Ask us about birding! [not the pet birds thread]

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Pet Island > Ask us about birding! [not the pet birds thread]

BeastOfExmoor: Aug 19, 2003; I will be gone, but not forever.

Great first post.

A couple things I would add.

Most of the statewide/regional birding reports still happen on regional listserv's (email lists). Most of the major ones are archived at this site: http://birding.aba.org/

It can be interesting to see what people have posted recently in your area, although it can be a little obtuse if you're not that familiar with birds and what birds are common, uncommon and rare in your area.

For North America, The Sibley Guide to Birds is the current "standard" field guide. There is a large version that covers all of North America as well as smaller Western and Eastern versions. I would recommend the small versions to start for anyone starting out for a few reasons, the main one being that they added text descriptions that aid significantly in IDing and finding the species. They also have more accurate maps, are more portable and are cheaper.

Sibley really is the gold standard at this moment in time, but if you want to check out a photo guide the Stokes Guide.

Edit: If you need optics, the biggest bargain on a starter pair of 8x42's right now is [urlhttp://www.binoculars.com/binoculars/general-use-binoculars/8x42ed.cfm]these 8x42's with ED glass on clearance for $100.[/url] Great reviews for the price.

edit 2: There's a good photography thread in the Dorkroom and the Critter Quest thread sees some bird action as well.

BeastOfExmoor fucked around with this message at 18:28 on Aug 20, 2013

# ¿ Aug 20, 2013 18:15

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# ¿ Apr 19, 2024 14:09

BeastOfExmoor: Aug 19, 2003; I will be gone, but not forever.

Beep Street posted:

Are there any national bird protection organisations in America or are they state by state? In the UK we have the RSPB for all things birdy.

Just to add what the others mentioned, there's nothing in the USA with the same power as the RSPB, which is, as I understand it, is a pretty significant political force in the UK. Audobon comes closest, but is not nearly as powerful. There are also groups like Duck's Unlimited which is mainly made up of duck hunters. While it's a bit counter intuitive, these hunting groups do a ton to help create and preserve habitat used by not only the species they hunt, but also hundreds of other species of birds as well as other flora and fauna.

Birding is a much bigger hobby in the UK as well. There's a lot of differences in birding culture as I understand it as well. The most odd of which, to me, is that if you're seen in the field with a bird book you're looked down on in the UK. In the US, almost nobody ventures out without a bird guide of some sort, partially because there's hundreds of more species possible.

The Monkey Man posted:

What's your favorite sighting ever? For what it's worth, some of the most interesting stuff I've seen while birding has been animals other than birds- I saw deer up close with my dad one time, and got to see carp jumping out of the water during their mating season. I did get to see a clapper rail last year near Atlantic City- they aren't rare, but they're rarely seen because they're almost always in the tall grass.

I'd have a hard time nailing down a particular bird. I agree that I really find the experiences most enjoyable in retrospect. Yea, the day I chased a Common Eider, Wilson's Plover, and Hudsonian Godwit last year on the Washington coast was really incredible (3rd state record and 2nd state record for the first two), but they weren't that amazing as experiences. I have a lot more fun "finding" a bird rather than chasing another bird someone else has found which plays a big part in that.

Overall I'd have to say all my "lifer" owls have been my favorites. I got a look at my first Northern Saw-Whet owl, a bird I'd looked at pictures of in books since I was a small child, last fall and that was incredible. It's not even rare in my area, but it's just not an easy bird to locate and especially to see. Snowy Owl was the first bird I ever "chased" and I did so with my dad who had always told a story about thinking he saw one when he was kid.

Disco Nixon posted:

Also, I can't ID this gull, it looks like a non-breeding Franklin's but it's not quite right.

I'm not really familiar with either species, but looking at Sibley, I would say Laughing Gull (common in the east and SE along the coast). Laughing Gull has that much heavier bill and darker primaries*. That one may be younger since it has all black primaries.

Gulls are an interesting group in that they are easily seen but hard to identify. There is not true "seagull", but rather dozens of species (around 17 in North America), most of which look very similar. Because Gulls can often end up thousands of miles away from they are "supposed" to be they're a favorite for birders to look for. The features that distinguish species are often as minor as the color of the 1mm of skin around the eyes and as the base of the bill.

*Primaries or Primary Feathers are the feathers on the wing that are sicking out at the very back of that photo. They are the long feather along the back of the wings that provide most of the lift in flight.

BeastOfExmoor fucked around with this message at 21:15 on Aug 20, 2013

# ¿ Aug 20, 2013 20:58

BeastOfExmoor: Aug 19, 2003; I will be gone, but not forever.

Wayne Gretzky posted:

How does the community handle "bird liars"? Like if a person says they saw a bird and you think that it's a made up lie... like how could this person get so lucky to see all these rare birds and stuff something is fishy etc. etc.?

It depends. For birds that are rare on a state level there is typically a "bird records committee" that reviews rare bird reports taking in to account all evidence at hand to decide if they accept the report and add it the accepted records. They can be very strict and not only decide if the bird was the species you say it was, but also if it was naturally occurring or if it is there by human assisted means.

For birds that are not rare enough to hit the committee, it's just kind of peer pressure. I am currently doing a "big year" in the county I live in and so am paying attention to every siting reported on eBird. One person in particular has had some incredibly questionable sightings and it really annoyed me. I actually have a personal list of birds who says he saw that I'm almost certain he didn't. Turns out others have had similar experiences.

The one thing you have to understand is that your credibility is everything in the birding community. People with reputations for misidentifying birds, even rarely, eventually become "the boy who cried wolf" and people no longer pay much attention to them after a while. Since the only glory you get in birding is the respect of your peers, there's very little to gain by making things up.

# ¿ Aug 20, 2013 21:28

BeastOfExmoor: Aug 19, 2003; I will be gone, but not forever.

razz posted:

Even something like ebird, which is basically volunteer data, has people checking the records. So your sightings don't get put on the website for a day or two until somebody reviews it, and there's a specific person responsible for the records submitted for each area.

