Here is What Sparked Their Interest in Birding — Part 2

Posted on December 5, 2012 by Richard

Here are the next group of stories from the Massachusetts birding community (extended) about what was the spark that made them birders.

Catherine (NH) was hooked by a booming Bittern:

I was fortunate in that my Dad has been a lifelong bird watcher, but I don’t recall his ever pushing my siblings or me to follow his bliss. Still, there quite a few species to be seen around our home, and I was given an antique hard-covered child’s first book of birds when I was around 6 or so.  My folks had a sunflower seed feeder hanging above the front porch, but I read in my book about getting some strange substance called suet (which I pronounced as you would a man’s business attire), and asked my folks if they knew where we could get some so we could see woodpeckers.They obtained suet and hung it from on old onion bag and soon we had hairy and downy woodpeckers at our feeders.

From age 6 or so, birds were my winter pastime.  I enjoyed watching our feeders on snowy days and became familiar with the birds that stayed or arrived with the snow.  In those days (late 50s early 60s), we’d have evening grosbeaks every winter – great flocks of them that came and devoured mass quantities of sunflower seeds.  It’s been decades since I’ve seen flocks like those.

The spark, though, didn’t hit me until one early morning in the spring when I was eight.  Our home was abutted by two abandoned pastures, and beyond them was a small pond surrounded by a sizable cattail swamp.  Every spring a pair of bitterns would set up housekeeping in that swamp, and our early mornings would be punctuated with the male’s strange, booming call.  I knew it was a bittern, because our Dad had told us so years ago; and I knew what  a bittern looked like because I’d looked it up in our Peterson field guide.

But that spring morning, as the male was thundering away in the swamp, I decided that I was going to go see what this bird looked like when he was making his weird music. I wanted to SEE what he did to make that sound! It was a much harder (and soggier) undertaking than I’d imagined it would be, and I spent a good twenty minutes jumping from cattail hummock to cattail hummock – trying hard (and failing) not to muck up the new sneakers that were supposed to last me at least until the end of summer.  I was so intent on where I was putting my feet that I came on the bittern almost before I knew it.  One minute I was grabbing a handful of spent cattail stalks and trying not to tumble in the muck, and then there he was, just twenty feet or so away, on his own hummock.  He was much more handsome than the picture in the book, and I was fascinated by how painful-looking his singing was. Each sound required so much effort that it seemed to my eight-year-old eyes, that he was constantly on the verge of throwing up.  I was absolutely transfixed by that bird – by nature I was rather a fidgety child, but so intent was I on not spooking the bittern that I crouched behind my cattail clump as if frozen.  I don’t know how long I watched him before he finally flew off to sing in some other section of his swamp, but it felt like I stayed watching him for a long time before he left, and I felt like I could stay like that forever.   What I remember most was the elation I felt – like I’d been lit up inside with a feeling of great joy – that, through my own hard slogging, I had seen something wonderful.

An American Bittern was Catherine’s “spark bird.” photo by goingslo

 

 

I think, when I go bird watching, I’m chasing that lit up feeling as much as I’m chasing glimpses of these wonderful creatures.  My Dad will be 80 this year, and we still try to get out bird-watching once a week or so.  Often we just sit in one place, drink coffee, and watch whatever comes by.  It’s a rare outing where we don’t see something avian that gives us that joyful, lit up feeling.

Tom (CT) became hooked at summer camp:

My spark was similar to one of the first posters, who posted about the distant eagle.  I was 12 years old, at a summer camp in New Hampshire. I had been interested in birds since I was 5-6, raptors mostly, like most boys (had a falling out with my best friend for a while over who would win in a fight between a Bald Eagle and a California Condor!), but never really birded. My spark bird was a male Blackburnian Warbler (I’m sure I am not the only one) that a counselor showed me on a nature walk, but it was the fact that you could use binoculars to find and identify this tiny bird so far away that really opened up my world.

That winter, I bought a box of Cap’n Crunch with a pair of binoculars inside as a free prize, then upgraded to another pair of plastic binocs from a drug store, then to my dad’s mother of pearl opera glasses(!) before finally getting as a birthday present, about 80-90 species later, a pair of 8x40s optimized for sports viewing (which I was inordinately proud of because both the 8 and the 40 were bigger numbers than the standard 7×35!). Ironically, like another poster, I’m actually not very good at spotting things with my eyes, and have been a birder mainly by ear for most of my life (though my favorite group of birds are shorebirds–I love sitting and going through a flock with a scope over and over again).

