We’re Still Here

Pam and I are still alive, we’ve just been distracted/focused on other stuff the last couple of months.  Pam has been crazy at work, as have I, plus I’m getting into the meat of the cycling season.  In addition, since late March I’ve been focusing, when I can, on a new blog called Video Beer Reviews that I’ve wanted to do for a while.  I’ve been a lover of quality beer for 20+ years and now I am reviewing beers and posting the videos on the blog.  So, if you like beer and want to see somebody babble on about why they like or dislike a beer feel free to go over there and subscribe.  How does beer relate to birds you ask?  Well we spend a lot of time on the deck enjoying beer and watching the birds so there you go

Birds We’ve Seen And Missed

In the last month or two we’ve seen a few new birds in our yard including Brown Headed Cowbirds, Magnolia Warblers, Purple Finches (pretty sure although they are “rare” in Georgia), Red Headed Woodpeckers (very cool bird!), Cedar Waxwings, and Blue Jays.  We’ve also noted the return of the Ruby Throated Hummingbird to the sugar water feeder on our deck.  The Goldfinches have come back as well. I think we’ve missed most of the Spring Migration.  We were planning on getting out to bird with a group this Spring, especially for Warblers, but it’s May and most of them are gone.  We’ll catch them in the Fall and next Spring I guess.  Both our life lists are a little bigger than before.

Looking Ahead And Another Mystery Bird

We’re hoping to get back in the swing of birding more often and posting about our experiences.  I’m also going to try to get some more pictures to post as well, including one of another “mystery” bird that we just saw yesterday.  It was mostly brown, songbird sized, and had a thin white “crown” and white dots on the wing.  The beak is short and stubby and might be slightly hooked at the end.  It was hanging out at our feeders.  We’ve looked through our field guides but can’t find anything close.  We’ll keep trying and hopefully we will figure it out.  If anyone has any ideas please let us know.

Anyway, I’ll try to be a bit more regular in posting.  We really appreciate those of you that visit the site on a regular basis.  Thank You!!!

Birding On The River

After we got our New Years bike rides in and ate some lunch we drove a few miles to where Peachtree Parkway (aka Medlock Bridge) crosses over the Chattahoochee River and parked at one of the many sections of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area to do some quick birdwatching.  We walked along the trail for about 45 minutes or so and saw a lot of the same birds that visit our feeders.

But we also saw a new bird that we can add to the life list and that was the Yellow-rumped Warbler.  Pam and I saw a few of these flitting about in the trees next to the river.  We forgot our Kaufman Field Guide to Birds of North America so we noted the colors, etc. and checked as soon as we got home.  We’re getting a little better at least in identifying birds.  Both of us narrowed it down to either a warbler or sparrow without the guide.

Activity At The “Bird Hot Tub”

When we got home, around 4PM, we noticed some visitors to our new “Bird Hot Tub” (as my co-workers called it when they saw I was getting Pam a heated bird bath for Christmas).  There was a pair of Eastern Bluebirds hopping along the edge of the bird bath.  I had the camera nearby and snapped a couple of pictures:

They seemed to be enjoying the fresh water. It was neat that the first birds I saw at the bird bath were the same as the 1st bird I saw for 2009 earlier in the day.  It’s funny how things work sometimes.

A Nice Start To The Year

It was a nice way to start the New Year.  We are hoping to see many more birds this year and we are looking forward to sharing our experiences with you through this blog.

We hope all of you have had a good start to 2009!

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?

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.

Image via Wikipedia

Today was a perfect November day in Georgia with temps in the low 60’s and clear blue skies.  My parents are in town for the holiday and my Father has been a birdwatcher for 55 of his 75 years so he was more than ready to help me identify some new birds.  So, I took the opportunity to spend some time walking around the yard with him to see what I could see.

Some Skill Involved

We spent about 45 minutes walking around the yard.  All around us there was activity.  The problem for me was actually seeing what the birds were.  I’m finding that it takes some skill to be able to get the binoculars up to your eyes and be able to see what you thought you saw before you put the binoculars up.  It definitely takes some practice.

We saw a lot of birds in a short time.  My “Life List” is now up to 21 species.  Here’s what I saw:

1. Mourning Dove
2. Red-bellied Woodpecker
3. Downy Woodpecker
4. Eastern Phoebe
5. Carolina Chickadee
6. Tufted Titmouse
7. White-breasted Nuthatch
8. Brown-headed Nuthatch
9. Carolina Wren
10. Golden-crowned Kinglet
11. Ruby-crowned Kinglet
12. Eastern Bluebird
13. Brown Thrasher
14. Pine Warbler
15. Eastern Towhee
16. Chipping Sparrow
17. Northern Cardinal
18. House Finch
19. American Goldfinch

It was an enjoyable time walking around the yard with my Father.  He has a ton of experience and was quickly able to get me oriented as far as what birds were what and their songs, etc.  I’m getting a little better at spotting the movement of the birds and being able to get the binoculars on them but I need a lot more work at it.

All in all It was a good time.  Oh, I forgot to mention that near the end of the day we all spotted a large bird sitting on our dinner table.  It looked so good that we just ate it up.  I think it’s called Turkey or something like that.  Can I add it to my Life List? 

Image via Wikipedia

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:

1. Red-bellied Woodpecker
2. Downy Woodpecker
3. Pileated Woodpecker
4. Carolina Chickadee
5. Tufted Titmouse
6. White-breasted Nuthatch
7. Brown-headed Nuthatch
8. Eastern Bluebird
9. American Robin
10. Brown Thrasher
11. Eastern Towhee
12. Chipping Sparrow
13. 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…