What started you birding. (1 Viewer)

[alan_rymer]

Sal
I have the same problem with LBJ's. They ought to have little labels stuck on them, or carry passports as most of them visit the UK just for our summer. As I mentioned on another tread(or two ), that if the bird is all black, or all white, or black and white I can probably manage to work out what it is, but put some brown in there and I am lost!. And by the way, keep the trip reports and photo's coming. They make fantastic reading!.

 

[Paul 42]

Sal I loved the story. I can just imagine all you Great White (photo) Hunters roaring across the bush!!! I can just picture the faces of the other passengers!! Imagine big macho blokes looking at little birdies. Glad you caught the bug. o And as for the LBJ's, thats a great moment when you realise that one has a white wing panel, one has a red beak etc. I used to see Goldfinches as LBJ's!!

 

[Andrew]

I totally agree about some LBJ's being hard to identify even when standing right in front of you for say three hours!!! LOL.
I usually identify them when I have got home reading up my field notes and comaparing them tot he book. It usually needs about three or four sightings before I can confidently have an inkling as to what it is.

 

[Nina P]

My initial start was growing up inthe country, and having an eye op at 5, was not allowed to read for a year, and top that off again at 7 same thing applied, no school just boredom or listen ,that was OK but then had all my interest knocked out by "out of town" J Hargreaves, telling me to f*** off( at 9 years old) I was disgusted!! The latest introduction was after my accident in1997 that I have re-discovered my ancient pleasure in the observation of birds, and although I have been able to say I have been able to identify most birds there are still a good many that I have never seen yet!! The latest observations were only a few days ago my third peregrine, and the second of this year, no less!! And that one I would never have seen if it were not for the fact that I am now disabled and to travel means I must travel in a prone position, and that my better half has to drive, that was a good thing as my sighting would have caused an accident in any other situation.

 

[Reader]

Jeez Nina. That brings my problems into perspective. Boy you seem to have had a tough life so far but you seem to be able to see the good things to life. You are an inspiration to us all. If anyone complains about their life think of Nina and get on with your life.

Welcome to this forum. I hope you enjoy it as you work through from forum to forum. Check out the gallery, you will be delighted with what is on offer. There are some excellent photos in there.

Keep the posts coming. I for one look forward in reading how you are getting on.

 

[Sal]

Thanks Alan, Paul and Andrew for making me feel better abut my LBJ's! I can identify them if there is something coloured on them, but we have groups of warblers, prinnias,pipits, larks and nightjars which the experts can sort out immediately but I can't, so I dont have many of them on my list! In fact the night jars tend to be identifiable only by their wing markings when spread and believe me, you do not often see them fly or fly slowly enough to do that. . . .
Nina, welcome, your story is inspiring. I hope that you are able to get much pleasure from your bird watching and that you live in a place where feeders can be set up. I hope you will keep us posted on future sightings.

 

[digi-birder]

It was a visit to friends in Ohio, USA in 1983 that started us birding. Well, they had been Keith's friends up to that point as it was the first time I'd met them.

They took us to a local wildlife park - Window on Wildlife, I think it was called - in Toledo. Not exactly bird watching as we know it - I remember driving into a car park and walking a few yards and sitting at a screen with a one-way window in it watching the birds at the feeders. I think there were binoculars to look through.

Simple as this was, we were hooked. We joined the RSPB when we returned home, bought binoculars and away we went. We have not been what you would call serious birders, though, until more recently.

 

[jawillia]

I started birding about the time that the last post on this thread before this one was posted. I know it's an old thread but I liked the topic. My parents had just bought a house in Tampa, Florida, and I was visiting them. Their new house was facing a small pond, with beautiful big windows overlooking the pond. I have always loved animals and birds - but thought that birdwatching meant long hikes through the woods to see a species or two (now I realize it can be that too, but anyhow... to continue). I was sitting in their family room one morning before breakfast, looking out the window at the pond. My parents had a "Florida Birds" book sitting on the ottoman. A bird flew in, so without thinking I picked up the book and turned pages until I found it. Then I id'd the next bird and the next - until within an hour I realized I had seen 26 species. I was in awe that you could see that many species of birds so easily. So when I came home I started cruising the net, and found a post from a local birder, and emailed asking if he knew any good birding spots nearby. He responded saying that he was teaching a birding class, and if I wanted to I could come as his guest - so I did. That first day we went out for about 3 1/2 hours and found over 80 species - and I was hooked! My first year (last year) of birding I drove by myself to Texas and all over Florida and took my species list up to about 400. This year (2004) I have driven to Texas again, to Colorado and up the East Coast, and am at 539. I was hoping to head to Arizona and California, which I was sure would bring me over 600, but have run short of funds, so I don't believe I'll manage to make it before Feb 28 which will be my 2nd anniversary as a birder. But even if I don't manage to accomplish what I thought would be a significant milestone, I still found myself a lifelong hobby, and will just have to content myself with being a happy if insignificant birder.

 

[Vectis Birder]

I started birding as a kid. I was brought up by my grandmother, she always fed the birds and to me it was entirely natural to watch and take an interest in the birds in the garden and surrounding countryside.

Apart from the various tits, thrushes, robins, sparrows, etc, that appeared in our garden, the most abiding memory was when I was at primary school - I was about eight years old at the time - and watching a Treecreeper climbing an oak tree outside the classroom window. Up and up, and around and around it went.

