BS: Birdwatching

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching
From: Grab
Date: 06 Dec 02 - 08:55 AM

Only casually. My folks are very keen, so I inevitably ended up picking up a bit during birding trips as a kid. We've only got a small garden, so we don't get anything more than the regulars - blue tits, great tits, chaffinches, etc. Occasionally we get goldfinches or a wren. There's more out in the Fens though, so you usually get to see some interesting birds when you go out for a walk.

Favourite: well, there's a story...

I used to live on the Ribble at Lytham St. Annes (the other side of the estuary from LesB). All our family sails, so we tended to spend the weekends down at the river. Anyway, one weekend we noticed that there was a flamingo in amongst the redshank and greenshank - formerly a pink flamingo, but now a very dirty brown (the Ribble is a very muddy, silty river, and there's thick brown mud all over the estuary)! It had obviously escaped from the local zoo/wildlife park (there's a couple of flocks of them around locally).

Anyway, it was still there the next weekend, when some twitcher turned up and parked a tripod and scope on the jetty, with his back to the flamingo (which was about 100 yards away). One by one, all us sailors towed their dinghies down to the river, and as we passed, we all said "You know there's a flamingo behind you?", "There's a flamingo over there" and so on. And the bloke obviously thought we were all taking the piss, so he just stood there and said nothing to us, looking through the scope in completely the wrong direction while this pink flamingo was strutting around dead behind him!

Graham.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching
From: mkebenn
Date: 06 Dec 02 - 08:28 AM

Love to watch the activity at my feeder,hate grey squirrels, live with two 'keets and am adopting a rainbow conure(sp?) at son's child's birth. Saw a scarlet tananger this summer and was thrilled(western New York). My favorites, though, are common loons. Mike
P.S. Where I buy seed, sunflower and oil seeds are sold seperatly, and my pair of resident cardinals seem to like the oil seed better. M

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 06 Dec 02 - 03:53 AM

Raptor,
BTO =British Trust for Ornithology
I spent my early years in industrial Birmingham listening to the starlings coughing!
RtS

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 10:44 PM

Someone said, "it's very hard to stay up all night playing fiddle and then get up at the break of dawn to go birding." It's a myth that you have to get up at dawn to see birds. We usually go in late afternoon, and we see lots of birds.

My husband and I love bird-watching. We aren't twitchers. We just note in our guide where we saw a bird. We have bird-watched everywhere we've gone, from Arizona to Germany and points between.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching
From: Ebbie
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 06:07 PM

Ya gotta wonder about crows, though. One day I watched through the window as a crow flew down to the loose gravel at the side of the street, deposited a saltine cracker, covered it with gravel then lifted himself self-satisfiedly away. Probably gone back to get another. Keep in mind that this area gets about 100 inches of rain a year.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching
From: TNDARLN
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 05:55 PM

I've been enjoying the birds for years- one of my adulthood learning passions. Don't much care for lists, but I do love to watch the commotion around my feeders.

Favorite? No more beautiful creature/song on the planet than the eastern bluebird. And these hills are full of 'em!

Guest Don- I think that idiot who shared the gray squirrels with our Brit friends is related to the one that brought starlings over here!

Someone mentioned crows...back in the cb radio days, my Dad's "handle" was Crow Hunter. Anyone having trouble with crows in the cornfield would call him over. Daddy'd do a hoot owl call, and get the crows all stirred up. Or he'd do a crow call- their curiosity always got the best of 'em. Daddy was really into crow-psychology!

BTW- anyone here familiar with the houses/feeders designed/built by the "Bluebird Man" of Ringgold, GA? Though Mr. Sawyer died several years ago, his family has continued making these. Mr. S made/designed his "woodpecker lathe" to cut, ream out the log sections he used. Quite an operation....and supposedly sold by word of mouth all over the country.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching
From: harpgirl
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 05:49 PM

I keep trying to post to this thread and my computer link has gone down about ten times today! Very annoying....anywho....

