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03-06-2020, 01:30 PM
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#21
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Oct 2017
Location: Chapel Hill, NC
Posts: 5,290
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Pellice--I totally agree that birding makes you more aware. DH and I are often out with friends and we see or hear things in nature so much more than our nonbirding friends do. We will be walking along with friends and I will hear some very noisy bird and make a comment and the friends will say they did not even hear it! I wonder if a hobby like birding that makes you more aware of your surroundings can help prevent intellectual decline?
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03-06-2020, 01:33 PM
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#22
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Oct 2017
Location: Chapel Hill, NC
Posts: 5,290
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Amethyst
I wonder when the term changed from Bird-watching, to "Birding"? Do people nowadays do more than Birdwatchers always did: watch (and listen to) birds, talk about them, read about them? Oh, and take photos/videos of them, which falls under "watching." (Bird Surveillance?)
"To Bird" just doesn't make sense.
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I think people started using the term "birders" rather than "bird watching" because it is a shorter term. I often say that I have been out "birding". May not be grammatically correct but my friends know exactly what I mean.
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03-06-2020, 01:40 PM
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#23
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 2,459
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Quote:
Originally Posted by harllee
grasshopper--Wow! 5 different species of hummers. We are lucky if we see 2 species! Where are you?
Funny--my nickname for my DH is "grasshopper" because he cannot sit still.
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We retired to a small community 3 miles from New Mexico and 30 miles north of Old Mexico. The birding is so great here because mexican birds don't pay attention to the border and travel the 30 miles in the mountains to mi casa. Cave Creek Canyon in Portal is famous for birds and other critters. we also have 8 rattlesnake species 1 venomous Coral snake and Ghia monsters to round things out.
__________________
For me experiences are not good or bad, just different
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03-06-2020, 02:34 PM
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#24
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Back woods of Fennario
Posts: 1,170
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Quote:
Originally Posted by grasshopper
We retired to a small community 3 miles from New Mexico and 30 miles north of Old Mexico. The birding is so great here because mexican birds don't pay attention to the border and travel the 30 miles in the mountains to mi casa. Cave Creek Canyon in Portal is famous for birds and other critters. we also have 8 rattlesnake species 1 venomous Coral snake and Ghia monsters to round things out.
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Nice! A naturalists haven!
__________________
"Time wounds all heels...." - Groucho Marx
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03-06-2020, 03:01 PM
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#25
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: May 2008
Location: No fixed abode
Posts: 8,764
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I'm not a birder, per se. Actually I'm more into the herps (lizards, snakes, turtles, frogs, gators). But while hiking the swamps near the Everglades I do see a ton of birds, mostly shorebirds and waders, as well as raptors. Just the other day I was in Bird Rookery Swamp and saw what I later identified as a Painted Bunting. Totally new to me, and I asked a couple of the volunteers for the swamp and they said they'd never heard of one there. It's in their normal range, so it's probably natural, but FL is the capital of released invasive and exotic species, so you never know. But it was a beautiful little bird, with a blue head, red breast, and green back. Hard to get a decent picture, as it never would sit still. I did the best I could.
__________________
"Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement." - Anonymous (not Will Rogers or Sam Clemens)
DW and I - FIREd at 50 (7/06), living off assets
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03-06-2020, 03:28 PM
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#26
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: Cholula
Posts: 1,595
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We are watching a pair of hummingbirds nesting in the Texas Ebony tree in our front yard. Fascinating, entertaining little critters, those Hummers!
__________________
“Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way, you’ll be a mile from them, and you’ll have their shoes.” – Jack Handey
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03-06-2020, 03:57 PM
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#27
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 2,459
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Quote:
Originally Posted by harley
I'm not a birder, per se. Actually I'm more into the herps (lizards, snakes, turtles, frogs, gators).
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I like the herper/birder club, good times for herps aren't always the best time for birds. You would love my property, I am at the edge of the western range of desert box turtles, have id about 20 different individuals roaming the ponderosa. My yard list is toads 5, Tree frogs 1, lizards 14, 17 snakes and box turtle. No gators.
__________________
For me experiences are not good or bad, just different
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03-06-2020, 04:09 PM
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#28
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Back woods of Fennario
Posts: 1,170
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Quote:
Originally Posted by harley
I'm not a birder, per se. Actually I'm more into the herps (lizards, snakes, turtles, frogs, gators). But while hiking the swamps near the Everglades I do see a ton of birds, mostly shorebirds and waders, as well as raptors. Just the other day I was in Bird Rookery Swamp and saw what I later identified as a Painted Bunting. Totally new to me, and I asked a couple of the volunteers for the swamp and they said they'd never heard of one there. It's in their normal range, so it's probably natural, but FL is the capital of released invasive and exotic species, so you never know. But it was a beautiful little bird, with a blue head, red breast, and green back. Hard to get a decent picture, as it never would sit still. I did the best I could.
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I'd say Painted Bunting (Passerina ciris).
Gorgeous!
__________________
"Time wounds all heels...." - Groucho Marx
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03-06-2020, 04:18 PM
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#29
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: GTA
Posts: 1,725
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DW loves birds. Hummingbirds, Cardinals and Blue Jays in particular.
This thread reminds me of a book I enjoyed that is in my home library.
To See Every Bird on Earth: A Father, a Son, and a Lifelong Obsession
https://www.amazon.ca/See-Every-Bird.../dp/0452285399
"""What drives a man to travel to sixty countries and spend a fortune to count birds? And what if that man is your father?
