Bird watching

[fishdude]

I work from home, and my office has a window to the front yard, so spring last year I put up a few bird feeders to have something to look at out the window. I began learning about different species and how to identify them. So far I've seen 57 different species in my yard. I started paying attention to birds while I am out doing other things and been tracking some of those as well, so all total I've seen and identified 83 different species since last spring.

 

Now the "winter birds" have shown up and in my yard that is white-throated sparrows and dark-eyed juncos. Last year we had heavy snow, so my feeders were the easiest place for these guys to eat and at times I had 25+ of either one in my yard. I'm still watching for a few late migrants. May and October are the months the birds come through here.

[Kay]

I’m a little late to post- but I just thought i’d add that I think this is a really cool idea! Funny how adding a bird feeder to your front yard slowly got you hooked on watching birds! Also, it took me a moment to process that you saw 83 different species in your yard alone, I guess one never really thinks about how many visitors a yard has until they actually take a moment and look  

 

While i’m not an avid bird watcher sometimes I like to go down to my city’s “big park” (somewhat akin to central park or hyde park) with some bird seed. A lot of the time chickadees will come sit on the ledge of my palm and eat right out of my hand. It’s really cool.

[Helsen]

Thanks Kay for finding this old threat and fishdude for writing it. I am a birdwatcher, I love them because they give me such a great sense of freedom. Also birds are very accesible: they are everywhere . I started birdwatching around 5 years ago as a kind of therapy for my stressfull job. It gives me great opportunities to go outdoors. Quite a lot of my friends watch birds too, so also it turns sometimes out as social events: we go to see a special birds with the 4 of us (called twitching). Also it made me see the world through different eyes: I don't care where we are going on a holiday... because everywhere are birds, so I am allways happy . I try to photograph them too sometimes, as other animals. See also my gallery.

[Raskin]

These are some of the birds I see here in upper Florida.I love birds. that bird drying it's wings goes under water.the little purple one lives in lily pads.the large cranes sometimes walk in the street real slow.little warblers sometime fall before they can fly and if you save them sometimes the parents will come to you and feed the little ones when they hear the chirping until they are strong and they fly away.sometimes takes a week or two.feed them crickets or cat food.amazing they are not afraid

Edited March 15, 2015 by Raskin

[Helsen]

Great pictures Raskin! , and a nice story as well.

[Raskin]

thanks..  that big bird with the talons eating the fish is an Osprey

[Martinix!]

Hear them singing after a shi**y winter