Gerry, the “spark” for this wonderful discussion, tells how sharing a ‘scope can change a life:

It was July of 1970. My wife of two years and I were spending the weekend with my cousin and his wife at their Bonnet Shores house. He asked me if I would like to go birding with him on Sunday morning and not being adverse to trying something new easily agreed.

We went to Moonstone Beach and trudged out by the potato field where my cousin set up his Swift scope. Mind you I didn’t even have a pair of binoculars. He started sweeping the fields and then stopped and fiddled with the focus wheel and said “here take a look at this.”

I put my eye to the scope and what happened next was nothing short of an epiphany. The bird in the scope was  a Killdeer and seeing him was like a laser back to my brain because at very moment I knew what I was going to do the rest of my life.

Gerry gives quiet thanks to his “spark bird” — a Killdeer.     photo by winnu

Today when I find a Killdeer I always linger. It’s not to recreate that moment because that can only happen once but I always view the Killdeer as the key to my great adventure. If you happen to be standing close enough to me you will hear an audible ” thank you” and that comes from my heart and soul.

 

 

Jessica notes that she is a “birding baby” compared to many contributors to this thread:

My own story is so different.  Maybe six years ago, on a whim, I got a video about “backyard bird identification” from the library.  At a local park, I made my first identification: a flock of house sparrows.  I watched them hop about, fascinated.  They were no longer just “birds”, beyond any

hope of recognition. They had unique names and identities and habits.  Suddenly birds were everywhere.  I got to know the chickadee, the robin, the blue jay…

A few years later, I imitated a mysterious and lovely (and loud) bird call to my boyfriend.  “That’s a cardinal,” he said without hesitation.  I was stunned (and a little skeptical).  How could he know that from my poor imitation?  He got me “Birding by Ear”, and pretty soon I was helping him make identifications.

I think what got me hooked though was the experience of going to places that seemed empty and just stopping long enough to see that they hosted a rich variety.  If I stand still and pay attention, I might see coots bobbing in the reeds, a heron motionless and hunting, goldfinches calling as they fly, a flock of bluebirds passing through.

Looking forward to reading more about your adventures and finds.

You can read the initial question here and the first batch of answers here.

Join those who comment on what spark set them on their birding journey?  Tell us about it with a comment below.  You should sign up by RSS feed or via email to have future “spark” articles sent to you.  Thanks

Posted in Love_of_birding, MA Birding | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Here is What Sparked Their Interest in Birding — Part 1

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Richard

When Gerry Cooperman put his “What Sparked Your Interest?  on the MASSBirds listserve, I asked him for permission to post it here.  I figured he’d get a half-dozen responses and perhaps I’d excerpt one or two and move on.  The response has been overwhelming as dozens of birders from across the Northeast tell their story.  Here are a few examples from just the first day of responses.

Paul was in college:

My spark came as a nineteen year old at UMASS. I was told one could see bald eagles at the Quabbin.  I packed my girlfriend in the car one cold winter morning and made the trek down route 9 and arrived at the reservoir expecting there to be an eagle in every tree. How naive I was. It wasn’t until I arrived at the Enfield lookout that I noticed a few older gentlemen with very large homemade telescopes. I built up the nerve to speak to one of them and asked what they were looking at. The answer was something like “that eagle in that tree on Mt. Ram” I looked with my naked eye and saw a mountain. He suggested I look through his scope and that’s when I saw my first adult bald eagle. Amazed by what I saw, I immediately went and purchased the best binoculars and scope that I could afford and decided I wanted more!

Kathleen was a young girl:

 I remember the day very well.  It was in May and I was perhaps 10 or  11.

My sister had come down with scarlet fever.  I was perfectly healthy  but the house was quarantined, so no school for me. It was a lovely warm morning, my window was wide open and I heard birds singing.  Encouraged by an  aunt, I was just beginning to become more seriously interested in birds. I knelt by my open window, looking down at the pear tree in full bloom below,  and suddenly the brightest bird I had ever seen flew into the top of the tree…the brightest red I had ever seen, with black wings and tail.

