What is your most memorable bird experience before becoming a birder? (1 Viewer)

MLoyko · Feb 24, 2009

Hey guys,

I was really bored today because everyone backed out of street hockey due to the cold and I got to thinking about bird experiences I've had before becoming a birder and which were my most memorable.

My most memorable was a trip up to Dog Lake, Ontario, Canada. Going up I knew Common loons were my favorite birds, I just liked there black and white plumage, that red eye, and the eerie but awesome songs and I couldn't what to hear/see one. It didn't take very long. The first day we saw a few swimming and flying around but no calls. The second day we went out on the lake fishing on a pontoon boat on a foggy day. Sitting out in the middle of the lake the fog just surrounded us. Out of nowhere the loons started calling and it was the most awesome thing I have ever witnessed. I will never forget the noise, I even used to be able to do the call somewhat but as time goes on and boys grow up I can't get my voice up that high anymore.

Interested to hear what you guys consider memorable.

Best,
Matt

Farnboro John · Feb 24, 2009

I tramped up Ben Nevis during a fell-walking holiday with my mother and brother. Mum was a birdwatcher (couldn't say birder then.) She ran out of steam after about a thousand feet of ascent so Dave and I went on without her.

On top of the mountain there were these little black and white birds flitting about nicking crumbs from walkers. I had no idea what they were, so chased one around with my ancient Kodak Retinette and took a few record shots, meaning to ask Mum about them later.

By the time we were down I had forgotten all about them, so until the slide of the pristine adult male breeding Snow Bunting flashed up on the screen and left Mum (who'd never seen one but would have loved to) speechless, she had no inkling of what was coming.

Since then I've seen loads and got much better pix, but I will never forget that one.

John

pcurpb · Feb 24, 2009

Six kingfishers - 2 adults, 4 young, I'm now guessing - lined up on a low branch over a river, no more than 25 yds away. About 35 years ago .... And me nobbut a disinterested hormonal teenager...

ovenbird43 · Feb 24, 2009

I think for me it was the first time I visited my dad after he moved down to Florida. We had gone out to eat at an outdoor tiki bar, and after we got our food, this big white bird with a long neck and beak (Great Egret) walked up to our table. It looked at us, and seemed particular interested in watching my brother eat. Then it stalked over to some bushes, where it started "dancing to the music"- undulating its long neck side to side as it peered into the bushes.

That particular incident sticks out in my mind, but overall it was that first trip to Florida, especially the herons and egrets, that set me on my path to becoming a birder.

NickPatel92 · Feb 24, 2009

Not much really, but when i used to travel down to Marlow (nr London) to see relatives i remember as soon as you passed Oxford on the M40 goin south, Red kites just appeared out o nowhere, and they looked so majestic, and this is the only place i ever saw them. Even now as they are still scarce, whenever i go down there i am still amazed by the number of them there and their gracefulness.

Daddylion · Feb 24, 2009

It must be the first time I went down to South Carolina to the beach and saw the pelicans for the first time. It was amazing how much they resembled pterodactyls. And flying all in a row of up to eighty birds, it was amazing.

MLoyko · Feb 24, 2009

Daddylion said:
It must be the first time I went down to South Carolina to the beach and saw the pelicans for the first time. It was amazing how much they resembled pterodactyls. And flying all in a row of up to eighty birds, it was amazing.

Myrtle Beach? My grandparents have a condo down there as to which I am going to this summer. Almost as excited for that as my Florida trip next week.

brianfm · Feb 24, 2009

Walking home as a 14 year old from the Speedway with my father and finding a Tawny Owl sitting on the top of a lamp post outside of the fish and chip shop.

DDolan1075 · Feb 25, 2009

In High school, we had a private zoo. I was put in charge of taking care of a Red Tailed Hawk who had been caught in a pole trap. I was in charge of feeding caring this bird and actually carried him on my hand barehanded! It was quite a trip.

MLoyko · Feb 25, 2009

DDolan1075 said:
In High school, we had a private zoo. I was put in charge of taking care of a Red Tailed Hawk who had been caught in a pole trap. I was in charge of feeding caring this bird and actually carried him on my hand barehanded! It was quite a trip.

