I'm Curious Any Bird Watchers

[coyotewhisper]

Are there any bird watchers here in the group? This year marks my 20th year of bird watching. I started birdwatching in Illinois in the 90's.

I have done Christmas bird counts in waist high snow and had a blast. The last 9 years here in Arkansas have been great for bird watching.

I use Swarovski 10X40. I did a great deal of hawk migration counting on the shores of Lake Michigan in the fall. They are great binoculars.

 

[archi77]

I am, but not to the extent you are. When I was in middle school and high school, I worked for a private-business ornothologist, so he instilled a love of birds in me. So now, as I'm out hiking or backpacking, hunting, etc. I am always looking in trees, following chirps where I can, etc. But I've never done any official bird counts, or any other organized birding events.

 

[Lesmore]

I'm not much of an expert of a bird watcher. My wife and I go to the Pembina River Valley every spring and watch the enormous amount of raptors flying north from southerly areas....it's a hawk watch designated area.

During the winter, I spend a number of days touring around the extreme western parts of the Canadian Shield...Southern Boreal forest ...riverine forests on the northern prairie....areas looking for raptors such as Snowy White Owls, Great Gray Owls, Barred Owls, Northern Hawk Owls, over wintering Bald Eagles.

I go down little travelled back roads...with my equipment at the ready. You never know what you will see in these areas in the winter.

I carry my Pentax DSLR's...with a Pentax 55-300mm lens and a Sigma 150-500 mm lens...each lens attached to a camera body and the camera settings already adjusted...so all I have to do is focus on the bird, turn the camera's on and hit the shutter button.

I also carry an old but very sharp pair of Pentax binoculars.

 

[tinashubby]

I enjoy it! I'm not real serious about it but have feeders set up and binoculars handy. I especially enjoy Nuthatches, Yellowbellied Sapsuckers, Redbellied Woodpeckers, Northern Flickers and Brown Creepers. Great Horned Owls are prolly my favorite. Obviously not all of them are at my feeders...I have discovered some other birds in local areas that I did not know were even in my region, such as Pileated Woodpeckers and Kingfishers. I live very close to the Susquehanna River and Bald Eagles and Ospreys are a dime a dozen around here.

 

[ksb63]

Not serious but enjoy, have made a few coastal trips to. take pictures. Always have the hawk feeding stations filled (regular bird feeders) the sharpshins love a buffet.

 

[Heron]

Just the ones in my front yard. I like watching the flickers pecking open the walnuts during the winter.

 

[Black Adder]

I'm not an "official" bird watcher, either, but it's a major interest in my life, and has been since I was a kid. I'd go on long hikes through the woods and fields when I was young, looking for something new. I liked bird art, too. Audubon, Lansdowne, Fuertes, Gromme, were some of my favorites and I was always checking out books at the library or ordering them through inter-library services.

Photography was a big thing for a while, too. If you look in the gallery under my user name you'll find a photo I took of a hawk owl. Computer-wise, I'm kind of a dumb bell otherwise I'd post it here (I'm amazed I got it into the gallery!). I just don't have the eyesight I used to have, but I'm pretty good with calls and being able to identify species by ear. I feed birds here in my yard, and occasionally get some drama with hawks coming in for a kill or an attempt on my feeder visitors.

Don

 

[f86sabjf]

Count me in . Do a lot of photography of them and have 3 feeders running year round at the house

 

[jpakstis]

I've only seen what comes to our birdfeeder by our kitchen window. Most of time finches and sparrows. Recently a couple of cardinals. But yesterday was a cardinal and three blue jays. Our toddler daughters were having a blast watching them.

 

[Toirtis]

Occasional bird watcher....as a zoologist, I have done a few bird-counts as well.

 

[Kotton]

Just a question, but are any of you bird watchers, but not hunters?

 

[Toirtis]

Just a question, but are any of you bird watchers, but not hunters?

Myself....I have no interest in hunting birds.

 

[Lesmore]

No, I'm not a hunter. But that's an interesting question.

I'm retired and love to go for walks through forested areas, bodies of water, etc...on the lookout for wild animals and birds.

I carry my camera and telephoto lens. I enjoy seeing wildlife and getting a good photograph of the wild animal in it's natural habitat.


Would I hunt ? My dad did back in the '30's during the depression, but he did it to put food on the table.

 

[T.Orso]

I would say I am bird-aware, and I enjoy seeing new birds as well as old friends. I don't make special trips to see birds. I do like being outdoors.

Last week had a pair of ruby crowned kinglets in my front garden, which is a tangle of native plants. So cute! And today walking home I saw a downy woodpecker and a strange abundance of robins.

Hunting, never.

 

[Kotton]

For the people that don't hunt, but are birders, do you buy a hunting license? If not, why not?

 

[Toirtis]

For the people that don't hunt, but are birders, do you buy a hunting license? If not, why not?

Not recently, but likely will in the next year or two, but for deer, not birds....and for food purposes.

 

[Black Adder]

For the people that don't hunt, but are birders, do you buy a hunting license? If not, why not?

There are other ways to contribute to the "cause" besides buying a hunting license. Joining the Nature Conservancy is one, the non-game wildlife donation you can make on the state tax return is another. Also, if you play the lottery in my state, you are paying for environmental and natural resource programs in the state. I do and have done all three. Why buy a hunting license if you're not going to use it? I used to hunt birds quite a bit. Pheasant and ruffed grouse hunting was once a great passion of mine. I just don't have the time or the surroundings where it's convenient for me now.

Don

 

[Kotton]

There are other ways to contribute to the "cause" besides buying a hunting license. Joining the Nature Conservancy is one, the non-game wildlife donation you can make on the state tax return is another. Also, if you play the lottery in my state, you are paying for environmental and natural resource programs in the state. I do and have done all three. Why buy a hunting license if you're not going to use it? I used to hunt birds quite a bit. Pheasant and ruffed grouse hunting was once a great passion of mine. I just don't have the time or the surroundings where it's convenient for me now.

Don

The reason I asked that, is you are using the resources, state parks, etc just as a hunter would. And a hunting license is the most useful conservation tool that you can buy. It pays to restore parks, etc, pays the game wardens, and everything else. And typically, unfortunately, birders do more damage to an area than a responsible hunter does. And it's sad that a birder goes into nature, uses the resources and never pays anything for it. Where as a hunter goes into nature, uses the resources the same, but pays for it.

 

[Black Adder]

The reason I asked that, is you are using the resources, state parks, etc just as a hunter would. And a hunting license is the most useful conservation tool that you can buy. It pays to restore parks, etc, pays the game wardens, and everything else. And typically, unfortunately, birders do more damage to an area than a responsible hunter does. And it's sad that a birder goes into nature, uses the resources and never pays anything for it. Where as a hunter goes into nature, uses the resources the same, but pays for it.

I kind of figured that's why you asked the question. I would like to see some specifics how birders typically do more damage to an area than a responsible hunter does. My birding is done very locally; my backyard primarily, along with local parks that are open to others for camping, outdoor barbeques, biking, you name it. Never have seen a hunter in any of these parks. We may "use" the resources, but we're not harvesting anything, and in that regard we're not using the resources the same.

This is not a diatribe against hunting; I used to hunt, and I enjoyed it... probably still would if I tried it again. It's just kind of unfair to say that birders just take, take, take and only hunters are paying the bills. The management of natural resources is a little more complex than that.

Don

 

[Kotton]

Usually more harm to the land, making trails and this and that and it causes fragmentation.