Birds In Your Backyard

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?