Sunday, March 3, 2024

Breaking The Birding Addiction

Life is full off potential addictions. There are obvious ones like food, drugs, and alcohol but when you break one addiction another less obvious one can easily take its place

 Birding seems like a healthy and wholesome activity. I think that in most ways it is, but birding can become an addiction too! Usually this applies to listing or having an appetite to constantly see new species. It's happened to me before but at I'm usually able to recognize it when it starts to creep back in. I spent the month of January and February anxious to see new species and adding numbers to my list. That was a fine way to help avoid the winter doldrums but now it's time to move on.

 As March begins, I plan to find balance. I will take the emphasis off of chasing new birds around and instead just take things at a relaxed pace. If I want to go see a rare bird that's close by, it' not a problem. If I just want to sit around taking pictures, that's fine too. I want to enjoy each experience and not worry about any specific goal. There! that wasn't so hard! I'm pretty sure I've convinced myself to buy into my own bs! 

-The photo is of Ring-necked Ducks taken at the Helen Carlson Wildlife Sanctuary. The ring around the neck isn't usually visible unless sunlight reflects off of it. In this case, there was no sunshine. only clouds.
 

Monday, February 26, 2024

Turkeys And Vultures In All The Wrong Places

Sometimes, I can't get withing a 1000 feet of a bird but this turkey was right in the middle of the road! I know you might be thinking that the road is full of turkeys but I'm looking for the feathered kind that let's me take pictures. This tom was busy strutting his stuff for a couple of hens.
I was just busy deleting pictures from my camera when this female Bufflehead popped up in front of me. Usually, they fly off or swim off by the time I raise my  camera. It's nice to get a better look at the more subtly marked female for a change as opposed to the male who are all white on the back of their head.

This final picture is of Black Vultures perched on top of a convalescent home roof. There was a dozen of them all together. If I was in a convalescent home I don't know if I would want them hanging out up there! kind of creepy.

Monday, February 19, 2024

Most Birders Are Kind And Helpful But..

Birders learn about birding at their own pace. Some learn quickly and are experts in no time. Others take years to graduate from identifying birds at the feeders to identifying a few warblers and never reach the level of expert. I fell somewhere in between. I learned a lot quickly but never ascended to that expert level. I still make mistakes and second-guess identifications. There are still certain categories of birds I have difficulty with. 

The top photo is a female and male Gadwall. That was one of those duck species I wasn't confident with early on. The markings are subtle compared to some other ducks. The male is showing a silvery-gray color with a black patch near the tail here. The female which looks kind of like a Mallard is showing that patch of white but this is in good lighting. Sometimes they might be far away with poor viewing conditions and then they wouldn't be easy to identify.
 Birding is fun but some birders take it very seriously. There is something called a birder's code of ethics. It's basic things like don't destroy bird habitat, don't overuse bird song playback to attract birds (especially during nesting season), and don't give false reports about seeing rare birds etc. There are many variations of the birding code of ethics. Here is one of the more well known ones: ABA Code Of Birding Ethics.

Some birders might shame someone for breaking one of the rules in the code of ethics, or be hypercritical when someone misidentifies a bird. They forget that one of the most important rules in the code of ethics is to always be kind and helpful to other people who share an interest in birds. This is especially true when it comes to new birders. The last thing you want to do is to say something that will discourage or embarrass them! Give them a break! Fortunately, the majority of birders go out of their way to be kind and helpful when it comes to sharing their knowledge with others.

Thursday, February 15, 2024

Brant Were getting On My Nerves!

I took several trips down to the shore in January and not once did I see a Brant. Other people were reporting them and I even went to a location 10 minutes after they were reported there. No dice. Finally, I came across some in Clinton. There were about 3 dozen in total. I was relieved to put that behind me!