I saw a Tundra Swan last year. Looking for another! Birding in Tallahassee is spectacular even driving to work. I regularly see flocks of storks, herons, canadian geese and when I go over to Lake Munson in town on the south side, the cormorants are roosting at night. It gets all the seasonal migrators of Florida along with many kinds of frogs with all kinds of sounds! It's magical!

I'm a casual watcher but with great joy! My yard always has
jays, cardinals, morning doves, woodpeckers (even red cockaded, and chicadees. I go to the Y pool to watch the redwinged blackbirds that live around it. I love birds!

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching
From: GUEST,Lyle
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 05:08 PM

VERY amateur birder, but love to find them. I'm now doing more listening than watching, as I find it fascinating to identify by call.

My favorite to watch are the crows, and I have notebooks filled with antics I've observed. I've found them to be extraordinary birds in so many ways, although it is very difficult for me to NOT anthropomorphize about them!

I don't keep a life list, but have a pretty good idea of the ones I've seen, and it is not impressive by birder standards. Still very enjoyable, though.

I do go a fair distance to find unusual or interesting birds during migration for something like whooping cranes.

Lyle

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching
From: MartinRyan
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 04:57 PM

Been a birder for many years. I do some desultory survey work around the Irish midlands - but basically I have a few beautiful local wetlands that I like to wander around in winter!

Regards

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching
From: Bobert
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 04:41 PM

Jerry: Well, Iz real glad that yer havin' a good time with the "black oil, of course". Wouldn't want you to get too bored up there in Corn-etercut. But fir those folks who may have tuned in and are not birders I reckon a tad a clarification is needed, least someone is gonna poison some danged birds with their used motor oil.

"Black Oil" in the world of birders is sunflower seed.

There, my friend, ya' drug it out of me. You're good, no question about it...

Black Oil Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching
From: GUEST,EBarnacle
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 03:46 PM

I always carry Peterson's East of the Rockies with me because I never know what I'll see. Once out in my boat, I saw and was the first to report a Hudsonian Godwit that was taking a break on his/her way South. Generally, I don't bother with binocs, just slowly walk up to my bird with the book open if I don't know it by sight.

My son gets mentioned in P's when we see something he hasn't seen before. One morning, many years ago, a woodcock landed at my feet. He was tired and I ended up scaring a cat away from him as he rested.

Kingfishers and night herons live on the creek where we keep our boats. Once, when delivering a boat to Cape May, we had the privilege of seeing squadrons of Black Skimmers and Pelicans dining on freshly fertilized horseshoe crab roe. Life is good.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 03:24 PM

"I feed black oil, of course." from your first post, Bobert ole Buddy... was that a Hullism? I didn't see a 9 in it, so I took it literally... maybe castor oil to help establish regularity? :-)

Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching
From: Raptor
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 03:12 PM

Sibbley's books are great and I collect Field Guides but my favrite book is National Geographic!

anyone else?

Raptor

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching
From: TIA
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 03:06 PM

RE bird books...Have you seen the new (last year or two) books by Sibley? More than one view per bird, and includes the plumage of young plus seasonal variations. Kinda big to carry outdoors, but hugely useful for telling apart "little brown (or grey) jobbies".

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching
From: Ebbie
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 02:20 PM

Joe Offer, could that nest belong to ospreys? In Oregon they are more common than bald eagles and they make the same kind of nest.

In Oregon I lived next to the Willamette river at a ferry site. One year when the county replaced some utility poles, they tore down the old nest then put in a pole farther from the ferry cables at the river's edge and replaced the old branches on top of the new pole. The ospreys returned.

TIA, those round little puffins are up here too. I never saw any before I came to Alaska.

