Any fellow birdwatchers out there?

[OhZark Biddies]

I’ve been an avid bird watcher since I was two ... or so says my mother...

I’ve carried birding books with me everywhere I’ve been fortunate enough to travel, and have met a number of like minded folks along the way.

When I was in South Africa several years ago I was fortunate enough to have a very knowledgeable fellow to help me ID birds and seldom took out my book...getting to geek out on birds with such a knowledgeable birder in a new place was a great experience.

In the last several years I’ve been focusing more on identifying my local birds more by call... and I’ve found this phone app to be a big help... it helps with visual IDs too of course:

Not sure if/how it works in other parts of the world other than North American though?

Anyway if you don’t have this app on your phone you might check it out.

 

[A_Fowl_Guy]

Idk if I would call myself a "bird watcher" because I do not know if that means I need to go around with binoculars, recording the species and stuff
But yeah I like to watch wild birds. I spend a lot of my freetime doing it. Right now I have my trail cameras set up on the pond to catch migrating birds.
(Canadian geese are the main ones in the area right now)
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Other than spy on them with cameras, I like to watch the large birds during the migration seasons. Right now I have been watching a lot of large flocks of Sandhill Cranes passing through and forming large circles. I have also been watching the wood ducks and mallards return to the breeding grounds. I am watching Turkey Vultures come back too right now.
The geese stay in this part of Wisconsin on the big rivers year round but I have been watching them spread out over the breeding grounds along with the Sandhill cranes, wood ducks, and mallards.

Last spring I saw my first Trumpeter swan passing over. I saw 2 large flocks passing through that fall. I was really, really excited to see 2 flocks of whooping cranes fly over that fall as well. My dad told me that when he was a kid he would only see small flocks of sandhill cranes pass over during the spring and fall. (now they are all over the place) Hopefully I can say the same about whooping cranes to my kids way off in the future

I have been watching Bald eagles fly over, that's always a nice surprise. My county is one of two in Wisconsin that does not have a nesting pair of Bald eagles yet.

For small birds I am always waiting for the swallows and American Robins to come back. The Robins are already back. Swallows should start showing up here early-mid April if it is a regular year.

For nesting birds, we have 2 pairs of Red Tailed Hawks on the property that I keep an eye on throughout the year. There are also two colonies of Great Blue Herons on the property. One has 12 nests and the other has 6. Those guys are already coming back. I watch the Barn Swallows raise their babies in our old barn, they have not been doing well recently. The colony went from around ten nesting pairs in 2015 to one in 2016. In 2018 there was 4, fingers crossed for this year . I also set up houses for Purple Martins and watch them during the summer. Still waiting for them to come back, should not be long.

That is soo cool! You don’t need binoculars or to record the species to be considered a bird watcher!

 

[Ribh]

[QUOTE="Willowspirit, post: 21150229, member: 534803"
Aren't budgies native to Australia?[/QUOTE]
They're a member of the parrot family & incredibly noisy in big flocks. I'm not a parrot fan. The noise is deafening.

 

[Willowspirit]

Kessel, you are the kind of bird watcher i am although i do use binoculars. Right now i go out early and sit on the porch and watch the birds.

as for an actual life list, mine is from back in southern CA more than here since we've only been here since end of January. We'll see who else shows up when Spring weather becomes Spring Weather.

But really I like watching them live their lives the most!

 

[Willowspirit]

[QUOTE="Willowspirit, post: 21150229, member: 534803"
Aren't budgies native to Australia?

They're a member of the parrot family & incredibly noisy in big flocks. I'm not a parrot fan. The noise is deafening.[/QUOTE]

generally budgies that get free in southern CA dont survive, but there are mild temp areas that have feral flocks of parrots. I have heard them but not seen them. They are raucous and unmistakable. Can you point to any recorded media that captures the natural sounds of birds where you live?

 

[Ribh]

They're a member of the parrot family & incredibly noisy in big flocks. I'm not a parrot fan. The noise is deafening.

generally budgies that get free in southern CA dont survive, but there are mild temp areas that have feral flocks of parrots. I have heard them but not seen them. They are raucous and unmistakable. Can you point to any recorded media that captures the natural sounds of birds where you live?[/QUOTE]
I did a video for a friend in early summer. I will see if I can find it. What we see & hear is very seasonal.

 

[Willowspirit]

generally budgies that get free in southern CA dont survive, but there are mild temp areas that have feral flocks of parrots. I have heard them but not seen them. They are raucous and unmistakable. Can you point to any recorded media that captures the natural sounds of birds where you live?

I did a video for a friend in early summer. I will see if I can find it. What we see & hear is very seasonal.[/QUOTE]

 

[Eggscaping]

Within the last few years, I've become absolutely, hopelessly addicted to wild birds. Has anybody else expanded their horizons from poultry to all types of avian life? If so, I'd LOVE to chat about interesting finds and observations. Feel free to share pictures, too!

~Alex

We have a strict no-pesticides yard, for 28 years now. I have 2 bird baths, 3 hummingbird feeders, two suet feeders and two sunflower-piece feeders.
Our list of 'noted' birds that have visited us is pretty long! We just have an ordinary sized lot in the city but we've had resident song sparrows nest in our yard on and off for years, as have gold-crowned sparrows and chickadees. We even had swallows one year when we had a larger pond in the back yard than we have now. Of course, from time to time the sharp-shinned hawk grabs a bird, but then after all, we have bird feeders and the hawk is, well...feeding. The pair of doves that has visited us for years and years share the front yard with squirrels and crows and one particular female squirrel comes and takes nuts from my fingers - and has for at least 3 years.
On the other hand, we won't have chickens until probably next year, after we move. We plan to feed the birds on the opposite side of the property and house from where we keep the chickens, and not have any chicken feed out anywhere to encourage them to come to that area. We'll see how it works out, but yes, I'm like you - I'm addicted to wild birds.

 

[tripletfeb]

I have a great bird app called Merlin. It has identifying features and different calls for all the birds. You can concentrate on birds in your area or across the world! It's a great app, highly recommend!

 

[Better Than Rubies]

It is nice to occasionally watch the wild birdies we have around here, especially the wild doves or pigeons (I don't see them too often in our particular town/area, so that might be why when I do see them, I love looking at them, and listening to them, too). But I probably prefer/really enjoy watching my chicks run around energetically or my big chickens free range happily.

We have lots of sparrows where we live, and robins more in the springtime, I believe, and starlings, cardinals and blue jays sometimes, black capped chickadees (I think that's what they're called), perhaps two or three different beautiful species of woodpeckers, and we went through a period of seeing these gorgeous house finches (that's their name; otherwise, they're wild birds), and one summer we saw Baltimore orioles. I wish they'd come back...they're so pretty. We have American Gold finches, too, and they're so gorgeous, but it's super rare for me to see them, it seems! And then we have a few less common others, too, that I either don't know the name of, or can't remember the name of. I always love seeing different looking birds in our area.

ETA: We have lots of Canadian geese, too!, just not in our town. And occasionally we'll see a few ducks at a public fishing pond with the geese. And in a town where I work, about 20 minutes from our house, I saw gulls flying around a restaurant. They were beautiful.