Richard Koeppel’s obsession began at age twelve, in Queens, New York, when he first spotted a Brown Thrasher, and jotted the sighting in a notebook. Several decades, one failed marriage, and two sons later, he set out to see every bird on earth, becoming a member of a subculture of competitive bird watchers worldwide all pursuing the same goal. Over twenty-five years, he collected over seven thousand species, becoming one of about ten people ever to do so."""
I enjoy books about eccentrics, obsessives and oddballs.
__________________
Family Motto: "Every penny's a prisoner"
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03-06-2020, 04:24 PM
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#30
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Northern Illinois
Posts: 16,543
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We've had a hummingbird feeder outside our kitchen window for years and enjoy watching them. But I just started bird watching more frequently in January. I made a bird feeder and put it about 30' from my home office window. Then I set up my camera on a tripod in my office and I take photos of the birds through the window. Mostly cardinals, chickadees, red bellied woodpeckers, house finches, titmice.
I take my camera and a telephoto lens hiking a couple times a week. Mainly in search of bald eagles and pileated woodpeckers. I've seen several of both, but haven't got a good photo of the pileated woodpeckers yet.
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03-06-2020, 04:39 PM
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#31
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 8,368
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"Ichabod....you get back here, y'hear?"
__________________
"Exit, pursued by a bear."
The Winter's Tale, William Shakespeare
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03-06-2020, 04:54 PM
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#32
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: Ventura County
Posts: 1,431
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Quote:
Originally Posted by grasshopper
we also have 8 rattlesnake species 1 venomous Coral snake and Ghia monsters to round things out.
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Would those be the infamous Karmann Ghia monsters? I haven't seen one of them since the '70s.
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03-07-2020, 03:55 AM
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#33
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Dec 2008
Posts: 12,566
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We had one when I was a toddler. I don't remember it, but parents had pictures. I guess it lived in the garage...
Quote:
Originally Posted by stepford
Would those be the infamous Karmann Ghia monsters? I haven't seen one of them since the '70s.
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__________________
If you understood everything I say, you'd be me ~ Miles Davis
'There is only one success – to be able to spend your life in your own way.’ Christopher Morley.
Even a blind clock finds an acorn twice a day.
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03-07-2020, 04:12 AM
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#34
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Oct 2016
Posts: 1,507
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Quote:
Originally Posted by harllee
Pellice--I totally agree that birding makes you more aware. DH and I are often out with friends and we see or hear things in nature so much more than our nonbirding friends do. We will be walking along with friends and I will hear some very noisy bird and make a comment and the friends will say they did not even hear it! I wonder if a hobby like birding that makes you more aware of your surroundings can help prevent intellectual decline?
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I think any interest that engages as many of the senses as possible, that makes you think, makes you remember, makes you plan, encourages you to make connections (winds and migration, for example), and (important) gets you physically active, will help with intellectual decline. Right now, I'm trying to master matching sonograms with songs and with birds. Visualizing sound - that's definitely creating new pathways in the brain.
Also, the element of being outdoors in a natural environment; that is fundamental for us humans.
I just wish I knew more botany. I would love to have that green and brrown blur resolve itself into sharp details and colors, and I could be as aware of it as I am of birds.
__________________
FIRED:
July 12, 2018. On safari to stay!
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03-07-2020, 04:45 AM
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#35
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: Michigan
Posts: 4,939
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My wife is more the birder than I, and her sister is a near pro.
.
__________________
"The mountains are calling, and I must go." John Muir
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03-07-2020, 04:50 AM
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#36
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 2,459
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Quote:
Originally Posted by stepford
Would those be the infamous Karmann Ghia monsters? I haven't seen one of them since the '70s.
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Oh that darn spellcheck.
__________________
For me experiences are not good or bad, just different
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03-07-2020, 04:56 AM
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#37
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jan 2017
Location: Des Moines
Posts: 1,371
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Very casual backyard birder here. It's fun to read what everyone does.
__________________
Retired in 2013 and we are living the dream!
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03-07-2020, 05:56 AM
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#38
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Jalisco, Mexico
Posts: 1,738
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Our birding waxes and wanes. Right now it mainly wanes in the winter. When warmer, we often hike the nearby peaks in the early morning. I've started using iNaturalist to document sightings. I use my phone's GPS to track location and time and my Lumix FZ-80 for photos. 1200 zoom.
Wife just takes binoculars. We're a good team.
Birding la Bufa
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03-07-2020, 06:22 AM
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#39
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gone traveling
Join Date: Mar 2017
Posts: 284
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My main hobby is bird watching and photography. My web domain, www.excellentbirds.com, which I have owned almost 20 years (!), forwards to my Flickr account with my bird photos. Several have been published, in both books and magazines, but as I am always careful to point out: no money has changed hands for these photos.
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03-07-2020, 06:40 AM
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#40
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Feb 2017
Posts: 267
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Not yet, but I'm wanting to start!
I've always loved looking at birds and find them fascinating. I also love frogs, lizards, turtles, and gators. Snakes, I'd rather see from afar. I didn't realize others had the same interest in both birds and herps. Interesting.
Once dh retires this summer (hopefully), we'll be moving to FL and I'm hoping we will take up 'birding' as we both love nature. He used to be heavy into photography so I've already told him that he is to buy himself a good camera as a retirement present to himself to bring along on our adventures. I have some binocs but don't know how good they'll be. I'll just play it by ear, though, and upgrade as I need/want.
Thanks to those who mentioned educational resources. I've made note of those!
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