Birds, birds, birds!
 

So I have recently started learning birds. Being a biologist I feel it's something I should have some level of knowledge of. Plus seeing or hearing birds you've learned to recognize is rather satisfying and fun.

So am I the only one, or do more people here enjoy bird watching? Incidentally, I have this bird watching competition coming up in Åland (or Ahvenanmaa), so if anyone would like to give me some pointers that would be cool.

You should meet my friend. She's all about birds.

In tulum I saw around 30 types of birds, all local and in the wild... some were giant.

As my name might imply, I'm all into birds. Unfortunately that's a lie, all I really know anything about is hawks, because hawks are the coolest of all birds. Discovering I had a namesake with such awesome creatures led me to do a bit of research on the subject, but I never really expanded upon it much.

My dad took me bird watching when I was much younger, but I can honestly say it was pretty boring. Incidentally, how does a bird watching compettition even work??

See, the thing about bird watching is that it sucks until you know what you're watching. And I don't mean having a parent there lecturing you about it, I mean actually knowing birds. Otherwise it's pretty much like being the proverbial girlfriend who gets dragged to a D&D game when she's still at the "that's a boardgame, isn't it" stage.

Birds are pretty fun. I'm still interested in waterfowl from the time I used to particpate in the Junior Duck Stamp art competition the Federal Wildlife Service runs.

Also, one morning I walked into my kitchen, looked out the window, and saw some kind of hawk or falcon pecking at a pigeon it caught near the bird feeder.

You divide into teams and each team goes out bird watching. To officially spot a bird so that it qualifies for the competition, atleat three of the members in your group need to see or hear it and agree on the species. Then when the day done everyone gets together. Each team mentions a species they spotted on their own turn, and the rest of the teams indicate if they spotted that species as well or not. Extra points for birds that nobody else saw or heard. Obviosly alcohol is involved: drinks all around! And some of the more hardcore bird watchers, who don't really need to be sober to win, take a drink for every few new species or so.

Incidentally, Hawk, I suck at recognizing different hawks and eagles.

I've never really gone in for just bird watching. I do a lot of nature photography, though, so I've gotten quite a few birds. Mostly geese, herons, and some swans, but I have gotten the occasional red-tail hawk.

It's the beginning of spring, so there's birds starting to move back into the Ozarks.

At my apartments I've seen Mockingbirds, Starlings, multiple types of sparrows, Pigeons, a hawk of some sort - I think it's a Cooper's or Red Shouldered*, Swallows, Scissor-tailed Flycatchers, Mourning Doves, Crows, American Robins, and many others.

My grandparents are avid bird watchers and I used to do more bird-spotting - unfortunately I lost interest in that and other hobbies I used to have (bug collecting, plant identification, fossil hunting, stargazing) until I decided to come back to college and now it's just trying to find time to really go out and do this stuff.


* Yes, I know there's quite a bit of difference between the two, but I see the hawk infrequently and I can't quite recall it's appearance.

I love to watch magpies. Especially in groups. I imagine that they all have nicknames related to their specialties.