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BetterLekNextTime posted:Oops, I was working on replacing the Pet Island birding thread with a new effort post. Do you want this kind of stuff in here, or is this PYF? Good optics advice. I'll just add a few thoughts as someone who has way too many binoculars and spends too much time reading about optics. First, the 10x vs. 8x (and occasionally vs. 12x) is practically a religious war to some. Personally, I've always found that although I think I really want higher magnifications, the trade-off in reduced field-of-view is almost always completely not worth it. As you get more advanced you spend more time scanning areas where you think their might be birds, or trying to find birds and having a larger image circle can make a ton of distance there. There's a ton of great glass out there now-days and some tremendous deals. Acebuckeye13 posted:I present, for your consideration: bird. Nice! This was the bird I wanted to see most as a young birder. I took a vacation where we spent time driving down the California coast and I was super happy to spot one. We pulled over with a small group of birders and volunteers who were tracking them and eventually a group of 11 Condors circled directly above us. Simply incredible.
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Jul 24, 2020 03:44
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| # ¿ Apr 24, 2024 08:02 |
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BetterLekNextTime posted:Things that live in the canopy are a pain. If you can, spend time on the edge of a forest or in a clearing. Power line cuts, forest service roads, etc can give enough of a break, or if you're at a lodge or visitors center on a hill that has a canopy-level deck to look out on. Do your best to learn their calls and songs so you know where to look for them. And you can always try pishing to get them a little closer for a little longer. There's some legitimate debate about the use of recorded songs/calls for playback. My take is a) if it's not a threatened species and b) not in a heavily visited area where people are likely to using playback regularly, it's probably alright to try a quick playback, but just know it's likely causing a temporary change in behavior. So use sparingly. All good advice. Here's a short video explaining pishing in case anyone is unfamiliar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRvdhovTgRo Canopy birds are very, very tough and I wind up settling for no views quite often.
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Jul 31, 2020 20:36
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BetterLekNextTime posted:My impression of the price x quality curve for scopes is a little different than for binoculars. The marginal gains in performance for high end scopes are better than for high end binoculars. I'm guessing the extra coatings and exotic lenses make more of a difference when they are larger? This has been my experience as well. I think it's the magnification. When you're talking about 8x or 10x an increase in clarity only gets you so far. If you start reading about high end binoculars you find that people start becoming obsessed with attributes that really do not matter for birding. Is the outer 5% of the image circle razor sharp? Do you notice some distortion when panning? When you jump up to scopes you're talking about pretty extreme conditions. A $200 scope might stop making the image sharper at 30x. A $1000 scope might stop at 45x. A $2500 scope may get you all the way to 60x. A lot of the time this won't matter, but when you're dealing with overcast skies in November, trying to identify a storm-petrel that's a mile out it can make a big difference. I would never pay more than $1000 for binoculars, but if I was seawatching multiple times a week all fall a Zeiss Harpia would be tempting. I started with a $200 Konus spotting scope and it was, honestly, not that bad. I moved on to a Celestron Regal M2 80mm with an astronomy eyepiece and it was a big improvement. Not so much in clarity as in the huge field of view the eyepiece gave me. I now have a Vortex Razor with the default zoom eyepiece, but I still miss that wide field-of-view the Celestron gave me. If I had to recommend a starter scope I'd say a Celestron Ultima or Trailseeker 80mm and whatever eyepiece gives you a decent field of view at 30x.
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Aug 24, 2020 06:19
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I forget how early our fall is compared to places further south. Our shorebird numbers peak in mid-August and fall off rapidly by the end of September. Trumpeter (and some Tundra) Swans showed up early this fall and are already almost at their peak numbers. The last of our winter duck species should be showing up in numbers any day now. Neotropic migrants are but a distant memory.BetterLekNextTime posted:Winter Finches are making their way south too. We've had Pine Siskins for a few weeks now. I don't think we'll get big numbers of crossbills or evening grosbeaks out here but I'd love it if we did! My anecdotal data (namely high Pine Siskin numbers since late summer) is telling me we'll see a irruption of Redpolls this winter on the west coast, although I doubt any will make it to California. We've already seen higher numbers of Red Crossbills and even some reports of White-Winged Crossbills in Seattle too, so it may be a great year. fridgraidr posted:Migration is on in the salt marsh! Where are you located? Gulf coat I'm assuming? I'd consider cutting off one of my toes with a butter knife for a few days alone to just bird around Texas and Louisiana right now. Edit: Seconding what BetterLekNextTime said regarding photos. BeastOfExmoor fucked around with this message at 23:49 on Nov 3, 2020 |
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Nov 3, 2020 23:45
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Lead out in cuffs posted:Vancouver is really close to the US border. About a decade ago, they built a huge new landfill site near-ish to the border crossing. This giant concentration of garbage caused a population explosion of rats. This in turn caused a population explosion of bald eagles eating the garbage rats. Can confirm. There are so many Bald Eagles around that landfill. Seeing eagles in a flock is always impressive though.
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Feb 1, 2021 09:02
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Agrinja posted:I'm out birding every day so far for the bird count, I wish I could better identify birds by song. I realize that online guides have playable bird songs, but does anybody know of something like an ID game? Ebird has something like this, although it's been a while since I've used it so I'm not sure how well it works. It leverages their occurrence data to ideally present you with the most likely birds possible for the location and date you choose. https://ebird.org/quiz/
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Feb 13, 2021 18:41
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| # ¿ Apr 24, 2024 08:02 |
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Agrinja posted:Thank you! I'll give that a try, I already have an eBird account. I hope you have a good experience with it. I tried it really quick after posting and had a weird assortment of choices. Northern Harrier (which I've never heard call), a Marsh Wren sound I've never heard, and a Song Sparrow call that was from a bird migrating nocturnally. Lead out in cuffs posted:Lol it decided to snow here today, so I'm just doing a quick count from out of our house. Our hummingbird has been at the feeder, and the northern flickers have been hanging out, so there's that. But the little ones are lying low. Are you in the PNW? Our little birds are crowded thick under the feeders in the snow. I also live next to a large river and the river bank is the only ground not covered with snow so I've seen a flock of American Pipits and a Spotted Sandpiper over there today. Twerk crew, I guess. Edit: And a Greater Yellowlegs, 3 Wilson's Snipe, and some Killdeer. BeastOfExmoor fucked around with this message at 02:14 on Feb 14, 2021 |
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Feb 13, 2021 23:29
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