I knew  robins and crows, blue jays and chickadees, but I had NEVER seen anything like  this. This scarlet red atop a white tree.  I just had to know what it  was.  My aunt had given me her old copy of the little Chester Reed bird book with  black and white drawings.  It look a long time of turning pages,  but eventually I found the bird and immediately took my crayons and colored it in, and decided  to try to see every bird in the book.   I’m still looking, and  marveling, at all the wonderful birds that are out there waiting to be discovered.

David is a birder who began in middle age, decades after he wished he had begun.

 My spark birds were Harlequins at Cathedral Ledge in Rockport in late fall, 2008.  My first-grade son, Tim, had gotten interested in birds via feathered dinosaurs, and my wife and I enrolled him in the Chickadee Birders program at Drumlin Farm.  That Saturday we had gone to the Gloucester Fish Pier, where I figured out how to use binoculars, but when we got to Cathedral Ledge, something had dawned on me:  I had been blind until that day, to birds, that is. Beautiful, glamorous, utterly surprising birds.  I was hooked, and began strolling around our neighborhood in Concord trying to see birds; it turned out I wasn’t all that good at locating them, but I thought that hearing them was almost good enough, so I began concentrating on finding them by ear.

David’s spark birds were Harlequin Ducks. photo by Dendroica cerulea

My son, meantime, has turned to other things, but still remembers his Sibley and asks to see local rarities now and then.  Even if he doesn’t turn into a lifetime birder, he’s given me that gift.

Steve Arena described two spark moments:

The first time was the second week of May, 1970.  I was staring out the window of my first grade class at the Henry Grew School in Hyde Park, Mass.  Like a beacon of light, a bright red bird with all black wings alit atop a weeping willow tree – singing continuously.  True to form, I jumped up, disrupted class, and got the teacher “on the bird”.  Mrs. Ferrara was wonderful.  She stopped the class so that all the kids could see this beautiful bird singing in the clear morning light.  She took it a step further and over the next couple of days, we learned all about birds.  The Scarlet Tanager and Mrs. Ferrara’s encouragement were all I needed.

Scarlet Tanager — the bird that started it all for Steve. photo by Steve Arena

The second time for me was after taking some time off from seriously birding to raise two wonderful children, a Massbird report of two (2) Black Rails at PRNWR entered my inbox.  The birds were found by some hot shot birder I never heard of before (you all know him as Marshall Iliff) and a young man that I last knew as a boy (Jeremiah Trimble).  I ventured up to the Island on 6/21/10 and was treated to the odd yet wonderful sound of two Black Rails calling at dusk.  Zing!  The hook was reset.

Join those who comment on what spark set them on their birding journey?  Tell us about it with a comment below.  You should sign up by RSS feed or via email to have future “spark” articles sent to you.  Thanks

Posted in Love_of_birding, MA Birding | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

Preparing for Maryland Birding

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Richard

We are leaving for a brief visit to our family in Maryland  this Thursday.  Annapolis is always a great place to bird and I’ve had some nice outings in the general area.  I’m not too interested in finding rarities this trip – I want to spend some time with my grandson, Dane who is a budding birder and lister.  We’ve already visited several local hotspots during past trips and likely will do so again.

When we are traveling outside Vermont, I usually do some “electronic scouting” to check out the birding situation at our destination.    So here’s a few ideas on how I prepare.  Please feel free to add your ideas in the comment section.

Monitor Birding Groups

Before our trips to the Southwest, I rejoin list serves in Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas to monitor their reports and get a sense of what I might be able to see.  Likewise, in the East, where we travel to MA and MD periodically, I belong to various groups and read them.  I haven’t had much luck in the past with the MD list serve, which went through some turmoil, but joined the Facebook group for Anne Arundel County and watch their stuff closely.

Use iBird

I routinely check the hotspots for the area I’m going to visit, checking to see what has been reported in the last 30 days.  iBird uses eBird data but displays it graphically as shown below.  It’s also nice to be able to search for a particularly species to see where it has been recently seen.

Here’s the iBird map for hot spots around Annapolis. I click on each one and check to see what’s been reported recently. It’s a great planning tool.

