heeza loon
Member
As a NEWBIE I've bought some field guides (National Geographic + Sublet) and though I like them they put me in "Information Overload". I tried a smaller one for my location, Peterson Field Guide for Western North America but still had overload. Then a few more to make it even simpler and more focused...Birds of California, then Birds of Southern California, then more even simpler.
Then I got 2 free apps from Audubon...1. Audubon Birds and Audubon Birds California. In the California version you could type in a bird and it would tell which places it was seen in and if you listed that place it would list all the birds that were noted there on that day.
I picked a place, wrote down all the bird seen there, then looked up each bird and steadied them then listened to the songs they included in the apps. After a couple days of study I went there and (whereas before I had bird blindness and couldn't see a bird anywhere) all of a sudden I could see birds everywhere AND identified some by their song.
I pick another place to try it again. It worked AGAIN.
Of course this isn't for everyone but if you're a newbie that's "wired" like me, it might help. All of a sudden, I feel cocky now! I wait for somebody to ask, what kind of bird is that? I try to answer in such a way that they'll have no idea that I'm still a newbie!
Then I got 2 free apps from Audubon...1. Audubon Birds and Audubon Birds California. In the California version you could type in a bird and it would tell which places it was seen in and if you listed that place it would list all the birds that were noted there on that day.
I picked a place, wrote down all the bird seen there, then looked up each bird and steadied them then listened to the songs they included in the apps. After a couple days of study I went there and (whereas before I had bird blindness and couldn't see a bird anywhere) all of a sudden I could see birds everywhere AND identified some by their song.
I pick another place to try it again. It worked AGAIN.
Of course this isn't for everyone but if you're a newbie that's "wired" like me, it might help. All of a sudden, I feel cocky now! I wait for somebody to ask, what kind of bird is that? I try to answer in such a way that they'll have no idea that I'm still a newbie!