On Birding!

Today's post is about one of my favorite outdoor activities: birding! I decided today was the day to write about it because I was supposed to go on a birding trip to Owl Woods in Rochester, but I couldn't go due to a horrible headache. I'm pretty bummed, but I figured I'd still devote today to our feathery friends!

On any given day you may find me inside because mostly I find the outside usually horrible, but at least once a month you'll find me outside in the woods looking for birds! I am one of those people who never really thought of birds. Why is that when they are the most visible wildlife we see? Why because they are so common of course! I mostly ignored them. I noticed them, but I never really tried to tell them apart other than the obvious. I knew the easy ones like crows, pigeons, robins, cardinals, blue jays and owls (but not what kind of owl). Other than that I had really no idea. Once I realized that I only truly could identify a few types of birds I was disappointed in myself. I began birding because I wanted to learn more about them!

What is birding, though? Basically, it is just watching the birds. Watching, observing, listening, and learning about them! You can do this no matter where you are! Sure it helps to have binoculars, but you don't really need them. And if you do get them they don't have to be über fancy or anything.

I saw this black capped
chickadee at our nest box!

I am lucky enough to have a pair of nice binoculars that my parents bought me for Christmas, but my everyday birding is done just by sitting at my window looking out at the bird feeder or on neighborhood walks!

I love birding because there are so many things to learn. I can't imagine knowing everything there is to know about ornithology, the study of birds. If you're gonna go out birding you may want to get a field guide. It doesn't have to be fancy, and you don't even have to buy one as I'm sure your library probably has a good one! I have a pocket size guide to birds that are just in New York State. These are helpful for identifying the birds that aren't always recognizable at first, like a male cardinal.

I'm getting better at recognizing birds that I see pretty often, but what I'm still horrible at is recognizing the sounds of birds. I think it would be nice to be able to tell which bird it is I'm hearing because that is the first thing most people notice first: the birdsong that is waking them up at the crack of dawn. But, goodness, it is almost stupidly hard. I can't even remember the common birdsongs. I think the only one I can identify with any ease is the red wing black bird which makes a wholly ridiculous sound of CONK-ER-REE! 

Birding was the first outdoor activity I really looked forward to doing. I love birds now. I love the sheer amount of them. I also love how loving them can bring people together. I go to a birding 101 class every month and there is a core group of people who have never missed a class! Our instructor is amazing! She is so knowledgeable and she is extremely patient.

I didn't need binoculars to
see this Canada Goose strut
its stuff!

She has a passion for birding that she is eager to pass along. She took me under her wing and sometimes takes me on adventures outside of class to look for birds. It's with her that I took my two first place winnings in a photo contest, it was with her that I first saw a foggy sunrise, and it was with her that I was supposed to go searching for owls with at the crack of dawn this morning. I don't think I would care as much about birding now if it wasn't for her enthusiasm! And my birding has helped me greatly as a wildlife rehabber! The more I know about birds the easier it is for me to take care of them!

Birds are fascinating. They are so common and yet we still don't know everything about them. Like how do catbirds know they are a catbird when they were raised by a different species of bird after they were hidden in a different nest? Why do birds of paradise dance so specifically to capture the attention of a mate? How can crows identify faces? How can some crows make tools? How can crows be so smart? (Basically, how do crows become crows? How?! I love crows). Why are some birds so colorful when others are really dull? It is really just their environment? If so why are sparrows all mostly brown when the blue jay is so bright and they both live in my neighborhood? It is all so mysterious!

I hope this post has made you curious about birds and that maybe next time you see a bird you'll try to figure out who it is or when you hear a bird singing you'll wonder who's song it is!

~Laura!