Birding!

[jjohnwm]

Beautiful pics, Matth05 ; I need to get a telephoto lens as well...of course, that would involve getting a camera to go with it...

I used to do a lot of photography back in the days of film, built my own minimalistic darkroom for processing B&W film. All photographers back then "knew" that digital was just a fad, and would never replace film for serious photographers.

Now that retirement gives me the time, I definitely want to get a decent camera and long lens to play with bird photographs. The problem is that it's easy to get too involved with getting the picture...to the point where you are no longer enjoying the reality of a beautiful living breathing bird in front of you. The first time I saw a Great Grey Owl (to this day, one of my favourite species) I was so busy fumbling with my camera that I didn't really appreciate it in the moment; I saw it...but I didn't see it. I have a friend with whom I go birding now and then; he will take a hundred pics of some unusual bird we see, or perhaps of a large flock of gulls or waterfowl or whatever, and will then pick through them at home and identify them. He has even found a couple of "lifers" that way. I just don't enjoy that.

I need to find 'em myself, examine 'em with my own two eyes, and identify 'em myself; that's birding.

 

[Matth05]

Beautiful pics, Matth05 ; I need to get a telephoto lens as well...of course, that would involve getting a camera to go with it...

I used to do a lot of photography back in the days of film, built my own minimalistic darkroom for processing B&W film. All photographers back then "knew" that digital was just a fad, and would never replace film for serious photographers.

Now that retirement gives me the time, I definitely want to get a decent camera and long lens to play with bird photographs. The problem is that it's easy to get too involved with getting the picture...to the point where you are no longer enjoying the reality of a beautiful living breathing bird in front of you. The first time I saw a Great Grey Owl (to this day, one of my favourite species) I was so busy fumbling with my camera that I didn't really appreciate it in the moment; I saw it...but I didn't see it. I have a friend with whom I go birding now and then; he will take a hundred pics of some unusual bird we see, or perhaps of a large flock of gulls or waterfowl or whatever, and will then pick through them at home and identify them. He has even found a couple of "lifers" that way. I just don't enjoy that.

I need to find 'em myself, examine 'em with my own two eyes, and identify 'em myself; that's birding.

Thank you and you’re absolutely right. I’m all for just sitting back and take it all in when it comes to nature. No phone, no camera. Just you observing with your own eyes. I think that’s the best way. When going out this upcoming Spring and Summer I’m going to try my best to find a balance between the two. Last thing I want to do is always get caught up in taking the photo, rather than enjoying the animal right in front of me.

 

[phreeflow]

How do you keep rodents away? A friend’s neighbor was a birder and spread seeds about to attract them but was soon overrun with rodents. Came in droves and eventually into my friend’s home and yard. She’s still dealing with the damage

 

[jjohnwm]

How do you keep rodents away? A friend’s neighbor was a birder and spread seeds about to attract them but was soon overrun with rodents. Came in droves and eventually into my friend’s home and yard. She’s still dealing with the damage

I suspect the seed they spread was the cheap mixed-seed crap sold at grocery stores and Walmarts. It's full of cracked corn and other stuff that most birds don't care for, but which indeed attracts rodents. Buying quality seed targeting the birds you want to see is a big step in the right direction. Black Oil Sunflower is probably the most universally-accepted stuff you can get.

I live in the country; we have no rats and no house mice here. We have deer mice, voles, chipmunks and other native rodents; they do visit the yard and are attracted to seed waste scattered beneath feeders...but not in "droves". They also attract owls, shrikes, kestels and other interesting predators.

But, to be honest, doing anything to attract wildlife to your yard will involve more work on your part to keep it clean.

 

[esoxlucius]

I wouldn't say I was an avid birdwatcher, in as much that I wouldn't purposely go out and buy binoculars or set up a hide. But saying that I am very familiar with our native British birds, and some not so native ones too.

This stems from my childhood. At school we had a book club and we could take books home from the library and keep them for a while. I always chose books associated with nature. I remember one particular book well. It was a spotters guide to British birds, and I absorbed a lot of information from that book as a child.