This is only true for bird flagged as rare. Basically every area (county, usually) has a list of birds common for each week of the year. If your bird doesn't appear on that list it gets flagged as rare. Everything else goes through without question, for better or worse. I've seen some pretty egregious ID issues with common birds in my area, typically high altitude species reported in the middle of Seattle at sea level.

# ¿ Aug 20, 2013 22:42

BeastOfExmoor: Aug 19, 2003; I will be gone, but not forever.

Mathematics posted:

So why isn't it called bird watching any longer?

This was actually a fairly significant deal from what I understand. Somewhere around the 70's many of the more serious, and younger, birders felt the need to differentiate themselves from the Jane Hathaway stereotype that existed back then. Rather than passively looking at whatever birds they happened to find they went out and chased rarities, did big years, etc. They created the term birder and took offense at the bird watcher term. I think a lot of that sentiment is now gone and if I'm talking to someone who may not know the "birding" term I'll say I go bird watching.

Most of my knowledge of this subject comes from a really excellent book called Kingbird Highway by Kenn Kaufman. When he was 19 years old Kenn set off to see as many birds as possible in one year and hopefully set the record. Since he was 19 and had almost no money he did so by mostly hitchhiking. It really is the movie about birding that should have been made, rather than The Big Year.

Wayne Gretzky posted:

Hmm... ok. Thanks but not interested then.

Wayne Gretzky posted:

How many good normal sightings do you think I would have to have before someone would believe me if I said I saw some really crazy poo poo ?

Sorry if I made it seem a bit rigid. It really isn't. As others have stated, if you can describe what you saw and how you ruled out the more common alternatives.

# ¿ Aug 21, 2013 17:20

BeastOfExmoor: Aug 19, 2003; I will be gone, but not forever.

Kawalimus posted:

But one thing I can't stand is PEEPS!!! These things mess with my mind. My brain won't let me understand them in the field. I know Least Sandpipers have yellow legs but you can't always see that. I try and try but my brain says no. It drives me bananas. I feel like you need the best spotting scopes to even begin to do this crap with these. Doing shorebirds this summer almost destroyed my birding confidence. But it was worth it to see stuff like Red Knot and Marbled Godwit.

For the unitiated, "peeps" is a term used to refer to the species of small sandpipers that are roughly sparrow sized and tend to feed in large numbers. They can be really tough to ID, not only because their distinguishing marks are subtle, but also because they move around constantly and fly often.

This was my first spring looking for shorebirds. It was way easier on northward migration because all the birds are adults in breeding plumage. When they head south you start mixing in juveniles and adults molting out of breeding plumage and it becomes a crap shoot. I'd say that optics will only get you a little ways. Having the light behind you and being able to get a bit close are really, really helpful. Experience is huge as well. I quickly realized that Least Sandpipers and Western Sandpipers, our two common species, actually hang out in different spots in the places I find them. Least's will often be completely out of the water, running around on the mud while Western's will be up to their bellies much of the time.

If you want to study up on shorebirds, this book is really excellent. I linked to the CamelCamelCamel link because it's currently pretty expensive on Amazon, but sometimes drops down really low. Worth setting an alert for. The best part is that almost all the species photographed have several photos that contain multiple species next to each other. It really helps to compare them next to each other.

razz posted:

The Big Year was dumb. I mean, it was entertaining, but really not all that accurate. It wasn't made for birders obviously.

Interestingly, the book it was based off of is actually very good. They just completely changed a ton of info for no real reason.

BeastOfExmoor fucked around with this message at 17:43 on Aug 21, 2013

# ¿ Aug 21, 2013 17:37

BeastOfExmoor: Aug 19, 2003; I will be gone, but not forever.

Yea, definitely not much money in birding, which is kind of refreshing to be honest.

It's nice because even if you're crazy about it it's not that expensive in comparison to other hobbies. Top of the line binoculars and spotting scope will run you $2000 a piece, but you can get models that are 95% as good for half that, plus maybe another $300 for a tripod for your scope.

The real money is spent on travel and guides. It's really common for the hardcore birders to travel to some very exotic locations. I don't know that many birders really, but I know folks who have been to Cuba, Ecuador, and Costa Rica in the last year. When you're completely out of your element you usually hire a local guide. When I was on a cruise with my wife earlier this year I hired a local guide for $300 for a day. Expensive, but totally worth it. Week+ long trips can cost thousands of dollars.

edit:

Wayne Gretzky posted:

Maybe all of the bird people pay money into a pot, or else maybe a binocular company wants to use the bird man in an advertisement and have his picture in the store... that's what I was thinking any way.

When you see the bird, does it matter what they are doing? Is it for example extra good to see an owl eating, or two different birds loving each other? Like in hockey cards which I collect there's the regular cards and the "special versions" of the same card that are even more rare and special.

There's very few bird "celebrities" that ever would have the clout to endorse a product. I can probably count the number of "big names" in birding on one hand and essentially all of them are known for the books. I've heard that there's a few folks that get binoculars tossed their way in the hope that it will give them free publicity, but that's rare.

As BetterLekNextTime stated, experiences are great, but there's no "score" to them. Seeing a bird where it's unusual, in great numbers, or doing something special are all cool experiences. The closest thing to special versions would be an unusual subspecies. Most bird species have subspecies that usually correspond to a geographical range. If I found a Eurasian Whimbrel in a group of American Whimbrels that would be very cool because I'd know that I was almost certainly looking at a bird that crossed the Bearing Sea to get here.

BeastOfExmoor fucked around with this message at 21:40 on Aug 21, 2013

# ¿ Aug 21, 2013 21:18

BeastOfExmoor: Aug 19, 2003; I will be gone, but not forever.

I've never had an issue with my binoculars in my carry-on for work. I'm typically traveling with a full DSLR setup including a 100-400mm lens and nobody bats an eye. I've heard the same from other birders.

