TrishBella
New member
Hi, my name is Trish and I live in Southern Alabama near the Gulf of Mexico (or rather, I guess it’s the Gulf of America now? 😂) I’ve always loved birds but I started really getting into bird watching, photographing birds, identifying different species of birds and learning about birds a year ago and now I’d say I’m a little obsessed with this hobby. I started out with one bird feeder in my backyard and now I’ve got 10 feeders, 5 birdbaths, 5 bird houses and just added a bluebird nesting box. My neighbors probably think I’m a crazy bird lady. 🤣 We have a large variety of birds where I live and several wonderful birding trails. It’s a lot of work to maintain my “backyard bird sanctuary” and so many birds come to my backyard now that our birdseed budget has skyrocketed but it’s all worth it because I love helping the birds and it brings me so much peace & joy to sit outside and watch them, listen to their birdsongs and take photos of them. Currently visiting the UK and had no idea London had such great bird watching opportunities! Went to St. James Park by Buckingham Palace yesterday and it’s such a beautiful park with gorgeous Spring flowers everywhere and so much bird activity! I got to see so many new birds to me and I’m going back before I leave in search of the elusive but very popular green parakeets that supposedly live there. I didn’t get to see any yesterday but did a little research and they are supposedly very active early in the morning or late afternoon. It said there are thousands of these green parakeets living in St. James Park and they are habituated to humans and will eat from your hand! It’s funny because there are signs that say not to feed the birds there but many people were and it was very obvious that the birds are used to being fed because they come right up to you and follow people around. So this morning I found a Tesco market near our hotel and made a healthy nut & fruit mix to take with me next time. I certainly hope it’s not illegal and I wind up in a London jail! 😆 I didn’t see anyone being approached by park authorities yesterday so hopefully it will be okay. 👍 I’m going to see if I can figure out how to attach some photos I took yesterday so you can see some of the birds in London. There was a wide variety of ducks & geese, swans, pelicans and beautiful terns & ravens flying about and many small birds nesting in the trees…saw my first European Robin. Sorry this is a bit of a long introduction. 🙄 I discovered the Bird Forum while looking for a bird ID app. Thank you for letting me join your group and I look forward to exploring this site more when I get home. 
