I went birding today and saw a bunch of birds (I think about 15-20 species across 3 locations) but to cap everything off, while I was standing in this parking lot in the city center I saw this big red-tailed hawk. There was a ton of robins constantly calling and harassing it, which is what alerted me, so I went and watched it for a bit. Then while ( Read more... )

me: trying to make notes on my phone while in the field, about observed birds' plumage, beaks, behaviour, size, sometimes referencing mallards as they're a good reference point
google keyboard: autocorrects all the "ducks" to "fucks"

It was NOT fuck-shaped or -sized!
Crosspost: https://silverflight8.dreamwidth.org/196764.html.

Actually, 35 days of checklist streak, as defined by ebird. Because ebird is trying to collect data that is useful for science, they have birding protocols. The most valuable is a "complete checklist", where your primary purpose is birding, you try to identify all the birds that you can see and hear, and you give number counts - estimating ( Read more... )

Next weekend is the Great Backyard Bird Count, which aims to harness citizen science and observation to create a detailed snapshot of bird activity and presence, globally. It's a challenge meant to encourage new birders and also those who aren't birders, just interested or wanting to be involved in the outdoors.

All you have to do is observe and ( Read more... )

and it's SO fun. One of my friends through ingress convinced me I should buy a pair of entry level binoculars and it's probably one of the best purchases I made this year. I can see tiny little sparrows so clearly, I can ID raptors flying far above me, and they are so easy to use - honestly, the difference between these (Celestron's NatureDX, about ( Read more... )