Because there's always "stuff".
Actually, I'll start with birding sites. I knew, growing up, that people bird watch simply because my Dad was a bird watcher. (Of course he was - his heyday was the well-off late 1940's to the 1960's - Weatherby shotguns, hard liquor at ten in the morning, horse races, social causes, mint juleps, oil paintings of hunting dogs, and, naturally, birding.) OK, truth be told, I have no clue how bird watching made it in there with the rest of it, but he had volumes of bird watching books. Stacked neatly beside his thirty year collection of vintage Playboy joke books. When he and my mother married and we moved into his house, the bird books were allowed to stay... and so, I knew people watched birds.
Sadly, I had no real interest in being still and quiet for any period of time, and he, in his late 60's by that point, had no desire to try to make me still and quiet. So the bird books gathered dust, and we both quietly wished Mom had chucked those instead of the joke books.
Fast forward twenty some-odd years, we sit at the breakfast table, and the boys. go. nuts. watching birds out the window. They used to ask me what each bird was, but outside of upland water fowl, your basic crow, jay, cardinal, and sparrow, I'd pretty much have to make things up. "Oh, that looks like the two-footed catfood warbler," or "I do believe that is a tasty-breasted southern wood quail". Eventually, they quit asking for my input, which was for the best. But now, they're making it up themselves. "That's a nuthatch!" "Yeah, right, it's too big. It's obviously the two-footed catfood warbler Mom told us about last Spring!" Oy. OK, time to get serious. So, we sat down and spent a delightful morning looking at bird identification sites, listening to bird songs, and playing reindeer games... er, bird games. I don't know, but it was fun, and we've all learned something, and they're hooked.
Our favorite site today was, hands down, Cornell Lab of Ornithology's All About Birds. For reader-friendly, get-you-started websites, this one is great. I think it'll become a daily reference point for us as we start into the realm of bird watching and getting to know the neighbors in the area. Navigation through the site is easy and intuitive. It's hard to get lost. You don't have to dig too hard to find pictures (always a plus for the attentionally challenged among us).
Our next favorite today would have to be the pages of photos and songs collected at Birding.com. I don't know how fast the downloads are if you're on dialup, but they're worth listening to. And of course, if you start the children being still and quiet *now*, then, in theory, it won't be such a struggle later. I appreciate the tremendous effort that enthusiasts have put into some of these pages. Doug, over at Nature's Songs, in particular, has set up his site in a way that makes you feel you're having lunch with him right after he's just found each song. His enthusiasm is catching (and we loved the way he detailed the conditions and circumstances under which he recorded each song). Wow. Suddenly, this whole process doesn't feel so intimidating! This, we can do!
Finally, if you're feeling pretty warmed up and ready to go, The Nutty Birdwatcher has some detailed information, and an interesting site.
Obviously, this is just a smattering, but this is where we spent our morning. Grab a snack, a warm cup o' your favorite winter beverage, and gather the kids for a little bird watching warmups. Then trek outside to see what's going on in the neighborhood!
Kiss those babies!
~Dy
5 comments:
I've always wanted to know a bit about birds myself, as there have been different varieties everywhere we've lived. My mother came to visit our first year hear and wondered what the heck was making all that noise outside, long after dark. All through the spring and summer, and all night long, there is a rousing chorus of insects, swamp frogs, and...night birds! My mother was shocked. Night birds? No such thing! I've only seen them at dusk, and the lighting is too bad to identify, especially since I don't wear my glasses as often as I should, but I love when the weather is cool enough that we can sleep with the windows open and be serenaded to sleep!
What great stuff! I especially liked the recordings, since the birds at our feeders always have their little beaks stuffed and aren't saying anything, and, when I am outside and they are singing in the trees, I can't see well enough to tell who is singing what.
I want to see one of those two footed catfood warblers!
Two-footed catfood warbler!! Rofl!
Two-footed catfood warbler!! Rofl!
Thank you for the help! You make this almost sound fun!
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