Query Local Birders

I’ve been to Maryland several times and met a few birders.  I keep their names (and sometimes a short description) on my iPhone — just so I can greet them by name if I see them again.   Sometimes, I’ll email one and ask for help.  For this trip, I posted a question on the Facebook page and got some good feedback.

 Needs Alerts -eBird

eBird lets you set up alerts on rare birds or birds that you haven’t seen in the area you are visiting.  The reports, if you have never visited an area, can be lengthy but you can scan it for birds of special interest.  You can get daily or hourly reports listing birds seen in last seven days.  I noted that Tundra Swans are being reported at several locations — this would be a life bird.  One of the Anne Arundel Facebook birders posted a great photo as shown below.

Tundra Swans recently seen in the Annapolis area. photo by Hugh Vandervoort.

So, I’m looking forward to warmer weathers and some birds that we won’t see in Vermont until next Spring.  What I need to do first is make the eleven-hour drive.

What else to you do to prepare for a birding visit?  Tell us about it with a comment below.  You should sign up by RSS feed or via email to have future articles sent to you.  Thanks

Posted in Maryland birding, Trip Planning | 2 Comments

Does Your Bird seed Get Eaten or Stored?

Posted on December 2, 2012 by Richard

All fall, we have watched birds flock to our sunflower seed feeder, our thistle feeder, and our suet containers.  As I wrote last month, our feed store folks love us — we are going through a lot of bird food.

Where does all this food go?  I know that some of our visitors are eating it on the spot but many seem to fly away with one or more seeds in their craw.  Recall our discussion of Common Redpolls and their “pocket.”

It turns out that birds have three options to make it through the time when there is little food.

  1. They can “get out of Dodge” by migrating to places where there is food
  2. They can scratch and scrounge and nearly starve, or
  3. They can store food and hope it’s there when they need it.

White-breasted Nuthatches and their red-breasted brethren also store food for later dining. I often see them nabbing a large seed and flying off.

Our most frequent visitors to the feeders are Black-capped chickadees which are well known for their food-hoarding behavior.  Usually they hoard seeds but they are also known to store insects and spiders may be stored as well.  I’ve seen hundreds of chickadees grab sunflower seeds and pieces of suet from bird feeders. They remove the husk of a seed before caching it.  I’ve seen a few stashing seeds in the bark of our white pines.

The number of seeds stored is staggering. Over 1,000 items may be stored in a single day and, over the course of autumn, 50,000 to 80,000  seeds may be cached.  Sites for food storage are varied. Typical hiding places are cracks or crevices in woody vegetation, under bits of bark (particularly birch bark), in clusters of conifer needles, in the ground and even in the snow.

Other food hogs at the feeder are Blue Jays which are energetic hoarders, storing acorns and other nuts but even invertebrates, small vertebrates or bits of meat. Favored storage sites are cracks and crevices of tree trunks, amid the needles of conifers and in loose soil.

A blue jay can carry up to five acorns at once to be stored. The acorns are swallowed and stored in the upper part of the esophagus. The acorns can then be regurgitated intact when a suitable hoarding site is found.

Several Western birds are known for their hoarding.  Pinon Jays and Clark’s Nutcrackers both rely heavily on hoarding to get through the winter.  Both species store pine seeds, which they laboriously remove from pinecones.  A single Clark’s nutcracker can store up to 100,000 seeds in the fall.  Both nutcrackers and pinon jays do not raid their hoarded seeds until most of the fall seed crop is depleted. One researcher has determined that up to 90 percent of the winter diet of Pinon Jays comes from stored seeds.

Western Scrub Jays take a lot of precautions with their food. When another jay is watching, a scrub jay will store food in difficult to see places (far from an observer, behind a visual barrier, etc.). Often, if observed while hiding food, later, when unobserved, it will move food to another location.

How does a long-term hoarder like Clark’s Nutcracker recover stored seeds when it needs them? Ornithologists at first thought that the food was stored only in certain kinds of areas, and that the birds rediscovered it by later foraging in the same areas. But research shows that individuals can recall where they have cached seeds. The birds remember where the seeds are in relation to certain landmarks, such as rocks. If the landmarks are moved, the areas the birds search are displaced an equivalent amount.