# ¿ Aug 22, 2013 18:26

BeastOfExmoor: Aug 19, 2003; I will be gone, but not forever.

Knockknees posted:

I want to get more into it, and I'd like a book to flip through at home - but having trouble deciding what to get. Obviously Sibley's is top of the line when it comes to number of illustrations - but is there any book that is known for having lots of words and information about behavior/habitat/nesting/quirky facts and so on? I'm a sucker for stuff like that.

Besides the ones already mentioned, I'd throw in Pete Dunne's Field Guide Companion. It's a species by species text-only field guide that is, as it's named, an excellent companion to your visual field guide. It can be had used on Amazon for about $7 shipped, which is impressive considering it's over 700 pages. It does focus more on bird ID and finding rather than interesting facts about the bird's life. Here's the Spotted Sandpiper text, for example.

quote:

Spotted Sandpiper, Actitis macularia
"Teeter-rear end Sandpiper"

STATUS: Common, widespread, versatile, and somewhat anomalous-looking. DISTRIBUTION: Enjoys the most extensive nesting range of any North American sandpiper�a range that encompasses virtually all of Canada and Alaska and the northern two-thirds of the U.S. Winters from coastal S.C. and s. Ga. to Calif.; north along the Pacific Coast to sw. B.C.; and south throughout the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America, and most of South America. HABITAT: Occupies an array of aquatic (and semi-aquatic) habitats, from fast-moving streams to upper ocean beaches, rocky coasts, riverbanks, wet and dry mud flats, stock ponds, swimming pools, and irrigation ditches. Also forages along roadsides and other dry habitats. Nests, on the ground, in or under vegetative cover that is fairly close to fresh water (but occasionally 100 yds. or more away). COHABITANTS: Likes to be alone. MOVEMENT/MIGRATION: Migrates alone or in small groups (fewer than a dozen individuals). Spring migration from mid-March to early June, with a peak in May; fall from late June to November, with a peak in July and August. VI: 4.

DESCRIPTION: A small, somewhat roundly contoured sandpiper, constructed with parts that seem not quite to fit. It is easily distinguished in summer by its uniquely spotted underparts, in winter by its plain brown wrapping, and at all seasons by its very curious shape, posture, and antics. The body is plump in the front, pinched thin in the rear. The head is somewhat squarish and neckless. The bill seems a bit too heavy and too straight (not to mention, in breeding plumage, too orange), the tail (projecting beyond the wings) seems too long, and the pale legs may be a bit too short.

The upperparts are dun-colored and, except for a black eye-line and pale eyebrow, about as plain as plain gets. In breeding plumage, the breast and to a lesser extent the flanks and belly are richly spotted in a manner that recalls Wood Thrush. In nonbreeding plumage, the spots are replaced by a shadowy half-collar that curls down the sides of the breast (looks like a thumbprint, as if someone with dirty hands had pinched the neck). Juveniles are like nonbreeding adults.

BEHAVIOR: Very much a shore bird. While Spotted Sandpiper does occasionally stand in water, it much prefers to keep its feet dry, feeding just at the water�s edge, atop a mat of vegetation or well away from the water (on jetties or raised dikes adjacent to wetlands). Very active and nervous, Spotted walks with a distinctive and near-perpetual �bobbing� or �teetering� motion, with the body horizontal and the head slightly raised. Once prey is sighted, the bill darts forward, or, if not in range, the bird crouches and runs with head lowered and body angled up toward the rear.

The bird�s walking gait often seems halting or wandering, with an occasional sidestep. Pursuit of prey (such as flies on a mud flat) may be very energetic; the bird may even leap into the air to pick prey off of vegetation and flying insects out of the air.

At high tide or on the breeding ground, often sits on exposed perches�treetops, fenceposts, driftwood, even snow fence. Commonly solitary, but several individuals may forage together or sit out a tide together.

FLIGHT: Flight is distinctive. With the body suspended between wings as straight and narrow as tongue depressors, the bird seems to skip across the surface of the water on wings that do not flap so much as intermittently vibrate or jitter, then freezes into a droop-winged glide. The long tail is broadly fanned and forms a uniquely shaped blunt wedge. The wings are bisected by a pencil-thin white line running down their length. The head is slightly raised, as if the bird were swimming (instead of flying) and trying to keep its head above water. Flight may be direct or wandering, but it is usually of short duration and low.

VOCALIZATIONS: Utters a soft, three-penny whistle of a call, �pee, pee, pee,� that is similar to Solitary Sandpiper but not so sharp, loud, or emphatic. Also, when flushed, utters a soft, whistled �pee-ury-hurry,� in tones that would serve for a bedtime story.

PERTINENT PARTICULARS: This very distinctive, and in so many respects unique, sandpiper shares some of the same habitats, mannerisms, and calls of the larger, darker, and more angular Solitary Sandpiper, but the differences are also manifest. Bear in mind that Spotted is hyperactive and likes being in the open; Solitary is deliberate and likes tight places and shadowy confines. Also, Spotted�s habit of leaning forward and chasing prey across open ground is mimicked by several other sandpipers, most notably Wilson�s Phalarope.

If you have a good public library system in your area I strongly reccomend browsing their shelves and/or online catalog. It's a good way to find out which books are worthless, good to read once, or must-have purchases.

Kawalimus posted:

What do people think about stuff like using screech-owl tapes to scare out birds? It seems like more and more people are doing this. I find it kind of cheap and also discourteous when there are a bunch of other birders around. In the spring myself and a couple other guys were birding at a good warbler area and one of us thought we had a bay-breasted and I was getting a glimpse of a Cape May. Then someone right near us started doing a screech-owl tape and all the birds went bananas and we never got good looks. It was just annoying. But it seems like so many of the top birders do it. So I don't know.

I use playback pretty frequently, although not necessarily playing predator sounds to trigger bird's mobbing response. I rarely am in a situation where other birders could possibly mistake my recordings for a bird and I wouldn't play a recording if it was possible.

