Wow, time flies when you’re busy and focused on other stuff.
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!!!
A couple of weeks ago I posted the first poll on the site titled “How Many Birds Are On Your Life List“. Being new birders we wanted to see what we were up against as far as number of birds seen.
The Envelope Please
Well, we have some results, though not as many as I would have hoped. But, this was the first, of what I hope will be many, polls/surveys on the site so it’s a good start.
There have been 8 responses so far and here is how it broke down:
0-50 birds- 25%
251-500- 25%
501-750- 50%
Wow, some serious birders read this blog! I guess I should be flattered, thanks for reading. Both Pam and I are in the 0-50 bird group and it’s a little hard to imagine having more than 500 birds on our life list. So, whoever you are that has 500+ birds on your life list, congratulations are in order! That’s a fantastic achievement and we hope to be there one day as well.
I will keep this poll open so as new readers find this blog (Spread The Word!) they can take the poll as well.
Stay Tuned For More
This was only the first of many polls that I have planned. There are so many things that I’d like to know about all you birders out there. I plan on doing another one here in a couple of days. In the meantime, if you have any suggestions for poll questions you’d like to see answered please let me know!
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?
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.
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:
Mourning Dove
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Eastern Phoebe
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
Brown-headed Nuthatch
Carolina Wren
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Eastern Bluebird
Brown Thrasher
Pine Warbler
Eastern Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
House Finch
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?
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