The American robin (actually a thrush) is a different kind of critter here from the robin they have in Oregon. The robin here nests in the forests and visits urban areas rarely and not in large groups. I've never seen more than three at a time on our lawns. In Oregon it's a sociable bird, busy and intent on hunting the elusive worm. Here it's a cautious, not to say paranoid, bird, looking continually over its shoulder for predators. Maybe it has good reason- we have a lot of eagles, peregrine falcons and ravens.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching
From: GUEST,LesB(UK)
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 02:17 PM

Yes I'm a birdwatcher, I don't go in for making lists or twitching, but if I hear of something of interest locally I nip off to have a look, if i've time.

I live at Southport, in Lancashire(UK) on the Ribble Estuary & the big thing around here are the overwintering Pink Feet Geese, & Bewicks & Whooper Swans, it's pretty good for raptors as well.
A few weeks ago I had 5 Marsh Harriers 2 Ravens overflew my garden in the space of 5 mins. In the last couple of years we have had Peregrins nesting on the local gas holder.
I tend to carry my bins in the car & have a look see if we are away from home at a Festival or Morris Dance weekend. You never know what you may see.

Cheers
Les

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching
From: Bobert
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 01:59 PM

Raptor: No, I don't sell 'em. Actually, they are conventional feeders but what I built out of a 12 foot porch column is more a *feeding center" with 6 different kind of feeders rigged up with arching hangers, pulleys, rope and cleats fir getting them down to where they can be refilled. It is set in concrete and has a flower box built around the bottom of it with several screened pvc pipe going thru the concrete for drainage. Before I set up the harward I cut a hole in a trash can lid and slid it down over the column to act as a squirrel baffle and get the pole greased below the baffle. The column is capped with another trash can lid and a turned wooden ball. That is the main feeder. Then I have several single pole feeders.

If you'd like a pic of the "monster" PM me and I'll mail you one.

Today has been a busy bird day with the snow and there's a lot of continous activity. Mostly titmouses, nuthatches (which I misidentified earelier as woodhatches... excuse me...), cardinals, blue jays, downey and hairy woodpeckers, and a couple of red-bellied woodpeckers. I expect the pilliatedsany time. They are some nutty birds, fir sure.

If anyone would like to read more about the pilliated find the "reader writes" section at Tweedsblues.net and find my story "Bobert's Birds".

Jerry: Are *WE* a little bored today? Jus funnin'. Black oil?!...

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching
From: CarolC
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 01:56 PM

I've been a bird watcher since the early 1970s, although it's been years since I did it with any degree of dedication. I keep a life list, but it's not terribly impressive compared to more dedicated birders' lists.

I use the Golden Guide (Birds of North America), and I won't use any other guide unless there is no Golden Guide available. I don't really have a favorite, but Herons are some of my favorite to watch. And one of the most beautiful birds I've ever watched in flight is the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. I used to love to watch them when I lived in eastern Oklahoma (USA).

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching
From: GUEST,Sharon G
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 01:37 PM

Before the tide turned to music, I was a very active birder here in Tucson, Arizona. But alas, it's very hard to stay up all night playing fiddle and then get up at the break of dawn to go birding.

I used to run the rare bird alert here, and my husband founded BIRDCHAT and various other birding lists- (but has since given them over to others to be in charge...)

I always paid attention to songs/calls, and still cannot walk into any outdoor environment without assessing the birds. But I don't plan trips around birding anymore... even forgot to pack binoculars on the last road trip....

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 01:32 PM

Raptor: I was Director of the Stamford Museum and Nature Center in Stamford, Connecticut for 30 years. We had a nice, diversified wooded area with a small swamp and some open meadows, so there was a good variety of birds there. I used to lead people on Warbler Walks early in the morning during Spring migration. We were only nine miles from Long Island Sound, which is a good place for shore birds, so there was ample opportunity for birding in the local nighborhood. We had Pileated Woodpeckers on the property, and they were always a treat to see.