Pishing is another good way to get a better look at hidden birds, but I don't have time to write up how to do it at the moment. Maybe tomorrow.

# ¿ Aug 28, 2013 03:34

BeastOfExmoor: Aug 19, 2003; I will be gone, but not forever.

razz posted:

I don't think there's really a "wrong" way to pish out birds. If you make a noise and they come out, hey, it worked

I make a noise kind of like a cross between "psst" and "shhh". So it really does sound like "psssh, psssh, psssh". but with the shhh part kind of longer and drawn out. You could probably find a YouTube video or something.

You can also make squeaky sounds, like a kiss. Pull air in through your lips and keep them really tight, that will get some birds to come out too.

I was going to make a big effort post, but Razz pretty much nailed it.

All the videos I could find on youtube are poor, but here's one minus a really long awkward explanation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=LI4EwnWavUw#t=80

There's not really any "right" way to do it. You're basically trying to mimic a sound that will make a bird curious so squeeks, whistles, etc. are all worth trying.

Knockknees posted:

How often are birders a big group of random people gathered in one spot, versus just being alone in a spot or a hike? I suppose it depends on the location and time of year, but I don't know much about the birding culture.

It varies completely. There are many "hot spots" that see a lot of people, but it's all relative. The only time I know I'm going to run into another birder is either chasing a rarity or going to a very well known hot spot during the right time of year. This may just be my location, however.

Hot spots can be very strange. Sure there are places like Central Park, or Cape May that are known by most people, but locally there are often spots without any distinction among the general populace that birders know very well. When I was in Colorado I ended up at the local hotspot for finding Rosy-Finches in the winter. It was a residential street in a ski town where a couple residents had bird feeders.

BeastOfExmoor fucked around with this message at 20:41 on Aug 28, 2013

# ¿ Aug 28, 2013 20:13

BeastOfExmoor: Aug 19, 2003; I will be gone, but not forever.

That really sucks. I do a lot of hikes on my own and that's the kind of thing that gives me nightmares.

# ¿ Aug 28, 2013 23:53

BeastOfExmoor: Aug 19, 2003; I will be gone, but not forever.

Monk Parakeets are great. I hunted some down in San Antonio when I was there last year. It's kind of amazing that tropical birds like that can survive, much less breed, in climates so different from their natural ones.

# ¿ Aug 30, 2013 17:47

BeastOfExmoor: Aug 19, 2003; I will be gone, but not forever.

Carolina Parakeet really upsets me too. I was intending on mentioning it in my earlier post but I lost my train of thought. I not-so-secretly hope that the de-extinction will bring it back in my lifetime.

# ¿ Aug 31, 2013 00:04

BeastOfExmoor: Aug 19, 2003; I will be gone, but not forever.

On paper it certainly seems strange for two groups interested in the same thing could differ so greatly. It's mostly that they're interested in different aspects to a large extent. Birders get annoyed with photographers who spend $10k on a lens and yet cannot manage to identify any of the species they see. Sure, they're pretty, but don't you want to know what they are, or what the do, or where the live in the winter? The birds that are most interesting to photographers are often completely boring to birders. Bald Eagles and Great-Blue Heron's are a dime-a-dozen here, but every time I drag my camera around a park I have people telling me about them. They walk right by the little warbler that weighs a fraction of an ounce, but just flew all the way from Central America and is headed to Alaska to breed.

On the other hand, you have the most ridiculous aspects of birding. Listing, twitching, big days, big years, etc. I don't have an issue with any of these, and fact I have done several of them, but to an outside observer they can be pretty ridiculous. Why is a bird arbitrarily way cooler on some side of an imaginary line than another? What's the joy of driving two hours to see a rare bird, staying ten minutes, and heading home?

razz posted:

Anyone seen anything good lately? I'm still nursing my sore ankle so haven't gotten out to look for any of the fall migrants that are coming through right now.

Not a migrant, but I climbed about a mile of vertical elevation yesterday with my dad to try to find some White-Tailed Ptarmigans he's seen on previous trips to a nearby mountain. They ended up standing right in the trail and barely moved out of the way. I'll post photos when I get time to load them into Lightroom.

edit: regarding baiting and flushing, I agree.

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.

I will say that InternetJunky has shot tons of amazing Great Gray Owl shots and I don't believe he baits. He can explain for certain, but I think he just sets up in a blind and watches the owls hunt.

BeastOfExmoor fucked around with this message at 23:56 on Sep 3, 2013

# ¿ Sep 3, 2013 23:44

BeastOfExmoor: Aug 19, 2003; I will be gone, but not forever.

Looking for a single rare Snipe that differs from other snipes only slightly when you can't actually enter the property has to be about the most miserable thing I can imagine. I flushed 40 snipe from within 50ft of me this spring and I was actively looking where they were and still didn't see them. They're like ghosts.

We have nothing worse than mosquitoes here in western Washington and it's really hard to remember that I can't just go traipsing through the underbrush when I travel.

# ¿ Sep 4, 2013 16:31

BeastOfExmoor: Aug 19, 2003; I will be gone, but not forever.

Kawalimus posted:

Often in urban areas you will get places that are great during migration. Routes that have been used for over thousands of years that don't have much green left on them but the little spots that do pretty much get everything that comes through. These are referred to as "migrant traps". There's a good birding documentary I saw on HBO called "Birders: The Central Park Effect" that goes over this. I know a guy who lives in Baltimore City near an area like this, and in the spring he will get between 15 and 20 warbler mornings sometimes. I know a couple near me as well. So if you live in Chicago there might be a place near you like that if you ever don't mind staying in or near the city. But I'm not familiar with Chicago's stuff obviously since I don't live there. I know mostly east coast stuff.