Out of all the species of woodpeckers, only 10 are known to hoard food.  Our Downy Woodpeckers and Hairy Woodpeckers are among the ten but only infrequently store food.

As I noted before, Northern Shrikes store food in an interesting way. Small mammals or birds are killed and then impaled on a thorn or barbed wire fence for later consumption, hence the reason for calling these hoarders “butcher birds”.

As we head into serious winter conditions, it’s comforting to know that many of our prior visitors have stashed food away.  in case our buddies are having a brain cramp and like us, forgetting where they put things, we’ll keep the feeders clean and full.

Have you observed a bird hoarding food?  Tell us about it with a comment below.  You should sign up by RSS feed or via email to have future articles sent to you.  Thanks

White-breasted Nuthatch by  Dawn Huczek

Blue Jay by Ingrid Taylar      Western Scrub Jay by jessicafm

Posted in Bird Behavior, bird feeding, Birds, Winter Birds | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Reporting a bird with a Federal Band or Color Marker

Posted on December 1, 2012 by Richard

Each type of band is made in many different sizes so that every bird has a suitable size band available for use by banders.  Photo courtesy of Diane Benyus

I monitor the Facebook page of the Anne Arundel (MD) Birding& Bird Club and just saw a post from a member noting that she had seen this banded bird and read the tag number. The group moderator suggested that she report it and gave the link information.  Since I know little about the subject, I decided to check it out. (I first observed banding at the North Branch Nature Center and am intrigued about how some birders are great at spotting bands.)

Reporting a bird with a Federal Band or Color Marker

PLEASE NOTE: If the band has the letters “AU”, “IF”, “CU” “NPA” or “IPB” it is probably a captive pigeon band. Please do not report captive pigeon bands to the BBL, we do not keep a database of these birds. You can find more information at: http://www.pigeon.org/lostbirdinfo.htm

When you submit a report, we will provide you the details about when and where the bird was originally marked. A copy of your report will be provided to the researcher who originally applied the band and/or marker.

Your report will be added to a database maintained cooperatively by the USGS Bird Banding Laboratory and Canadian Wildlife Service, Bird Banding Office. This database contains more than 4 million band encounter records that document movements, longevity, and sources of mortality for North America’s migratory birds. This information is used to monitor populations, set hunting regulations, restore endangered species, study effects of environmental contaminants, and address such issues as Avian Influenza, bird hazards at airports, and crop depredations.

Examples of Federal bands and color markers

Have you found a banded bird – how about leaving a comment? You should sign up by RSS feed or via email to have future articles sent to you.  Thanks

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Christmas Bird Count Coming in Two Weeks

Posted on November 30, 2012 by Richard

Christmas Bird Count participants on the Northhampton, MA count. Photo by Geoff LeBaron.

With this winter’s influx of winter finches and other northern visitors, birders throughout the Northeast have been saying, “I hope that bird stays around for the Christmas Bird Count!”  You never know what you are going to find in late December birding but “Hope springs eternal in the human breast” among Vermont Birders for a Northern Hawk Owl or a Varied Thrush.  The annual bird count starts in just two weeks.

The Christmas Bird Count came about as a reaction to slaughter.  During the late 1800’s, there was a popular holiday tradition known as the Christmas “Side Hunt, a  killing binge in which Americans went merrily into the woods to compete in shooting as many birds and small animals as they could within the holiday. People chose sides and went afield with their guns; whoever brought in the biggest pile of feathered (and furred) quarry won.

This was a time when conservation was in its beginning stages  and many observers and scientists were becoming concerned about declining bird populations. Beginning on Christmas Day 1900, ornithologist Frank Chapman, an early officer in the then budding Audubon Society, proposed a new holiday tradition-a “Christmas Bird Census”- that would count birds in the holidays rather than hunt them.

So began the Christmas Bird Count. Thanks to the inspiration of Frank M. Chapman and the enthusiasm of twenty-seven dedicated birders, twenty-five Christmas Bird Counts were held that day. The locations ranged from Toronto, Ontario to Pacific Grove, California with most counts in or near the population centers of northeastern North America. Those original 27 Christmas Bird Counters tallied around 90 species on all the counts combined.

