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Monthly Archives: December 2008

The First Bird To Make An Impact On Me

December 10, 2008 – 5:25 pm
male

Image via Wikipedia

Sometimes, out of the blue, you are hit with a realization or observation that impacts your life in some way, however small.  That moment happened to me a few weeks ago when I noticed a bird doing something we had seen it do many times in the past but this time it was different.

The Significance Of A Bird

Birds are all around us but we usually don’t notice them.  But, every once in a while we catch a glimpse of one and it has some significance to us, for whatever reason.  I thought it would be interesting to write a short post about significant birds we have seen as we see them.  So its fitting that the first bird to make an “impact” on me in my recent incarnation of birdwatcher was  a woodpecker, specifically the Pileated Woodpecker.

Seeing Woody The Woodpecker

For both Pam and I the Pileated Woodpecker reminds us of Woody The Woodpecker, the famous cartoon character that originated in the 1940’s and remained popular through the 60’s and 70’s.  It is a fairly large bird and it is easy to notice, especially as it hops down the trees in your yard.  That’s exactly how I noticed it a few weeks ago.  It was inching its way down one of the Sweet Gum trees in our backyard heading for our suet feeder.  Once it got to within 10 feet or so it made the short flight over to the feeder where it immediately began pecking away at the suet.  What was funny was how the suet was literally flying all over the place as he pecked at it.  I don’t know how much he actually got but it sure was fun watching :-)

Since that Saturday we haven’t seem him again.  I’m sure he’s still around we’re just missing him.  Hopefully he stops by our feeder soon.

Making An Impact

I don’t know what it was about seeing that happen on that particular day.  Over the last two years we’ve lived in this house both of us have seen him do that same thing multiple times.  Maybe it was the way he went about doing what woodpeckers do or maybe I was just more receptive to the nature that is all around us.  Whatever it was, it made an impact on me and I was much more interested in it than the other times.  I guess that’s when the spark went off and I became a birdwatcher again, and the Pileated Woodpecker became the first bird on my life list.

What About You

If you are a birdwatcher, what was your first bird and how did it impact you and motivate you to take up watching birds?  If you aren’t yet a birdwatcher what would it take for you to become one?

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By Mark | Posted in Life List, Significant Birds | Tagged , , , , | Comments (3)

Our Backyard Birdwatching Environment

December 9, 2008 – 12:56 pm

I thought I’d post a picture or two of our backyard so you can see what we have as far as an environment for birdwatching.  Here is a view of our backyard from the driveway.  Our Yard In WinterAs you can see we have a lot of trees in the yard.  It is mainly a mix of Pine and Sweet gum.  There are a couple of Oak and Hickory (I think) trees as well. The big tree to the right of the feeders is a Sweet gum.  As far as bushes go, the primary one is Azaleas (right behind the feeders).  The birds hide in there and dart out to grab some food.  As you can see the ground below the feeders is covered with leaves.  The brown thrashers, towhees, and fox sparrows love to kick around in the leaves looking for whatever it is they look for, mostly grubs and insects I think.  The yard is fully surrounded with a fence which I think helps keep predators (cats, etc.) away.

View From Office

We use one of our bedrooms upstairs as the computer room/office.  Here’s a couple of shots from there. ViewFrom2ndFloorOffice1 ViewFrom2ndFloorOffice2We have a great view of the yard and we are able to view from here without disturbing the birds.  Its great when it’s cold.  We can see the whole backyard and are able to view the birds as they fly around the yard and scoot in and out of the bushes.  You can see that we have another fairly large Azalea on the right side of the yard.  Oh, and if you look on the sidebar and see “the Current Weather In Our Backyard” graphic, the weather station that collects all of that is mounted to the top of our deck.  So literally, it is the weather in our backyard (I told you I was a bit of a geek :-) ).  The bedroom/office also makes a pretty good spot for taking pictures of the birds.  Here is a sample shot.
TypicalPictureFromOfficeI have a 2 year old Canon PowerShot S3 IS which is a 6 megapixel camera that has a 12x optical zoom.
This picture was taken using the full 12x zoom.  At some point I may get a spotting scope and try to “digiscope” by taking pictures through the scope but for now I’m happy with the results.

Our Feeders

Right now we have 4 active feeders:

  1. A three tube feeder that we put a mix of black oil sunflower seed and mixed seed.
  2. A suet feeder that we just put various suet blocks in.
  3. A niger feeder that gets used a lot more in the Summer.
  4. A hummingbird feeder that we have attached to the deck right below the weather station.  It’s very busy in the summer.

Pam and I are talking about adding another feeder but we’re not sure what to add.  We want to add something that will complement our current feeder setup, not duplicate it.  If any of you have suggestions we’re all ears.

What About Your Backyard

There you go, a summary of our backyard.  We’d love to see some of the other backyards out there.  So, post a link to a picture of your backyard or feeders in the comments and share your backyard with the world!

Also, If there is anything else you have done to improve your backyard viewing pleasure please tell us about it in the comments.