That is pretty cool being put in charge of such an awesome bird, and bare handed? Didn't the talons cause any problems?

Daddylion · Feb 25, 2009

MLoyko said:
Myrtle Beach? My grandparents have a condo down there as to which I am going to this summer. Almost as excited for that as my Florida trip next week.

Folly Beach, Matt, but I have been to several beaches down there and they all have had Brown Pelicans so I assume that they are common elsewhere.

Larry Lade · Feb 25, 2009

When I was eight or nine years old tramping around in the woods, which I did quite a bit, I heard the call of a "Rain Crow". For me, this was a special bird! It seems like I would hear them occasionally but could never see one! The folks in the little town of Tampa, Kansas (where we lived) said that when you heard this bird calling it was going to rain.

I did not find out until quite a bit later that the bird's real name was Yellow-billed Cuckoo. In later years I have seen and heard quite a few of these birds. I have also seen several of their cousins, the Black-billed Cuckoo. The Black-billed is somewhat rarer than the Yellow-billed here in the midwest.

tony.saw · Feb 25, 2009

Hi
Climbing the Old Man of Hoy and getting covered in fulmar vomit. No spare clothes available and the return to the main islands 2 days later. Managed to clear a cafe and a pub due to the smell when we finally returned to the mainland. I'm not sure whether this encouraged or discouraged me from starting birding!
Tony

mikfoz · Feb 25, 2009

I used to love riding my bike along a particular road in the summer and almost playing chicken with the Swallows that were skimming along the line of the road after insects under the line of the trees. They always missed me, but sometimes it was mighty close.

Also watching a Kingfisher fishing in the river near the bridge over it early in the morning.

Apodemus · Feb 25, 2009

As a kid, on holiday in the Lake District, seeing a golden eagle soar by, with its wings lit up by the setting sun. Years later, realised that it was probably a buzzard, but it doesn't matter - at the time it was an eagle to me!

Mike

DDolan1075 · Feb 25, 2009

Mloyko, I used two fingers and the talons curved around my fingers. It was pretty cool.

The school was pretty cool too! I took care of a couple of baby Stump Tailed Macaques that were taken from a pet shop too. Here is a shortcut to my school

BTW for those of you interested,this is a boarding prep school which I believe was patterned after the british system (but that is just a guess)

borealowl47 · Feb 25, 2009

owl

Finding a dead owl behind our cabin when I was young.Was
fascinated,memory is faint,but I think it was a Great Horned.

Darrell

oncebittern · Feb 26, 2009

About 20 years ago, walking up Schehallion with my wife, 6 year old daughter, and 9 year old son, (our first Munro). Totally unprepared for the conditions, which went from dry and bright, to wet, to sleety, to white-out. On our way down, mapless (well clueless really) and guiding ourselves by the line of cairns, we heard an unusual noise close behind us. Turning, we came face to face with a Ptarmigan in winter plumage, standing on a rock, not 10 feet from us - a stunning sight, even in those conditions, and one that is burned into my memory.

Gillian_M · Feb 26, 2009

My family moved out west - just outside of Edmonton - when I was a teenager, and we had a couple of acres of wooded property in the country. My mother was into birding, but being a teenager I never saw the fascination. However, two memories come back to me today.

The first was my mother pointing huge flocks of Sandhill Cranes migrating south in the fall. They were very high up, but even so we could hear their distinct calls. I never counted this as a life bird until 2007, here in Ottawa, when I saw them in a field that seems to be one of their customary stops on the journey south. They weren't too far from the road and it was impressive to watch them grazing in a stubbly corn field.

The second isn't as majestic a bird, but I remember that when my mother tapped peanuts on the back deck railing, blue jays would fly out of the woods to come and get them!

I probably would have added a lot of species to my life list if I'd paid attention to what was around me - magpies for sure, and my mother says that Black Terns nested in the slough across the road from us and used to dive bomb us as we walked by (but I don't remember that!)

Birdbrain · Feb 26, 2009

Saving a Tawny Owl from my old next door neighbors front grill on there fire engine, he was a fire man Obviously, they was on there way back to the station and hit this Owl.
I took it to the RSPCA and three days later they rang me to say they had let it go...

What is your most memorable bird experience before becoming a birder? (1 Viewer)

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