The 113th annual Christmas Bird Count involves tens of thousands of participants.  This year’s  count will take place between Dec 14, 2012 to January 5, 2013.  It is the longest running Citizen Science survey in the world, providing critical data on population trends.   Volunteers will be out across the nation and hemisphere bagging more than 50 million birds by eyeball.

Each count occurs in a designated circle, 15 miles in diameter, and is led by an experienced birder, or designated “compiler”.

One of the “hoped for” birds for Vermont counters is the Bohemian Waxwing. photo ©Brook Lundquist

While there is a specific methodology to the CBC and you need to count birds within an existing Christmas Bird Count circle, everyone can participate! If you are a beginning birder, you will be able to join a group that includes at least one experienced birdwatcher. If your home is within the boundaries of a Christmas Bird Count circle, then you can stay home and report the birds that visit your feeder or join a group of birdwatchers in the field. If you have never been on a CBC before and you want to participate in a count this year, including feeder counting, please contact your count compiler prior to the count.

Click here to learn where Vermont CBCs are located, date of counts and compiler contact information.  I plan to participate in the Plainfield CBC on December 15th.

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Common Redpolls

Posted on November 29, 2012 by Richard

Here is a wonderful article by Sue McGrath of the Newburyport (MA) Birders:

When I see Common Redpolls, I immediately think of the low-Arctic tundra, the land with short, dwarf-like shrubs that includes willow, alder, birch all of which support the Common Redpoll. These abundant, boreal and taiga region breeders share this habitat with foraging Willow Ptarmigan and patrolling Parasitic Jaegers.

Common Redpolls feed often upside down, hanging on small branches, using their feet to hold food items. As winter visitors to our area, they’re interested in our thistle feeders too. They are social birds that are associated with catkin-bearing trees in brushy and weedy areas. Redpolls are rotund and fluffy, sporting a tiny,  yellow bill. Their characteristic features include dark lores, a black throat and chin and a red forecrown. The dark brown of the wings and tail along with the brown streaking of the nape, back, breast and flanks are offset by the whitish belly.

Characteristic features of Redpolls include dark lores, a black throat and chin and a red forecrown.

Redpolls have been observed on twigs, feeding each other by passing seed from conical bill to conical bill. The sexes are discernible ~ the male has pink on the chest and is less streaked; the female lacks that rosy hue and is heavily streaked. Their tails are forked, and in flight, the wingspan is 7 – 9 inches. They weigh 0.46 of an ounce.

Pete Dunne refers to this bird as “…effervescent pipsqueak of a finch with a small red beret and a black goatee.” What a clever way to remember their field marks!

Recently, I reread Kathleen S. Anderson’s article on Cumberland Farms in a 1996 issue of “Bird Observer” that has Barry W. Van Dusen’s illustration of Common Redpolls on the cover. In that issue, I found in W. E. Davis Jr.’s account of Common Redpolls that their have a specialized “pocket” in the neck area known as an esophageal diverticulum. A diverticulum is a sac or pouch arising from a tubular organ; crossbills also have this storage ability. This is like having an in-flight cupboard for storing seeds. This seed stockroom and the specialized winter-feeding behavior enable this songbird to survive colder  temperatures. “The Birder’s Handbook” by Ehrlich, Dobkin and Wheye [page 641] refers to this partially bi-lobed pocket as analogous to the crop of gallinaceous birds.

Thermal regulation is also key to their survival. When in a sheltered area, redpolls fluff up their feathers to maximize heat retention. Frank Gill’s “Ornithology” states that Common Redpolls sleep in snow tunnels during the long Arctic night to conserve body heat. These winter visitors will feel more at home in New England when we’ve snow cover; they can insulate themselves against the cold, air temperatures.

Sue McGrath leads bird walks with the Essex County area — contact her if you are looking for a small group experience led by a good teacher/birder.

Posted in Birds, Winter Birds | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Superbowl of Birding X

Posted on November 28, 2012 by Richard

The Joppa Flats Education Center is hosting the Superbowl of Birding X on Saturday, January 26, 2013 – 5am to 5pm (Snow date: Sunday, January 27).  Teams will consist of 4-7 individuals and must remain together for the entire contest. No splitting of teams is allowed. Teams must preregister for the contest. Each species on the official contest checklist has a point value of 1-5 based on the perceived difficulty of finding the species at this time of year. The team that amasses the greatest number of points will be declared The Nikon Joppa Cup winner. Each species may only be counted once. Each team must check in at the designated site by 5:30 p.m. of the contest day.