 

[marcus]

I started birding about the time that the last post on this thread before this one was posted. I know it's an old thread but I liked the topic. My parents had just bought a house in Tampa, Florida, and I was visiting them. Their new house was facing a small pond, with beautiful big windows overlooking the pond. I have always loved animals and birds - but thought that birdwatching meant long hikes through the woods to see a species or two (now I realize it can be that too, but anyhow... to continue). I was sitting in their family room one morning before breakfast, looking out the window at the pond. My parents had a "Florida Birds" book sitting on the ottoman. A bird flew in, so without thinking I picked up the book and turned pages until I found it. Then I id'd the next bird and the next - until within an hour I realized I had seen 26 species. I was in awe that you could see that many species of birds so easily. So when I came home I started cruising the net, and found a post from a local birder, and emailed asking if he knew any good birding spots nearby. He responded saying that he was teaching a birding class, and if I wanted to I could come as his guest - so I did. That first day we went out for about 3 1/2 hours and found over 80 species - and I was hooked! My first year (last year) of birding I drove by myself to Texas and all over Florida and took my species list up to about 400. This year (2004) I have driven to Texas again, to Colorado and up the East Coast, and am at 539. I was hoping to head to Arizona and California, which I was sure would bring me over 600, but have run short of funds, so I don't believe I'll manage to make it before Feb 28 which will be my 2nd anniversary as a birder. But even if I don't manage to accomplish what I thought would be a significant milestone, I still found myself a lifelong hobby, and will just have to content myself with being a happy if insignificant birder.

Whaddaya mean insignificant? With 539 birds in less than 2 years? I'll probably never get half that many in my life. I've been birding for almost 30 years, but have less than 200 on my lifelist. Your story would be a dream come true for me! :clap:

 

[jawillia]

Whaddaya mean insignificant? With 539 birds in less than 2 years? I'll probably never get half that many in my life. I've been birding for almost 30 years, but have less than 200 on my lifelist. Your story would be a dream come true for me! :clap:

Thanks! Yea, I guess it's pretty cool. It was great fun. I've just been reading "The Big Year" and "Feather Quest" and "Kingbird Highway", and comparing myself with all of birding's elite - which I guess I was wishing I could join. But although Kenn Kaufman showed you can accomplish those feats without a lot of money (if you're a teenaged boy with boundless energy and a lot of time instead of an out of shape 49 year old woman with a husband and a house), mostly I don't think it's possible if you have little money and not a ton of time... I sure wish I could find a way, though. Especially since - like I said - it was great fun.

 

[Benjismum]

I had two bird-mad teachers at school, who started the school bird-watching club. They took us on numerous birding walks, showed films and slides and eventually took us on a week long bird watching camp to the Farne Islands (my first Puffins, Terns, Guillemots etc).

It wasn't a particularly 'cool' club to belong to, and we had the mickey taken quite a lot by the other kids, but we often had the last laugh by being allowed out of lessons early to go birding before it got dark.

I had great fun and learnt a lot of the basics about birds due to this club, and have been interested ever since.

Thankyou Mr O'Hare and Mr Fellowes (if by any chance you are reading this)

 

[Chris D]

Going to college in Southern New Jersey put me near some impressive areas. You couldn't help be interested. As a kid, I always knew the local birds in our local woods. I guess something hit around college-age that birds were special. It was also a social thing to do (go birding). They've taught me much about many aspects of biology. Never cease to amaze. Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Pennsylvania sits above 2 farms that have been in my family many years. The actions of my ancestors were reasons for establishing a Preserve and trying to educate the local farmers (my ancestors) about quitting what they did each fall. It's an interesting story worth looking into if you're not in the know. Anyway, I was a generation post and do my best to make things better......

 

[callatis]

aquarium...

 

[hawkwind]

not sure if I`ve done this right being very new to forums! I have been interested in birds for many years and have always taken much pleasure in watching the birds that come to the bird table but until recently have never actually gone out to watch them. That changed early last year after watching a Bill Oddie programme in which he listened to a nightingale sing and that brought back memories of when I was a child, I remember my parents waking me up so I could hear that beautiful song. I thought I would like to hear a nightingale sing again so with a reluctant wife we set off around 1.30 am to Titchwell, Norfolk were the programme was made, we arrived in time to catch the dawn chorus,unfortunately failed to hear a nightingale BUT we did hear a Bittern boom and on walking around saw various waders of which we had only seen pictures of in books and on tv, so thanks to Bill Oddie and his progamme he has inspired us to get out and observe, we have been back to Titchwell several times and have managed to see something different each time and have now found a local patch[Kings mead]this new hobby has opened up a whole new world.

 

[Mickymouse]

Some nice stories here, in my case it's hard to pin down because I just drifted into it, various things spurred me on like becoming aware of Ringneck Parakeets flying round the local park while taking the kids and dog out for the day and the time, again taking my dog out, when I came upon a major twitch going on along the coast near to me and seeing the fun these people had just out to see a bird (Shorelarks I think) it made me think I was missing out on something, time goes on and the interest builds up until you realise that you have been missing out on something great.

Mick

 

[Euan Buchan]

wELL i THINK YOU ll know how I started yep watching Bill Oddie's programmes his enthusiasm made me want to do it