You feed your birds black oil? Like in oil spills, Bobert? This I gotta see.. :-)

Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 01:01 PM

Over the last 20 years, I lived close to the lower American River in the Sacramento area. We had a family of four wild turkeys who would walk around the neighborhood several times a week, and I occasionally counted over twenty at a time. We also have our own variety of magpie, a yellow-billed bird with more distinctive black/white markings than you find on other magpies - very intelligent birds that were fascinating to watch, but they bullied most of the smaller birds away. Along the river, I'd see lots of egrets and herons. At one time of the year, I'd see dozens of small owls perch in trees along the river just before sunset, and then take off all at the same time when it got dark. I couldn't identify the owls, or tie down exactly what time of year they'd appear - but it was fascinating to watch.

The Central Valley of California is an ancient sea, four hundred miles long and maybe forty miles wide. There's a lot of flooding in the valley during the winter, and the water fowl love it. I suppose the most interesting are the snow geese and the sandhill cranes, but I love them all. It was a thrill to visit Cape May (New Jersey) on the day of the raptor count a couple of years ago, but it's just as much a thrill to see the sandhill cranes fly in at sunset outside Lodi, California. They don't seem to mind being "stuck in Lodi."

Now I'm at 2,300 feet, on a ridge in the Sierra Foothills, and the birds are quite different. Now I'm asbout half a mile from the North fork of the American River - here it's a mountain stream in a canyon that's 1,200 feet deep. We still see California Valley Quail here - they were killed off by feral cats in the Sacramento area. Lots of turkey vultures here, and an occasional red-tail hawk. There's a pair of bald eagles in a lake nearby, but I haven't seen them. We have bird feeders that draw hummingbirds and lots of goldfinches and other songbirds. Dozens of varieties visit here - more than I can begin to learn the names of.

In the woods on the next property over, we found a huge construction high up in a pine tree. It's about twice the size of a large doghouse, and all we can guess is that it's the nest of some raptor. It has been there for years, and seems to be made of material that is still growing. It's a mystery to us - we haven't been able to figure out who lives there.

This place is as much a birder's paradise as the Central Valley, but it's a much more beautiful setting. I think I like it here.

-Joe Offer, Colfax, California-

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching
From: Micca
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 12:48 PM

Sporadic watcher, Non-Twitcher, Saw Cardinals in Canada, and was delighted. Faves are Owls, Eagles, and Great Northern Divers are almost a totem bird, travelled to Canada to see them for the first time in Algonquin Park, Ontario, then saw them off the west coast of Scotland the following spring!! and Golden Eagles!!

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching
From: GUEST,Don
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 11:52 AM

Raptor,

My in-laws (east of Pittsburgh) tell me that the Red Squirrels will run off the Gray Squirrels at their feeder, so they may indeed be more troublesome. But here in the Maryland suburbs of Washington DC, Red Squirrels don't occur.

I have heard a report that the American Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis (sp?)) has been introduced into Britain, and is driving out the native Red Squirrels there. What idiot brought American Gray Squirrels to Britain?

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching
From: GUEST,Astorsen
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 11:45 AM

I watch and feed. I like observing the behaviour of birds, specially when a ground feeder learns to get food from a feeder...

European species including big migratory birds like the cranes or the geese are always a thrill. Small northern birds (northern chaffinches) learnt to stop at our feeder for a few days in the spring.

I also have a real kick "ennoying" golden orioles or great tits (!) whistling at them. The golden oriole is normally quite timid but when you whistle their territorial call, they come and they are then very visible. I also enjoy the annual nightingale "hunt", i.e. trying to see them. Not always an easy business...

We have up to 20 different species coming to our feeders... A real treat.

Salut,

JL

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching
From: Raptor
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 11:23 AM

Bobert Do you sell These feeders?

Raptor

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching
From: Bobert
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 11:17 AM

I am a birder, Raptor, and have some very unusual Bobert designed feeders. I feed black oil, of course, thistle, safflower, peanut splits, woodpecker blocks and suit. I keep a heater in the bird bath fir times like now.

Living on the Blue Ridge Mountain, we get a full variety of Mid Atlantic birds. My favorite is the "red headed woodpecker", not to be confused with the pilleateds which I also have. The red headed makes a white cross when flying away from you and they are very shy. I lile the chickodees and wood hatches because they are som tame and finches fir their scrappiness. Not to wild about male wrens because they like to fill bird houses with twigs hoping a lady will move in and make sense of the mess.