Yea, living in a major metro area can be a blessing and a curse for this reason. There's not as many birds, but they concentrate in the few large green areas that exist and there's more birders there so they report more species. In Seattle there are like three heavily birded parks and they always turn up half a dozen rarities a year. Meanwhile, half an hour north where things spread out a little bit it's very hard to find any of these rare birds even though they almost certainly pass through this county after they leave.

I know there's good birding in Chicago from some ABA Blogs. Here's one I remember most that shows big year totals for specific "patches", many of them in Chicago. Yea, those are extremes, but I bet 150+ species could be seen in any given year by a dedicated person.

This seems like a good place to start:
http://chicagobirder.org/

Looks like they have walks and field trips. Spending time with other birders can be really helpful if you pay attention. Where do people look, what are they looking for, etc.

BeastOfExmoor fucked around with this message at 21:52 on Sep 5, 2013

# ¿ Sep 5, 2013 21:03

BeastOfExmoor: Aug 19, 2003; I will be gone, but not forever.

BetterLekNextTime posted:

There's always Birds of North America Online. It's the "full" version of the All About Birds accounts. Requires subscription, but you can often get a year's access for joining your local Audubon society or the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Also most university libraries have institutional subscriptions so if you have library access (or can borrow a friend's proxy), you can get it for free.

Yea, I was going to say BNA as well. I'm lucky enough that the Seattle library system has a subscription and allows anyone with a library card to login through their proxy. It is very much from a scientific perspective so while you may be able to find out what percentage of x species diet consists of spiders it may leave you guessing at where the heck you might find that species in a given area.

I wish we had WT Kites here. They expanded north and actually ventured into the Puget Sound area on rare occasions for a few years, but they completely retreated about a decade ago. Amazing birds.

edit: Field Guide Companion is really good for that "where to find a bird and what it will be doing when you find it" sort of thing. It's cheapish used on Amazon.

BeastOfExmoor fucked around with this message at 22:47 on Sep 6, 2013

# ¿ Sep 6, 2013 22:44

BeastOfExmoor: Aug 19, 2003; I will be gone, but not forever.

ExecuDork posted:

My binoculars are Bushnells, a brand that I think is well-regarded; in any case, I'm happy with them. 8x42 (that's decent magnification and big enough at the light-gathering end they're fairly bright) and waterproof / very rugged (I've dropped them into all sorts of wet and rocky places, no damage yet!). They cost me $100 about 5 years ago.

Early in this thread there was a recommendation to spend $200-$300 on binos. In my knee-jerk reaction opinion, that's too much. Find a waterproof pair for $100-$150. I don't know why they even make non-waterproof binoculars, what's the point in having them if you can't take them outside except on perfect, sunny days?

Bushnell drives me nuts because they make about a billion different levels of bins, from $12 to $500 Elites. I've heard good things about their Legend series, but they make so many more bad low-end models than good ones that I have a hard time recommending them as a brand.

Coming from photography where there are rarely more than a couple decent lenses that fit into any given category it was really, really daunting trying to pick out binoculars. Want a pair of 8x42 roof prism binoculars? Here's 100 options. That doesn't even count porro prism models.

I can't say I've looked through a pair of Monarchs many times, but they are basically the go-to binoculars in their price range. For the same money you might find a boutique brand that outperforms them in some way or another, but that often means ordering online without ever being able to compare in person. Zeiss has a pair in that price range now as well. The Vanguard Endeavor ED's have won Bird Watcher's Digest's shootout a couple years in a row and can be found in the low $200's after rebates from time to time.

InternetJunky posted:

Had an amazing weekend birding, finding 12 lifers including this super rare (for Alberta) Parasitic Jaeger.

I hate to say it, but is that photo supposed to be of the Jaeger? Looks like a 100% match for a juvenile Ring-Billed Gull to me. I spent a morning in a thunderstorm looking for Jaegers last week. I finally gave up when the thunder stopped sounding like distant rumbling and instead sounded like the crack of a gunshot. Probably not a good time to be carrying a big tripod.

# ¿ Sep 9, 2013 17:51

BeastOfExmoor: Aug 19, 2003; I will be gone, but not forever.

I can only speak for my location as well, but I'd say that it's quite a mix of people here in the the northwestern part of the US. It's pretty evenly split between men and women, but it certainly trends older. I'm 32 and I can probably count the birders I've met locally that were younger than me on one hand. That said, it doesn't bother me too much since at this point in my life I have more in common with someone who's 42 than 22.

# ¿ Sep 9, 2013 20:52

BeastOfExmoor: Aug 19, 2003; I will be gone, but not forever.

I hadn't thought of it too much, but I agree with Kawalimus that there of the "young" birders that I've run into, almost none have been women.

I read the blog post BetterLekNextTime was talking about and it had some interesting points. Overall I think some of the skews are just a result of traits that separate men and women. I would somewhat disagree with what Razz said in that when I go hiking, a popular activity here in the northwest, I see a pretty even mix sexes. Mountain climbing, on the other hand, tends to trend more heavily male in my limited experience. Women don't really need to climb the highest thing around to enjoy the experience.

Kawalimus posted:

The only eastern Warbler I have left to add to my life list is the Swainson's Warbler, which doesn't come up this far. Also I guess Orange-crowned, but I've seen that one out west. Just never east.

drat, Warblers are the birds that make me wish I lived in the east. If you see ten warbler species in a year in Washington you're doing alright.

InternetJunky posted:

That's disappointing. Based on the size I was sure I had the right bird!

Man, that sucks. Not to rub it in, but I dropped by a local beach on the way home from work yesterday and saw one chase a Caspian Tern for half a mile. Lifer for me and one I've been trying to find for over a year. Parasitic's are actually not that big, smaller than a Ring-Billed Gull. From my brief experience last night, I'd say they look like a gull when you look in your book, but in real life they feel a lot more like a falcon. The acceleration and turning radius it had when chasing were unreal.