By Mark | Posted in Birdwatching | Tagged , , | Comments (1)

Keeping Track Of The Birds We See

December 7, 2008 – 5:52 pm
Birdwatchers in a viewing tower in the Bay of ...
Image via Wikipedia

Since Pam and I started birdwatching a couple of weeks ago we have seen a few different birds.  So far its 24 species for me and 14 for Pam.  That’s not very many at all compared to experienced birdwatchers but it’s a start.  But, being the numbers geek that I am, as soon as I stated writing down the birds I saw I began looking for a way to keep track of them.  Basically I want to know what birds we saw, where we saw them, and when we saw them.

Database Options

I started my search in the same place I look for anything, the internet.  It turns out there are quite a few options for keeping track of birds that we see.   I was looking for something that is easy to use yet complete.  Oh, yeah if it is free or low cost then even better. Here are the most popular, full featured applications I found.  One of these will probably the right one for just about anyone.

Avisys- This is the birding database I had heard of before I began birdwatching.  It has a large following and has been around for years.  My Father uses this and loves it.

Birder’s Diary-This is another birding software that has been around for a while and looks like they have a large user base as well.

Bird Base- Yet another birding database that seems to be very full featured.

Ebird- This is an online database developed by the Cornell Lab Of Ornithology. It is easy to use, gives you lots of options, and best of all it’s FREE!  The other thing I like about it is that the observations I enter into it are added to everyone else’s and used for research.  That’s pretty cool.

My Choice

Well, based on my description, you probably figured which one I chose, Ebird.  It’s easy to use and understand, even as beginners, and it looks like it will meet our needs for quite a while.  If, at some time we move to some other database we should be able to import the records from Ebird.  If you are looking for a record keeping program for the birds you see, give Ebird a try.

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By Mark | Posted in Birdwatching Software and Tools | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

How Many Birds Are On Your Life List

December 5, 2008 – 5:39 pm

I’m going to start a new, hopefully regular, feature on Birds In Your Backyard, that would be a poll or survey that we all can participate in.  I did some research on poll/survey plugins and found Survey Gizmo.  It seems to have a lot of features and it looks like it will work well.  Hopefully you find this fun.

Numbers Please

Let’s kick this thing off with something that every birdwatcher has, a life list.  From what I gather so far, birders are a rather obsessive bunch (I mean that in a good way).  We like to keep statistics and see where we compare with everyone else.  The life list is a good way to measure ourselves against others. I’ll kick it off by “voting” my life list of 24 birds and Pam’s 14 birds. Those should be easy numbers for many of you to beat :-)

The survey will be open for a few days at least. I’ll do a follow up post summarizing the results. I’m interested to see how many birds all of you have on your lists.

By Mark | Posted in Life List, Polls and Surveys | Tagged , | Comments (7)

Buying Birdwatching Binoculars Part Two

December 4, 2008 – 1:50 pm
A typical Porro prism binocular design
Image via Wikipedia

This is part two of our short series on buying birdwatching binoculars.  This part covers the research of possible binoculars.  To see part one, which covered defining our needs and budget, click here.

Doing The Research

Once Pam and I decided what we wanted and how much we were able to spend I began to do the research to help us narrow the field.  Luckily there is a lot of information online that is very helpful.  Here is a list of the resources I used:

Cornell Lab Of Ornithology Binocular Review – The Lab Of Ornithology at Cornell University is one of the best resources available for birdwatchers.  They have an extensive site with all kinds of information.  In 2005 they published a review of birdwatching binoculars that has some great information on choosing the right binocular as well as reviews of all kinds of binoculars in different price ranges.

Binoculars.com- Binoculars.com is one of the largest online sources for quality binoculars and other optics.  Many of the product links on this site point to them because they have a large selection and very good prices. They also have a lot of information on how binoculars work and picking the best binocular for you.  There is even a series of videos explaining different concepts.  Click here to go  to their learning center.

Bird Forums- This is one of the largest online communities dedicated to all things birdwatching.  They have a Binoculars forum that has a lot of information in it on specific brands of binoculars.

The Choices

After visiting these sites plus a few others I came up with a “short list” of possible binoculars based on the factors we were looking for.  Your list might be completely different based on your needs and budget.

Nikon Monarch- This is one of the highest rated binoculars in the Cornell Labs article as well as on many other sites.  It has good eye relief and lists at $430 but is available for $250-$290.

Vortex Diamondback also Stokes Talon- This is one I came across in my research.  Many people seem to like it and it gets good reviews.  Eye relief is fine, it has a wide field of view, and the price is right at $200.

Bushnell Excursion- This is another binocular that people seem to like.  It has a nice wide field of view and good eye relief.  The price is good as well, right at $160 or so.

Vortex Fury- The Vortex Fury is at the very high end, actually over, our range at $350 but people seem to really like it.  It could be an option if we get one less expensive and one higher priced pair.

Pentax DCF HRc- This is right at $300 but is spoken of highly in the research I did.  The field of view is not as large as some of the others.

Minox BV 8×42 BR- The MInox is right at $290 but has good reviews, and a decent field of view.

Celestron Noble- The Celestron was well received in the Cornell Labs review.  It is $175-$250 most places.

Now that I’ve got my candidates I need to make my decision.  Stay tuned for the next part of the series to see what we ended up going with.

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By Mark | Posted in Binoculars | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (1)
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