read. People here have been shooting and trapping raptors to protect their retarded pigeons. Luckily the Migratory Bird Act makes this a an actual crime and people have been arrested for it. 800peepee51doodoo fucked around with this message at 22:30 on Sep 18, 2013 |
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Sep 18, 2013 22:04
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Holy poo poo, eBird added a hotspot explorer! Very cool. You can zoom in to a location or search for an area, click on it and it will display a species list that you can sort by last seen. Its pretty much exactly what I was asking for a few days ago in this thread. Super stoked about this, its baller as gently caress.
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Sep 19, 2013 06:22
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