Here's a great video illustrating what I'm talking about :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpmWlfQ5tMI

For whoever was asking, eBird lists my "life list" as 437, 382 of which are in the ABA area (America's north of Mexico). The rest are from a trip I went on where we did a full day of birding in Belize and some light birding in other places. There's a bunch of species I saw in Hawaii a couple years ago that I don't have on there because I wasn't keeping track at that point.

# ¿ Sep 10, 2013 21:48

BeastOfExmoor: Aug 19, 2003; I will be gone, but not forever.

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.

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.

# ¿ Sep 11, 2013 05:48

BeastOfExmoor: Aug 19, 2003; I will be gone, but not forever.

Kawalimus posted:

I still need Townsend's, Hermit, and Black-throated Gray. These occasionally show up east so hopefully one shows up near my chasing range. I actually think I had McGillivray's once in Yosemite a few years ago, but my group was in a rush and didn't have time to ID it .

Yea, I still need Hermit. They don't quite get up as far north as where I live with any regularity. Your Yosemite story reminded me that I had a heard-only mystery warbler there last year. Thinking back, Macgillivray's was probably what it was.

I was trying to find some more information on Ted Parker since I keep seeing his name on the front page of eBird. I knew he played prominently into Kingbird Highway and became a great ornithologist, but not much other than that. Apparently he was quite good at birding by ear:

Wikipedia posted:

Once, hearing a recording of a dawn chorus in Bolivia, he realized that one of the sounds was an antwren of the genus Herpsilochmus�but since he knew all the sounds of those birds, he knew he was hearing a previously unknown species. The following year, the new species was discovered.

# ¿ Sep 11, 2013 17:24

BeastOfExmoor: Aug 19, 2003; I will be gone, but not forever.

InternetJunky posted:

The warblers are apparently migrating through my area right now. Currently the only one I have ever seen is the yellow warbler so I have a long list of ones I'd like to see. What's the best way to observe them? Should I park my butt in front of a tree and hope for the best? I find small birds like these almost impossible to notice if I'm moving around.

Well, firsthand knowledge is going to be your best bet for actual spots, but I look for areas with lots of smaller trees and just wander around slowly looking and listening. "Migrant traps", areas of isolated foliage surrounded by less desirable habitat like farm fields can be very productive, from my understanding. This time of year is harder because the birds are in their drab plumage and won't be singing, but they should still be fluttering and moving around pretty good.

# ¿ Sep 11, 2013 18:08

BeastOfExmoor: Aug 19, 2003; I will be gone, but not forever.

All the reports you can pull from ebird under the "Explore Data"
header are pretty useful.

Here's some more in depth abundance data for some of Edmonton County's more common fall Warblers:
http://ebird.org/ebird/GuideMe?step...ntinue=Continue

It looks like the best part of the year for Warblers where InternetJunky is probably past, but there's still a shot of seeing them. The latest dates for most of the Warblers are late September:
http://ebird.org/ebird/sightings?lo...3&listType=last

If you miss them this year, it looks like they should be back next May:
http://ebird.org/ebird/sightings?li...ontinuous=false

# ¿ Sep 11, 2013 19:31

BeastOfExmoor: Aug 19, 2003; I will be gone, but not forever.

800peepee51doodoo posted:

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.

Not that I know of, and I've wanted that as well. Hotspots are really nice in theory, but they've been kind of screwed up by the preponderance of people using GPS coordinates and entering data on their phones and kind of messing up the system.

# ¿ Sep 11, 2013 21:38

BeastOfExmoor: Aug 19, 2003; I will be gone, but not forever.

razz posted:

Well, tomorrow my husband and I are going away on our honeymoon! We're kinda doing a desert southwest roadtrip, and camping in Colorado, Zion National Park (Utah), Grand Canyon (Arizona), California, and New Mexico. Possibly also Oklahoma and part of Texas. I'm pretty excited about seeing some new birds! We plan on doing quite a bit of hiking and bird-searching .

So, if I don't post in this thread for a while, please keep up the great discussions! Hopefully I'll be back with a good trip report.

Have fun! I did a good chunk of that trip (Zion and Grand Canyon) last year and it was awesome. I hope you see some Condors!

# ¿ Sep 12, 2013 05:28

BeastOfExmoor: Aug 19, 2003; I will be gone, but not forever.

InternetJunky posted:

I really need a comprehensive bird guide that shows pictures for all the different plumages a bird can have, my field guides are useless with all the winter & juvenile plumage I'm seeing now.

I would love confirmation on some IDs:

American Golden-Plover (junvenile)?

Pectoral Sandpiper (the bill colour doesn't seem to match)?

Semi-Palmated Plover (juvenile)?

Mystery Gull that stood out as very black amongst a group of much lighter Bonaparte's Gulls

Your gull is a Franklin's Gull. The dark "mantle" (the gray back) compared to the Bonaparte's, thick which ring behind the eye, and black patch on the back of the head are the most obvious field marks.

American Golden Plover looks right for the first bird. I'd guess juv as well. The bill looks a bit big, but the speckled back definitely separate it from Black-Bellied Plover. I believe the Pacific/Golden/Black-Bellied Plovers all maintain their breeding plumage almost exclusively in the arctic, so they can be really, really frustrating to ID once they head south. In my experience, late season birds tend to be juveniles. Adult shorebirds tend to leave really early and move migrate much faster. I had my first returning Baird's sandpiper in Washington in early July, for instance, and there were already returning Western Sandpipers in Southern California at that point.

That is definitely a Pectoral Sandpiper. The bi-colored bill, thick streaky breast, light-colored legs, and more "stout" appearance are all giveaways. The only other close match would be a Sharp-Tailed Sandpiper, which is an asian bird, but ends up on this side of the ocean every year in small numbers. It would have less streaking on the front and a darker "cap", among other marks.

Juvenile Semipalmated Plover looks right to me. Otherwise known as the mini-Killdeer with only one black band on the chest.

# ¿ Sep 15, 2013 18:10

BeastOfExmoor: Aug 19, 2003; I will be gone, but not forever.