We also have attracked lots of huming birds with our gardens over the years and considering that we are in the mountians its nice to have them return in the summers.

Bobert

JerrY; I'm not surprised that you're a birder. When we finally get you and Ruth down, I'll show off my unusual feeders.

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching
From: Raptor
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 11:15 AM

Roger BTO?

Jerry, Which centre?

Don, I find the red squirrels More of a pain!

Mooman &Tia, It's possible to be a lister and enjoy behavior watching as well, I'm tring to push my Canadian List over 300 but my favrorite bird is the BC Chickadee and I still spend hours watching them.

Anyone else?

Raptor

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching
From: TIA
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 10:51 AM

Lifelong watcher. No official lifelist, but scribbled notes in the margins of birdbooks. In my opinion, it's much more fun to watch behaviours than to compile a lifelist (although a "new" bird is always a thrill -- particularly one that doesn't belong where you are). Hands-down best place in Eastern US is Cape May Point State Park in New Jersey. I'm prejudiced since I grew up there, but ask the experts (I'm not one) and they always list it in the top ten worldwide.

Favorite bird is the puffin. Just plain cute with a mouthload of silversides (it's the wallpaper on my computer).

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching
From: mooman
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 10:41 AM

Yes...but a watcher rather than a "ticker". I'm more interested in their behaviour than in getting a list. I always take my bins to foreign climes!

moo

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching
From: GUEST,Don
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 10:36 AM

Although I am a "guest", I will have a go.

I used to be a regular birdwatcher, frequently going out to watch and sometimes travelling reasonably long distances. Over the course of over 30 years of birding, I have accumulated a lifelist of 300 species for North America, north of Mexico. It is possible, of course, that some of those 300 identifications would not "stand up to scrutiny."

More recently my life has been such that I virtually never actually "go out birding." We tried maintaining a feeder for a while, but eventually had to give up due to the @*&!% gray squirrels. So now I only watch the birds that I see out the back window, or that I stumble across. Still consider myself a birder, though.

Favorite bird that I have actually seen: Pileated Woodpecker.

Bird that I most wish I could see (but almost certainly never will): Ivory-Billed Woodpecker.

Don

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 10:32 AM

Hi, Rap:

I used to teach birding classes at the nature center where I worked.
That was almost as much fun as teaching little kids, not only to identify birds, but to actually "watch" them. I have my Petersen's Guide with all the birds checked off that I've seen... but haven't looked at it in years. At first, I was carried away with numbers. I've since just enoyed watching birds, we have a bird feeder in our window, and I just bought one of those sunflower bells to hang in the tree near the house, for Cardinals and larger seed-eating birds.

Favorite bird? The mockingbird, hands down. We had a pair nesting in a shrub next to our front door last year, and it was such a kick to hear them singing. After the eggs hatched, the proud parents would dive bomb me when I came out the door... give me a good whump onthe top of the head. I like them because their saucy (not to eat, but the way they carry themselves... kinda like blue jays who know more songs..

Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 10:30 AM

parakeets NOT cockatoos!
RtS
(DOH!)

Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 10:29 AM

I'm not a twitcher but I do enjoy watching birds. A dozen wood pigeons are working over my garden as I type. I holidayed on Alderney for many years and I would watch gannets diving for food for hours. I'm lucky to live in a quite heavily wooded area so the garden gets a good variety, a friend who is a BTO ringer often uses our garden. Our strangest visitor was an African grey parrot escaped from a neighbour! We also got some escaped zebra finches one year and I often see the famous Surrey ring necked cockatoos in woods around here.
RtS

Subject: BS: Birdwatching
From: Raptor
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 10:19 AM

I was wondering if any of my fellow mudcaters share this hobby and if so where do you like to go!

Do you keep a life list?

Number?

Just enjoy feeding?

Favrorite bird?

Raptor