Team Noddies members check out a Townsend’s Warbler. (photo courtesy North Branch Nature Center.

A team, known as the “Noddies,” from the North Branch Nature Center will again participate.  This is the fifth year that young birders and adults from central Vermont have driven down to the Massachusetts coast for this great event.  Here’s an excerpt from last year’s trip report:

Slowly working their way north, by late afternoon the Noddies had reached Plum Island, considered one of the finest birding locales in New England. Here, on the rolling sand dunes and extensive marshes, the Noddies would complete their quest. From a single spot along the main road, two Snowy Owls could be seen sitting upon the barren, snowless landscape. A flock of hundreds of shorebirds chased the breaking waves along the beach. And as the sky became infused with pink and purple at dusk, a Short-eared Owl could be seen cruising the fields, hunting under the shadows of the setting sun. After twelve hours of birdwatching, the Noddies raced to the finish line with a total of 66 species and 124 points.

The Noddies participated in this exciting event, centered around Plum Island in Massachusetts, the past 4 years cumulatively tallying 85 species! This year, the group may extend their trip to be a full weekend, so it’s never too early to start thinking about it!  To be guaranteed a spot on the team, please register by Dec. 21.

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Passing birding knowledge on

Posted on November 27, 2012 by Richard

People who have been birdwatching for many years store an enormous amount of information in their heads – the kind of experiences and emotions you can’t learn from a book or website. To foster an appreciation for nature in new generations, it is essential that information be passed on.

Do you have years of birding experience? For the sake of the birds, become a mentor to an eager new birdwatcher; lead a tour; start a young naturalists club; give a talk. Looking at beautiful bird photos on the computer is one thing, but there is no substitution for a personal introduction to the magic of nature. Pass it along – the birds will thank you for it!

This article was originally posted on the Birds Calgary blog, and immediately captured my attention. I found it through the Bird Canada blog.  It presents the complete juxtaposition of bird watching today, with the old guard encouraging and passing on their knowledge to a newer generation.

Matthew Sim is a high school student who has only been birding for about five years. His enthusiasm for birds is infectious, and when he collided with Gus Yaki, it was a match made in heaven. As much as Gus loves birds and nature, he loves passing on his knowledge even more.

Famous Birders: Gus Yaki
By Matthew Sim

It has been a while since I last did a famous birders post but today, we have a very special expert birder and naturalist who some, if not most of us know personally; Gus Yaki.

Gus is a lifelong naturalist who has had a profound effect on numerous Calgarians, Albertans and people from across Canada and many other countries. In November 2009, I was just starting to get seriously into birding and enjoying nature when I went on a Nature Calgary field trip to Fish Creek Park led by Gus; he did such a great job leading the trip that he helped to propel me into the world of birding. Gus leads many trips throughout the year whether they be birding, botany or anything else dealing with nature.

Originally from North Battleford Saskatchewan, Gus used to walk 3 miles to school each day and got to learn and enjoy local fauna and flora this way. He started a nature tour service and, in 1983, led a trip around North America, following in the footsteps of Roger Peterson and James Fisher who had gone 30,000 miles around North America 30 years earlier. As Peterson’s and Fisher’s journey was immortalized in the book Wild America, so Gus’ trip was immortalized in the book, Looking for the Wild, written by Lyn Hancock, who was on the trip with Gus. Gus is very active in all conservation, birding and overall nature aspects of Calgary.

Below are some questions I asked Gus about various aspects of his birding and natural life and his responses.

Gus Yaki with injured Ring-billed Gull.      Photo Bob Lefebvre.

When did you become interested in birds and nature?

I had nothing to do for nine months before I was born, so I listed all the bird sounds that I heard: as a result, I had a life-list (heard only) of 14 species when I took my first breath.

Seriously though, I don’t ever remember not being interested in birds and nature. One of my first teachers had a little 3 x 6 inch bird booklet. Walking almost three miles to school, I would see a bird on its nest. At school, during recess, I would thumb through this little publication to find a matching description. On the way home, I would confirm that I had correctly identified it.

