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My husband and I just went up to Horicon Marsh in Wisconsin for a weekend of casual birdwatching. Horicon Marsh is the largest freshwater Marsh in the US and has a ton of birdlife. We went on our own on trails as well as going on a guided boat tour. Highlights were tons of Kingfishers, Egrets, White Pelicans, and Blue Herons. I didn't know about the Spotted Sandpiper or the Eastern Kingbird before, and now I do. I also know how to tell apart 3 different kinds of swallows, when I used to only know the Barn Swallow. We saw 2 out of the 6 nesting Eagles in the Marsh. When we were on our own, we also spotted a swan (probably a trumpeter) hanging out in a crowd of Canada Geese. It's the wrong time of the year for swans, and even then they aren't too common, so it was a special sighting but it made me wonder what that swan's story was! I also saw tons of songbirds (wrens? thrushes? warblers?) I don't have any idea what they were because I am terrible at those kinds of birds but it was really nice just to watch them flit around and listen to them sing. Anyway, having a guide was great. As a very casual bird watcher, I learned a lot! 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.
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Aug 27, 2013 14:09
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 05:20 |
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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. Seems like kind of a jerk thing to do, but what do I know. 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. Still, if you are standing around other people who aren't your group, it seems weird to do that. Like, no one would run out their dog or shout and wave their arms to flush out birds if a group is around... or would they? If not, what's the difference between that and playing a hawk call? edit: hey thanks for the book recs, guys!
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Aug 28, 2013 03:35
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Today I learned about Chicago's breeding population of nearly 800 monk parakeets. That will be something fun for me to look out for, even when I can't get out to natural areas. More info here: http://www.uic.edu/labs/minor/pruett-jones_etal.pdf
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Aug 30, 2013 15:47
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I went to the Mississippi Palisades this weekend to try and do some bird-watching and as a beginner on my own, I felt like I did terribly. I could pretty much only identify the most basic birds I've known all my life anyway. Things where I felt like I might have identified something but didn't feel confident for it to count: -A woodpecker -- I think it might have been Hairy because it looked bigger, but I'm bad at scale through bins, so it might have been the Downy which is more common anyway. But, it's tapping was very irregular, and I really only saw it from the back, so maybe it could have been a Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker... I don't know! -A chubby grey bird in the underbrush. I thought it was a Robin until I realized it wasn't, and it wasn't the right shape for a Catbird. The closest thing in the bird book was a Dark Eyed Junco, but is it the right time of year for them... I don't know! -Up in a group of circling Turkey Vultures over a bluff, a raptor with a different silhouette. What do you call it when it has bends at its "wrists" giving it a W shape? Anyway, it was accordianing its wings slightly to hover in place. My book says that falcons and osprey bend their wings this way. It was too big to be a kestrel. But, seeing no markings and only shape just left me wondering... -A pair of brown hawks over the far side of the river. Too far away to tell anything. -So much birdsong where I just had no clue. One small triumph was seeing a pair of Cedar Waxwings zoom by and knowing it was them because of the quick flash of yellow on their tail. Hearing both the who-cooks-for-you and the hoo-ah of a barred owl. Watching a Blue Jay make a hawk impression. Also, I got the most pleasure of watching a pair of Chickadees bouncing cheerfully and even hanging upside down off of branches just a few feet away in the sparkling dew of early morning. Who cares if its common, if its up close and being interesting!
