Yellow-bellied sapsucker, Alpine Groves, FL
I know January is when the calendar rolls over to a new year, and yet September always seems like a time of new beginnings. It's when the kids go back to school, it's when my choir rehearsals start up again after a summer hiatus. Among my Jewish friends and family connections it's the actual New Year with the celebration of Rosh Hashannah. And in my own life it's always been a time of renewal after the hot days of summer. I've never liked heat and September was a time of revival for me.
So it makes sense for me to start this new blog now. Not that starting a new blog isn't a silly thing to do. I don't have enough hours in the day now, do I? And a nature-related blog?
Well admittedly I'm a nature lover. If made to choose between a vacation in a rural setting surrounded by cows and green grass, or the heart of a vibrant city with incredible night life, fabulous museums, great restaurants, lively theater ... the farm and green grass would win, hands down, every single time.
I also love birds. I'm an avid bird-watcher, though I'm right up front in admitting that I'm not the best sort of person for that activity either.
1) I have physical limitations. No, I'm not wheelchair-bound, or incapable of doing most things for myself. I live in my own home, walk my own dog daily. But when I was 30 years old I destroyed the posterior cruciate ligament in my left knee. Reconstructive surgery enabled me to walk - but not far, and not well. I stumble if the footing is uneven. My max distance is maybe 1.5 miles, and I would probably need my cane to make it that far. So I'm not a good one for long treks through the woods searching for migrating warblers.
2) I seem to have trouble *seeing* birds - the small birds up in the tree canopies at any rate. I can be standing right underneath a small tree, and hear the loud singing of a bird who is clearly RIGHT IN the very small tree I'm standing under, and I will be totally unable to see the bird. I'll spend minutes scouring all over the tree, trying to find the bird, and most times I can't! I'll be out with my 3 1/2-year-old grandson, and *he* will spot birds and ask me about them, which I can't see myself, even when he tries to point them out to me. This seems like a severe handicap for a birder.
As an example, back when I lived in New Jersey, there were reports of a pair of Snowy Owls wintering in the Meadowlands. I decided one crisp Sunday afternoon to go try to find them. I figured my odds were hopeless as I knew my lack of skill in seeing, and the Meadowlands are large, and I had no idea where to begin my search. But when my sister and I got there and spotted a line or cars parked on the road, and a huge gaggle of people all armed with massive binoculars and immense spotting scopes all pointing in one direction we figured we had arrived.
We exited my car, and walked towards the group. One person yelled out "Are you here to see the Snowy?" and I knew I was in the right place. Except I could not SEE the Snowy. He was out there, twenty+ people were all looking at him. "He's right THERE" they would say to me, pointing and pointing. But I saw nothing. Some even let me look into their spotting scopes, but I still saw nothing. For nearly twenty minutes I had twenty+ helpful people trying to help me find the Snowy. Finally I was so mortified by my failure that I decided I was just going to pretend to see the Snowy, and to thank everyone for their help. But at the last minute I finally did see the Snowy, far off in the distance, much further back than I had been looking and where I thought everyone else was pointing. But without those twenty+ people I would have been helpless.
Snowy Owl, Lyndhurst, NJ
I always see a lot more birds when other people are with me. :-)
3) I'm impatient. Yeah, I admit it. I'm not the sort of person who can sit there for hours trying to pinpoint a faintly heard bird call. If I were that sort of person I'm sure my life list would be much bigger. But I'm just not. If I can't see or identify the bird within a few minutes then it's just time for me to move on.
4) Even though I have been a singer for many years, and have no problems with pitch and dynamics, when it comes to birds I seem to be tone deaf, and directional deaf. I have bunches of resources that play bird songs for me - including some on CD that I have listened to in the car 100 times. And yet I *still* struggle with so many bird songs. I have some of the basics down - I know crows and blue jays and cardinals and titmice, and some of the common Carolina wren songs for example. But the wood warblers and vireos and many sparrows and many other passerines just throw me. I can listen to their songs 50 times, and still not be able to ID them in the field; they all sound the same to me. And when I hear a bird singing I can never tell what direction the song is coming from. I can't tell if the bird is in front of me or behind me or beside me, so no clue where to try to look.
Maybe that's what I have an affinity for ducks - nice big birds, usually out on the water with no trees obstructing your view.
But I'm not completely helpless. I may not see birds as often as my grandson but when I do I'm better able to know what they are. He'll shout: "Look, it's an eagle" and I can tell it's really a turkey vulture.
Turkey vulture, Fleming Island, FL
Carolina wren, my yard, Fleming Island, FL
My current Florida life list sits at 180 and I have hopes of even reaching 200 in the not too distance future. Yeah, I know "real" birders easily hit over 200 in a single year. But for me and my way of birding that's pretty good.
Because of my bad knee I admit I do a lot of car birding. Going places where I can drive around to look for birds, with short stops here and there to look and listen.
But I'd like even folks who have physical limitations, and don't feel they are great birders, to know they can have lots of fun. Some of my very cool birds have appeared right in my own backyard, seen while I'm sitting in my sunroom having my morning coffee - wood storks in the trees, ospreys diving into the pond for fish, great blue herons and great egrets stalking the edges of the pond, bluebirds and wood ducks nesting in the boxes I put up for them.
female wood duck, my yard, Fleming Island, FL
just fledged eastern bluebird, my yard, Fleming Island, FL
great blue heron, my yard, Fleming Island, FL
And I've gotten some nice photos over the years too, so this blog seemed like a good way to share them. So I'll start to share, and may start my blog series on some of my favorite stationary and car birding spots. :-)
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