800peepee51doodoo posted:

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!

I have both the Shorebird Guide and the Peterson Gull guide. As I believe I stated earlier, the Shorebird Guide is excellent. Big, beautiful photos, with lots of real-world type photos with plenty of other species in the frame for comparison. Good text, huge selection of rare species in a separate section.

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.

# ¿ Sep 15, 2013 21:03

BeastOfExmoor: Aug 19, 2003; I will be gone, but not forever.

800peepee51doodoo posted:

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.

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.

There's a Facebook group full of Gull photos and posts that I find pretty interesting.

The things I feel like the Peterson Guide is missing are things like side-by-side shots of various parts of the Gulls. Profile shots of heads w/ bills, mantles w/ primary projection, etc. I've actually thought of generating my own flash cards using Ankidroid and photos I source from the internet, but I haven't gotten around to it.

InternetJunky posted:

Thanks for the links. I will admit I just bought both (and a warbler guide and sparrow guide).

Hah, that's awesome. That sparrow guide is really tempting, but I haven't gotten to check it out in person yet. I just got the Warbler Guide. It's great, but I haven't had much motivation to check it out since we have just a few warbler species where I live and they're all pretty easy to distinguish.

# ¿ Sep 16, 2013 01:52

BeastOfExmoor: Aug 19, 2003; I will be gone, but not forever.

800peepee51doodoo posted:

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.

I don't know how to tell, but the original printings of that Gulls book had serious issues and errors and it was recalled. I think you'd be fine if buying new, but you may want to figure out how to tell the difference.

That Owls book is indeed amazing. I have no reason to have a reference book that includes all those owl species, but I'll probably end up with it someday.

# ¿ Sep 16, 2013 06:52

BeastOfExmoor: Aug 19, 2003; I will be gone, but not forever.

Pablo Bluth posted:

The state of birds of prey in the north of England is all rather depressing
http://raptorpolitics.org.uk/2013/09/17/bowland-raptors-the-final-solution/

I'm understanding the link correctly, people are shooting reptors because they eat Grouse which hunters want in higher numbers? It surprises me quite a bit that this is an issue. Coming from someone who's never been to Europe, my impression has been that birders are way a way larger and more powerful group in Britain and hunters are way less powerful.

# ¿ Sep 18, 2013 20:42

BeastOfExmoor: Aug 19, 2003; I will be gone, but not forever.

InternetJunky posted:

I would love confirmation on some IDs:

American Golden-Plover (junvenile)?

This one is driving me insane because I saw it's identical twin with a group of Black Bellied Plovers on Friday, but I forgot my field guide in the car and didn't bring my camera because getting to where I was going required walking through submerged logs in the dark with a flashlight and dunking $1500 worth of camera gear in salt water was not something I wanted to risk. Of course I made notes of every little detail other than the primary projection. I still think your bird is a Golden.

# ¿ Sep 23, 2013 17:10

BeastOfExmoor: Aug 19, 2003; I will be gone, but not forever.

InternetJunky posted:

I think I've settled on black-bellied for this one. I received this reply from a birding mailing list I posted on, and it sounds like they know what they are talking about :

On the topic of bird IDs however, I'm still struggling with sparrow-sized birds. I picked up "Sparrows of the United States and Canada" hoping it would help with ID, but it's really quite useless to be honest. Short of flipping through 300 pages hoping to see a picture of something similar there's no easy way to get an ID with it.

Here's a couple from yesterday I would love some help with:

Female Chestnut-collard Longspur seems to match the closest but I'm a bit out of it's range according to the guidebook.

No clue for this one

I'm in Edmonton, Alberta and these were taken about 1 hour to the south-east.

Damnit. You have me rethinking my ID again.

I agree on Sparrows. At least shorebirds and gulls tend to be walking around in the open and don't constantly fly.

First one I'd lean towards Vesper Sparrow. What I'm seeing of the CC Lonspur in my reference materials show wing patterns that look distinctly different from that. None of the photos I can find show quite as bright of facial markings as that one shows though, so perhaps I'm way off base.

Second one looks pretty Vesper Sparrowish as well, but I'm dealing with a very limited "sparrow vocabulary".

# ¿ Sep 23, 2013 20:41

BeastOfExmoor: Aug 19, 2003; I will be gone, but not forever.

FingersMaloy posted:

Can we talk about feeding this thread to or is it just for identifying?

Anything is fair game as far as I'm concerned.

InternetJunky posted:

The consensus from other sources is Vesper for both pictures as well, so good job guys. Apparently I have a long way to go with IDs.

On that subject, why do the guides have to be so useless in the way they present their information? That sparrow guide has lots of nice pictures, but flipping through 300 pages hoping to find a match isn't a great help.

Nobody has quite solved this riddle yet. Certain birds are easier than others. The Shorebird Guide has a nice chart of silhouettes in the back that works really well for those species, but obviously wouldn't work well at all for sparrows. I typically start out with my Sibley guide. Typically I can narrow it down a bit to begin with. The bird did not appear to be one of what I think of as the "distinct sparrows." IE, White-Crowned, Golden-Crowned, White-Throated, Chipping, etc. Basically birds that usually have some kind of distinct marks. Once I get those out of the way I start looking at the distinct features and try to eliminate species. Being somewhat familiar with some of the "tells" in the first place helps a lot. The bold white eye ring made me think Vesper Sparrow right away so I started there, but I knew you probably had species I wasn't familiar with so I had to go through all of them slowly. The second photo really threw me for a bit because I've never seen Vesper's raise a crest like that. In fact, I actually had a sparrow a couple weeks ago that I saw poorly that had a profile very similar to that, but I wrote it off as a Lincoln's or Savannah based on the crest alone.

I find it easier and easier to ID birds in the field the more I read and the longer I bird. Things like that primary projection on Golden Plovers or the white outer tail feathers of a Vesper Sparrow that are visible in flight stick in my mind once I know them and next time I'm looking at an unknown bird I know to pay attention to that.