It's funny because one of my favourite birds is one that you mentioned, the nuthatch. Whether your Canadian nuthatch is the same as ours, or a close slightly different looking relative I don't know. They are a secretive woodland bird and they scurry around trees on the bark like little squirrels!

Pic below for reference. The nuthatch.

 

[krichardson]

I enjoy watching the the hawks that soar above and occasionally perch in the trees around here.Im not sure which species they are but from what I can make out they look like those in the photos Deadeye posted,I copied and posted them here.

 

[RD.]

Count me in, birder for life. Started with trips to Point Pelee as a kid. In our current location we see everything from Pileated Woodpeckers, Hummingbirds, along with Bald Eagles, various owls, etc. One of my favorite birds is the American Crow. Fascinating to watch & listen to, and definitely one of the most intelligent birds on the planet.

 

[Deadeye]

I enjoy watching the the hawks that soar above and occasionally perch in the trees around here.Im not sure which species they are but from what I can make out they look like those in the photos Deadeye posted,I copied and posted them here.
View attachment 1533582

I’m sure the more experienced birders can confirm, but I think both are red tailed hawks - or at least the second one is.
The first could be a coopers or rough legged.

Plenty of other raptors by me too - I regularly see hawks, vultures (turkey and black), herons, and the occasional bald eagle.
I’ve yet to see any owls, but being nocturnal definitely doesn’t help.

 

[jjohnwm]

Esox, if I saw that nuthatch in my yard I would quickly ID it as a Red-breasted Nuthatch, and they're one of my favourites as well! We also have the more common, slightly larger and less colourful White-breasted Nuthatch locally, and there are a couple of other species in other parts of NA. I'm too lazy to check if yours is the same species as ours or slightly different; Europe and the British Isles have a bunch of species of birds that are virtually identical to some of ours but are actually considered to be distinct species.

K krichardson , those are a couple of immature hawks, which means that they look a bit alike and that there are a bunch more that are similar as well. The smaller guy looks like a young Cooper's Hawk, a medium-sized Accipiter that mostly eats smaller birds and can terrorize backyard feeder stations. The big guy on the ground is a young Red-tailed Hawk, probably the most common of the big Buteo soaring hawks in most places in NA.

RD. ...I think we discussed this once before? I am also an old Point Pelee alumnus, spent much of my childhood pedalling my bike across Essex County to get to the Point. Magical place especially during migration.

Congrats on your ID's, Deadeye , nicely done. Now...relearn the names, because many of them are now wrong. The Redtail remains the same; but the Cooper's, like all NA birds that have been named after a human individual, is having its name changed. Woke-mania has infected birding; some of the old-time amateur ornithologists after whom some birds were named have been found to have engaged in practices that are no longer considered acceptable today...and so all human proper names are being erased from the bird world, apparently to reduce the chances of offending someone and to make birding "more inclusive". No more Wilson's Snipe or Bachman's Warbler or Harris' Hawk or LeConte's Sparrow...or Cooper's Hawk...

It's inclusive, all right. Thanks to this upheaval, we old-time birding codgers are just as confused as the newbies!

I remember the brouhaha may years ago when some sensitive new-age forward-thinker suggest that the various loons, beloved to Canadians, should be called "divers", which is apparently what those upstarts in the British Isles call them. That idea didn't gain much traction...but that was then; this is now. This name change is happening.

 

[Deadeye]

Another win for using scientific names instead of common - but you wouldn’t think that would matter for an easily identifiable species…
I guess I’ll go back to my usual identification behavior - “big bird, small bird, that one looks like a dove”
It’s sad to think that there’s actually people out there who see a bird or an insect (like Gypsy - sorry, spongy - moths) and get offended by its name.
I wonder when this fish will get its name changed:

Slippery dick - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Or does it not matter unless 2-3 people are offended by the name?
Will the killdeer (one of my favorite birds ever since they nested in my backyard) get renamed because PETA doesn’t like anything that promotes animal cruelty (except themselves)?