Later, the government provided a lending library service to those living in Saskatchewan, so I was able to borrow such books as Birds of Canada by P. A. Taverner, with illustrations by Allan Brooks. Needless to say, I soaked up those illustrations and texts, so that when I saw the real thing, I was able to instantly identify it.

By then, I had realized that birds were only part of nature: they needed the other plant and animal species to provide food, shelter, and reproductive services – as did all other species, so naturally, I expanded my horizon accordingly.

Read the whole article here

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Binocular Stabilization

Posted on November 25, 2012 by Richard

A while back, I took a wonderful walk with an old friend to look for birds along the Rhode Island coast.  It was a glorious fall day and we walked along the canal way, watching the tide stream back in.  I spotted a bird perched on a rock way upstream and set up my scope.  Because our difference in height, I had to set the tripod rather low which always makes for an Ichabod Crane look when I bend over to scope the bird.  It was a Green Heron and my friend, who first identified it, said, “This is great.  I can’t really use my binoculars because of my hand tremors.  But I can see this bird clearly.”

We moved on to a marsh where dozens of Great Egrets foraged and again, the telescope was a great tool since it was stable and the birds were cooperative.  So, we got talking.  I said that there must be a way to stabilize binoculars — that she should look into it and perhaps the kids could make it a Christmas present.  We saw a few more birds and then strolled back home catching up even more on our lives and our kids/grandkids.  It was a short but great outing.  I hadn’t thought about the conversation until yesterday — where it just popped up and I thought, “I’m going to check out binocular gear.”  So I did and here’s a little about what I learned.

I found out that one option is image stabilizing binoculars:

The Pros of image stabilization in binoculars

  1. Optical advantages: When binoculars are stabilized, they result in sharper images, better clarity, and clearer contrast. Image stabilized binoculars of magnifications as low as 7x to 10x will outperform conventional binoculars of the same magnification by far.
    This means that they are useful not just in extreme outdoor situations but also when image stabilization is not really needed. Obviously, this advantage will only be a reality when image stabilization is turned on.
  2. If for some reason image stabilization is not turned on (or fails), they operate as normal binoculars. In other words, you’re not stranded with a useless instrument when the batteries have gone flat and you don’t have replacements.
  3. Huge magnification made possible: Without stabilization, the maximum practical magnification for hand holding is about 7x, possibly but rarely up to 10x (varying from person to person). However, image stabilization technology allows the viewer to use binoculars (handheld) with magnifications of up to 20x, opening a new world to the viewer.

No eyestrain or headache: If you cannot hold your conventional binoculars perfectly still, not only will your image be spoiled, but you can also end up with eyestrain and headaches – which is not the case with image stabilized binoculars.

The cons of image stabilization in binoculars

  1. Limited options available: In the case of conventional binoculars, the client has so much options, he could find it difficult to make his final decision for that very reason. However, in the case of image stabilizer binoculars his choice is very limited: Only about six different brands with limited models are available.
  2. Price: These instruments are more expensive than conventional binoculars due to the extra complicated technology included, which limits the buyer’s options even more.
  3. Weight: Due to the extra technology (and batteries in most cases, to drive the image stabilizing technology) they are also heavier than the counterpart.
  4. Dimensions: The added technology resulted in more bulkiness as compared to conventional binoculars.
  5. Activating the image stabilization: Some binoculars need the stabilization button to be continuously pressed to keep the binoculars stabilized. This is to save the batteries, but can be tiring. New designs keep the stabilization on for a few minutes after the button is pressed and released.
  6. Durability: The added technology makes these binoculars more fragile, as clearly reflected in the limited warranties going with the products, typically only 1 to 3 years.
  7. Batteries: With the exception of the last category of image stabilized binoculars (mechanical stabilization without gyroscopes), all IS binoculars use batteries. In addition to the burden of the extra weight, you also have to make sure to use the best batteries available and remember to take extra ones along as well.

A better option, in my opinion, is a tripod and a binocular attachment device.  This way, you can use the binoculars you already own.  Monopods are also an option although some say that people with tremors may have difficulty stabilizing the unit.  Tripods can be pricey but get a good stable one and it can work for a camera, a telescope, or your binoculars.  Here’s a description of one attachment option for binoculars:

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