• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Awesome Day With 8 Year Old Nephew (1 Viewer)

Ouch...we all have days like that David. But he seems to be good at spotting the unexpected.
 
You're doing a great thing there David - getting any kid enjoying the outdoors and wildlife is good. It also gives you an excellent excuse to bird more ;-)
 
Had the little guy yesterday (Monday) for about 6 hours. We ate when he got here, then went out and watched my feeders for about 45 minutes. He really is getting good on Cardinals (male and female), Goldfinches, Tufted Titmice, and Robins, even sometimes with just a glimpse. He's learned the "flap-and-glide" flight of Chikadees and Nuthatches (and it's a hoot getting him to demonstrate it with his hands) o:D

I'm letting him use my Vortex Viper HD 6x32s when he is with me. I gave him a pair of Meade 8x32s that were pretty cheap, but these have a narrow field of view, and one barrel seems to be getting "cloudy" for lack of better words. Sure he loses 2x but for the feeders this is a non-issue. Also, he still has trouble finding birds with bins even though he sees them with his eyes, so I figure the MUCH wider FOV will be handy.

He did get bored after this and asked if we could go back to a location I took him on our first birding day and I was glad to oblige. We drove there (about 20 minutes away) and did all of it by car. This area has old buildings, large fields, a creek, several ponds, some lightly wooded areas, etc., so it is a good place to go that's safe and that I know I won't stir up too much attention driving around in circles, driving out dead end roads, etc.

I don't have our full list handy (it's in my phone which is charging) but we saw some good birds, including some Ravens, European Starlings, two baby hawks (wouldn't even want to guess as they were in the top of a tree with the sun behind them...red tails I'm going to go with) which may be fledglings (?) I'm sure I seen the fluffy down-like feathers on their upper body and one fanned it's tailfeathers out, which were brown and white.

Also on the way home we stopped by a local fairground with a LARGE grass parking area and we spotted two meadowlarks also.

We came home and he did his homework and then we went back out to watch the last runs on my feeders. He went inside (bored again) and missed a large bird that flew over. I couldn't even call what this was-goose-like shape (and could have been a goose) but was alone. It was going toward water so I'm wondering if it was one of the "waterbird" varieties. It was not a heron-that I'm sure of.

Another super birding day!
 
I'm really loving your tales David and another wonderful day you've described for us. It's great he's getting so good at ID'ing the wee birds, isn't it.

Have hawks already nested with you? Ours are only just starting to pair up over here, there's no eggs been laid yet.
 
Another day out today... I may do a longer rundown later but the BIGGEST news is we HAVE been seeing OSPREYS at the local lake!

Delia...my hat is off to you... As you sit in SCOTLAND you nailed a bird over a lake in Western North Carolina in the USA! You are AwEsOmE! :t:

I didn't really consider it being an Osprey until you mentioned it. After that, especially the one that flew over our car a couple weeks ago-I KNEW it "looked like" an Osprey but I let the range maps convince me it was a general hawk. I finally noted some other sightings claiming they had seen one in the area so I was WAY more open to it being an Osprey today. We not only seen one at the lake-we seen another over a river in town!!! The one in town even had a fish!!!

The one at the lake soared for several minutes, dove on a fish in a cove (I couldn't tell if he got it though) and sat on a perch about 1/4 mile from me. I watched him (or her?) for at least 10 minutes with the Leicas. I'm 100% certain now-range maps be danged!

AND, I just realized this is "World Osprey Week" (if it's official yet):

http://www.ospreys.org.uk/world-osprey-week/

Woo-hoooooo! o:Do:)
 
Oh wonderful (says she quietly polishing her halo;)) LOL David, I just knew from your description that it was most likely an Osprey, as that was how I always thought of them every spring until I got my eye in.

They're such wonderful birds to watch, I hope your nephew is impressed.
 
Went back today and took the camera. I don't have a long lens but I do have a full frame DSLR so I can crop quite a bit. This was also the closest I've been, except for the 1 second one flared and we drove under it a few weeks ago.

Still...as PHOTOS I'm not happy with the quality, but just for confirmation purposes:
 

Attachments

  • 141.JPG
    141.JPG
    611.7 KB · Views: 28
  • 048.JPG
    048.JPG
    241.4 KB · Views: 19
  • 105.JPG
    105.JPG
    152.1 KB · Views: 24
Yeah.... there you go David. They're so much more elegant in the air than any gull LOL.

The more you get to see them, the further away you'll be able to recognise them.

Great pictures those too - well done.
 
Oooh... as KC says, you'll likely have bairns too then. That'll mean you'll see him fishing loads, especially as they get bigger.

With any luck you'll be able to work out his favourite fishing spots and could then to get to watch him in action.
 
Warning! This thread is more than 9 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top