# ¿ Sep 24, 2013 18:15

BeastOfExmoor: Aug 19, 2003; I will be gone, but not forever.

BetterLekNextTime posted:

We definitely need something like the O'Brian shorebird guide but for sparrows. The Sparrows of North America book is definitely most useful if you already know what the bird is.

As long as we're making requests, us west coast folks who reside close to salt water could really use a guide to Alcids. Perhaps video guide to take into account the fact that 90% of the Alcids I see are in flight and I'm trying to make my judgment based on wing length and flapping speed. I was so annoyed when I realized the Peterson Sea Watch book was east coast only :colbert:

# ¿ Sep 24, 2013 18:23

BeastOfExmoor: Aug 19, 2003; I will be gone, but not forever.

The Dregs posted:

My kids are fans of Jack Black (his more kid friendly stuff, anyway), and they absolutely love The Big Year. I'm actually kind of disappointed that you guys don't look too favorably on it. They've been asking and asking to try birding, so we're going in the morning. I bought the Audubon Society Field Guide last night to take along with us. Unfortunately, we couldn't afford binoculars. maybe if it goes well we can invest in a decent pair. The local state park (Kennesaw Mountain in GA) is supposed to be a great spot, so that's where we're headed.

Great thread!

The Dregs posted:

Back from our first birding trip. It didn't start well. The internet guide said to stick to the main road. We saw about 2 birds in half an hour. A robin and a something.

So we hopped of the road and went on the forest trail. Almost immediately the kids started spotting stuff! We saw a pair of cardinals. A pair (I think, one was gray and one was blue) jays, maybe a swift? Some type of sparrow that we aren't good enough to identify. Also we saw a warbler. The general consensus is that it was a cerulean warbler, but it may have been a different kind. Some tufted titmice. I am not sure if I am supposed to capitalize birds or not. Is it jay, or Jay?

Everyone had a great time. I am setting up a bird feeder with black sunflower seeds, and another with mealworms (what we feed our lizard, we have like 2,000 of them) right now. We bought a lovely pair of binoculars for 20 bucks on the way home. Even they are a huge improvement over nothing, though. My son is stalking through the woods with them right now. The Great White Hunter.

That's awesome. Despite the flaws of The Big Year (the most notable of which being that it had three incredible comedic actors and yet wasn't that funny) I still enjoyed it and have actually rewatched it once or twice. As others have said, it does a pretty decent job of showing birding culture. I've talked to several people in the field that have asked me about it in a positive way, so I think it had a positive effect overall.

Glad you had a good time with the kids and that they enjoyed the experience. Some ID's are probably tough to make right now (Fall warblers are notoriously tough), but it should get easier. I've had limited experience, but Red-Headed Woodpeckers, Eastern Bluebirds, Eastern Phoebes, and Myrtle's Yellow-Rumped Warblers are pretty common in the south east during the winter, not to mention the various waterfowl, egrets and herons.

# ¿ Sep 30, 2013 21:54

BeastOfExmoor: Aug 19, 2003; I will be gone, but not forever.

Wind can be a blessing or a curse, really. A breezy day last week brought in handful of Common Tern's to my local seawatch location in Puget Sound. They're pretty hard to find on this side of the water so I think the wind really did help. I went out on Sunday afternoon in a pretty good windstorm. While I was sorting through abnormally large flocks of shorebirds a pair of Peregrine Falcons seemed to relish the wind and chased Dowitchers all around me for five minutes. In the midst of this they kicked up a group of American Pipits into the air which included a calling Lapland Longspur (locally rare).

The downside is that it's cold, noisy, and usually keeps the small birds hidden deep in bushes. It also shakes tripods like crazy which can make spotting scope use nearly impossible.

# ¿ Oct 1, 2013 16:37

BeastOfExmoor: Aug 19, 2003; I will be gone, but not forever.

Yes, Myrtle's subspecies.

E: f, b.

BeastOfExmoor fucked around with this message at 05:33 on Oct 14, 2013

# ¿ Oct 14, 2013 03:35

BeastOfExmoor: Aug 19, 2003; I will be gone, but not forever.

I would think that some sort of mutated Black-Billed Magpie or some sort of weirdly marked bill would be way more likely than a vagrant. I just checked and Oregon doesn't even have Yellow-Billed Magpie on their checklist so they don't roam very far.

Yellow-Billed Magpie is my nemesis bird.

Managed to find two rarities today for my county big year. Western Scrub Jay and a pair of Marbled Godwits. 222 species, which is crazy considering I started out hoping to break 200.

# ¿ Oct 15, 2013 06:37

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# ¿ Apr 19, 2024 14:09

BeastOfExmoor: Aug 19, 2003; I will be gone, but not forever.

BetterLekNextTime posted:

Yellow-billed Magpie is pretty common around Davis as well.

Congrats on the county list. I saw a note from one of the local Audubon societies that someone just got their 200th species for each county in California (and were the 5th person to do this). That's probably equal parts travel, birding skill, and anal retentiveness.

I actually may have seen YB Magpies twice, but both times they were seen for a fraction of a second in flight as a silhouette while I was driving and I didn't see them well enough to ensure they weren't just Scrub Jays. It's mostly funny to me that in the couple weeks I spent working in central California last year I saw Nelson's Sparrows, Rose-Breasted Grosbeak, and a Baltimore Oriole (all very rare on the west coast) and yet couldn't manage to find a locally common bird. I had to really work to find a Nutall's Woodpecker as well, so maybe I'm cursed on California endemics.

200 birds in every county in California is an incredible achievement. Washington's highest total is a guy who has 175 in each county and we have 19 fewer counties to do it in. Not to mention California has some ridiculous counties. San Francisco county is only 47 square miles. Alpine county is in the middle of the mountains and isn't particularly big either.

# ¿ Oct 16, 2013 16:02

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Pet Island > Ask us about birding! [not the pet birds thread]

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