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Sep 5, 2013 15:45
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Kawalimus posted:^^are there any local bird walks in that area? Try going along on one of them and they will introduce you to the common birds of that area. And check Ebird and see if other people are posting lists in that area to see what they are seeing. Then look em up and see if you recognize them. It can be really tough at first but just get it bit by bit. Thanks for the advice, it is a good idea to use eBird in that way. My main obstacle is that I live in Chicago, in a neighborhood where even keeping my eyes open I mainly see Pigeons and House Sparrows. I know where are bird walks in the parks along the lake shore, but I tend to prefer spending my free weekends by getting out of the city altogether... and then I feel lost. I wish I lived somewhere where I could even put up a bird feeder. Maybe some day! Edit: Razz thanks for responding to my post! Yes, that state park is absolutely where I was birding. A really gorgeous place. Knockknees fucked around with this message at 19:27 on Sep 5, 2013 |
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Sep 5, 2013 19:14
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Some google searching has shown me, that not only is there a specific spot in Chicago that gets lots of birds, there is one specific HEDGE in this park where all the birds hide out. Geez! http://www.lakecookaudubon.org/Montrose_Point.html
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Sep 5, 2013 20:28
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Another thing I learned just googling bird stuff in my area: just west of Chicago there is a small area spanning 2 counties that typically has 4-5 breeding pairs of Swainson's Hawk. This is the only population East of the Mississippi, hundreds of miles from any other breeding spots! No one knows what the reason for them being there is (a small group blown by a storm, and managed to keep coming back to breed? The natural range used to extend that far?), or how much they may or may not genetically diverge from the main population. All we know is that someone noticed them in the 70's and they've been coming back ever since. I drive through that area fairly regularly, and even though their season is ending now, I'll be keeping my eyes open next summer! Knockknees fucked around with this message at 21:14 on Sep 6, 2013 |
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Sep 6, 2013 21:11
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EVG posted:Hey, I came in to ask if any of the resident birders had checked this place out! Well, I can give a trip report of this weekend. We got there at 6:30 am and didn't see any condoms or signs of hook-ups so that was nice. We did see a gorgeous sunrise and had the wood/meadow part to ourselves for 20 or 30 minutes, as most of the early people were out on the water's edge. By 7:00 am there were enough dorks with binoculars around that you would be staring up into the trees and bump into someone around every bend. And then they'd ask you if you saw anything good. When it started to get crowded I felt more self conscious and less ~one with nature~. We didn't see anything particularly noteworthy, but that could be because all small olive colored birds look exactly the same to me and there were tons of those. Then again, no experience here, so I wouldn't spy a warbler if it was singing its heart out right in front of me. However, we did spy a fox sleeping deep in a thicket when we were scanning the hedge with our bins, so that was neat.
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Sep 9, 2013 15:41
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90% certain I saw a Peregrine Falcon eating a pigeon during my bus commute in Chicago this morning. It was in a spot that I had been watching, ever since I saw a very falcon-like silhouette a couple weeks ago. I had a much better view this morning. I might need to start bringing my binoculars on the bus.
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Sep 27, 2013 15:49
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Is a Christmas Bird Count something a beginner can be involved in, or would someone who didn't know what they were looking at just get in the way. I'm not totally clear on how CBCs actually even work.
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Oct 20, 2013 15:51
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InternetJunky posted:The easiest marking to distinguish between a Red Tail and Swainson's when the bird is perched like that is to look at where the wing tips reach. If the wing tips touch the end of the tail it's a Swainson's. (ie your bird is a red tail) I'm confused, the blog linked in the post before you described Red Tails as having wings which pretty much reach the end of the tail.
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Nov 13, 2013 19:40
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Ah, that makes sense, thanks! There's an isolated populated of only 3 or 4 breeding pairs of Swainson's nearby Illinois, the only ones East of the Mississippi. I'm really really hoping to see one this summer, but I'm such a beginner, I can't tell anything from a Red Tail.
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Nov 13, 2013 20:57
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Just saw migrating cranes for the first time in my life, in flight over Chicago. They made a ruckus, but it was a beautiful sight.
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Dec 10, 2013 19:47
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What is the best book for helping me differentiate raptors in the Midwest (eg. OH, IN, IL, WI). I'm still a beginner, but I love love love detail, especially tips like where its wings come in relation to its tail when perching, behavior, wing flapping, silhouettes, and all that jazz. I already have Sibley's Guide to NA but I'd love a raptor or hawk specific book.
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Jan 10, 2014 22:16
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A pair of American Kestrels has made my urban neighborhood their territory and I see them every day, and I'm 99% sure I know where they're nesting. I wish I had a good zoom camera, because I can't get any good pictures of them 5 stories up 
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Apr 7, 2014 22:17
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Knockknees posted:A pair of American Kestrels has made my urban neighborhood their territory and I see them every day, and I'm 99% sure I know where they're nesting. I wish I had a good zoom camera, because I can't get any good pictures of them 5 stories up I saw the male in a fight with some crows 3 days ago, and I haven't seen them since. I'm worried about my Kestrels!
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Apr 14, 2014 18:06
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 05:20 |
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Man, the great thing about being still relatively new to birding, is that almost every trip gets me a lifer. I got four this weekend. Nothing crazy, but all new to me! I especially liked the bluegray gnatcatcher. What a fun little bird!
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Aug 5, 2014 17:36
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