I see predominantly picture posts here, but I wonder if text posts have a place too. I think it would be cool to share memorable birding experiences. A few come to mind for me.
This spring I saw my first Whooping Crane. I grew up in the migration path and went looking every year. I’d seen millions of sandhill cranes. Hundreds of white spots that turned out only to be two snow geese flying together or a plastic bag waving on a corn stalk. This spring I visited my home town and it happened to be during the migration. My two year old loves birds, so I thought he’d like to see so many birds at once. Unfortunately he was more interested in sitting in the truck while I looked at birds. On the way back home, a quarter mile before getting on the highway, I saw a white spec in a field, pulled over in a farmers drive way and just knew it was it. Thirty years later, I’d finally found one. Crossing it off in the index of my Sibley’s was one of the most cathartic experiences of my life.
Another experience I love is the first time I saw California condors. My family visited the Grand Canyon, and I knew there was a chance to see them. When we got there they were flying so close and I couldn’t even speak. My mom still tells of me pointing and saying “C-c-c-condors!”.
My grandma is the one that got me into birding. She took me on a trip to an eagle count at a lake a few hours away. We saw many eagles that day. I also saw a great horned owl in broad daylight, which I’ve yet to see again; I remember how yellow it’s eyes were. At the end of the day we stopped at the dam and my grandma put her spotting scope on some mallards and other ducks sitting around a section of open water. While I was watching, an Eagle came up and flew right over the dam, only a few dozen feet over head, then swooped down and crushed the mallard in the spotting scope so easily. We stayed and watched it eat until it was run off by other eagles that came for an easy meal.
Also whooping cranes. I’ve had them twice fly over head and they come in so fast compared to the other migrating birds – snow geese and cranes – it’s incredible. Seeing them far off, and you just “know”. Grab the camera and hope they fly over. They’re also a spectacular “good news” story of conservation.
I also watched a great grey owl hunt for voles for an hour, totally oblivious to us just sitting there. First time over ever wished for a shorter lens!
Two notable bird experiences in the last year:
The first involved Osprey, which I’ve fallen in love with since I first saw them.
I was at a spot where I would regularly see them dive-bombing fish. Several were out circling overhead and one managed to catch a fish right in front of me. As it took off and flew right in front of me, he let out his typical Osprey call, which melts my heart every time I see it. I did end up getting a short video of this!
The second also happened last year, during a Blue Jay migration.
I was out for a bike ride along our waterfront trail (Lake Ontario), and I kept seeing Jays flying over head by the dozen. I began my ride really early that day, and even hours later, on my way back, more were flying overhead.
At one point, I just stopped to take some video and there were literally thousands of Jays flying over the trail - it was like straight out of a movie. I’ve never seen that many of the same bird moving in such large groups for such a sustained period of time. I don’t know where the hell they were going, but they were ALL going there! LOL
I love ospreys too. I remember being so desperate to see one when my family first went to Yellowstone. I’d never heard of seeing one near my home. Luckily now there’s usually one hanging around a local lake during the winter and spring. It’s great to pedal the kayak around and watch the ospreys and eagles pick winter killed shad off the lake while I catch some trout.
I’ve been upset this year because I’ve only seen two Osprey all year, and that’s at spots where they were guaranteed to be at last year every time I’d visit (multiple times a week!).
But I’ve also haven’t noticed nearly as many Egrets and Great Blue Herons, where I would have seen hundreds by the same time last year.
I don’t know what’s on, but the decline in bird diversity is leading me into depression.
I for one would be happy to read more such stories. Alas, my own experiences don’t really lend themselves to extended writeups - more just the slightly stunned “That’s not a thrush/blue tit/sparrow/pigeon/whatever!” moments when I realised I’m seeing something rather special rather close (wheatears, firecrests, goldcrests, etc.).
I like to post pictures to get the community more active, but I’m also down for discussion.
Laat year, I was a teaching assistant for a study abroad course to Honduras. One of our stops was PANACAM, one of the best national parks in the country (I spent about ten days there this year, such a beautiful location). We only had half a day there. The class happened to contain only women, and the day we visited, we learned of the US Supreme Court’s decision regarding abortion access. Demoralized, I led a group to a bird tower in the forest in our remaining time. They were largely uninterested in birding, but they were into the more charismatic species. In the span of an hour on that tower, we only recorded ten species, but the experience was quite exceptional. I located three king vultures far in the sky and was able to show them to the students. A dozen or so swallow-tailed kites swooped around the tower. I photographed a dark morph short-tailed hawk with a lizard in its bill across two passes (a publication I’m working on). The students located a keel-billed toucan before I did. And best (for them) of all, a white-nosed coati decided to pop up in the leaves just 20 feet from us.
I love birding, but I really love getting others into it and making cool observations with them. It was a memerable day for sure.
I love to share it as well. Most of my friends are far from birders, but they know that I am, so I get texts with pictures of birds they want identified. It’s grown now so that I get texts from random numbers from friends of friends. I guess I’m the bird guy now.
Many of my friends are biologists themselves, but not all are as well-verse in birds, so I’m definitely the bird guy there. Or wildlife guy, as in the case of my family. Kinda why I started bird ID and snake ID communities here when I didn’t see them (not sure how to link to them on mobile).
I would love to have more discussion type posts here! And I really enjoy reading these experiances.
My favorite experience is a rather simple one. I have only been birding for a few years now. In my first year of birding, I was along a stream-side path that I knew well, looking to see what birds I could find. Out of the bush beside me popped a white-starred robin, one of the cutest and most beautiful birds I had ever seen. It is a altitude migrant, where it moves to lower altitudes in the winter. It was obviously a colder winter than usual as they were usually found in that area.
The best part about it was how tame it was around we me, and I managed to get a bunch of pictures. I was able to bring my SO to the same area the following day and find it in the same place.
That’s such a great picture of a beautiful bird. Being from the American Midwest, robins always seem so boring, but I forget that there are so many other robins out there.
