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This last weekend I took my first official birdwatching trip in almost 32 years and I didn’t even leave my yard!
I have finally decided to get back into birdwatching “officially”. When I was in the Boy Scouts I earned the “Bird Study” merit badge. And that was about it as far as “serious” birdwatching goes. Over the years I have looked at birds but not really any more than that. Well, I’ve decided to change that. We have a nice wooded backyard that attracts birds year round. The more that I watched them come and go from our feeder the more interested I became. If I was going to be spending my hard earned $$’s feeding them I sure as heck was going to find out what they were! Being the numbers/statistics oriented person I am I decided I would start keeping track of what we saw…And so it began, 32 years later.
Building My Life List
I have seen many birds in my life but haven’t officially kept track of them since I was a kid. So, I need to start over. Here is my “Life List” as it stands right now:
- Red-bellied Woodpecker
- Downy Woodpecker
- Pileated Woodpecker
- Carolina Chickadee
- Tufted Titmouse
- White-breasted Nuthatch
- Brown-headed Nuthatch
- Eastern Bluebird
- American Robin
- Brown Thrasher
- Eastern Towhee
- Chipping Sparrow
- Northern Cardinal
It’s not much but it’s a start 
I hope to add many more to the list as time goes on. I will post updates of my list as it grows along with summaries of observations.
So far I am really enjoying backyard birdwatching and I hope to grow my knowledge of birds and their habits. I plan on using this site as a way to share my experiences and provide a resource that anyone can use to better enjoy the wonderful birds that we have around us. Stay tuned…
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HI Mark and Pam,
This is the first time I have had a chance to really read alot right here. So I wanted to comment about what kind of bird I saw that really had an impact on me and actually there are several. One is an American Bald Eagle that was flying close to the bridge I was crossing over the Tennessee River on my way to mothers. It was by far the most breathtaking sight for me as far as birds are concerned. Very majestic!
The other are Goldfinch. My mother-in-law had just passed away, this has been about 7 years ago, her favorite bird was the Goldfinch. I had just started putting out food and feeders for the birds a few months before her passing. I had not noticed them at the feeder before then and this is somewhat of almost a spiritual experience for me but the day we got home from her funeral there it was… a Goldfinch sitting at my feeder. I always fancy it was her letting us know she was alright . Since then the numbers have increased dramatically. I usually have at least 50 to 75 Goldfinch who winter over every year. This year those numbers have decreased and the Goldfinch were replaced by Pine siskin. I still have them but only about 20 or so. There have been 50 to nearly 100 Pine Siskin here since December.
That’s a nice story about the Goldfinch. Isn’t it neat how sometimes nature just seems to know what’s going on? We have a few Goldfinch that frequent our feeders but this Winter the Pine Siskin have definitely outnumbered them. I think the Siskin are starting to move North however because we haven’t seen too many the last week or two.