A neighbor asked me the other day, “How did you get started looking at birds?” I have no idea.
Growing up in an apartment in Chicago, we knew what pigeons were, we knew that robins arrived in the spring and they ate worms and that there were sparrows. That’s all I can remember. I moved to the suburbs in my late teens and became somewhat responsible for watering and mowing the grass, and digging holes for trees and plants. That’s where I found out that cement did not cover everything, and that there were lots of plants and animals that we never saw in the big city. I’m sure that Blue Jays and Cardinals and Crows appeared along with a skunk or two to wake me up to “rural” life.
Anyway my first real interest in birds arrived with our moving back to the suburbs with a wife and kids. Now I guess I was old enough and rich enough to own a pair of binoculars and a bird book, and I started looking…..not as a hard core birder, up before dawn, driving hundreds of miles to see a “rare” bird. It was mostly looking in the yard to see if there were different birds to see as the seasons changed. Nowadays I still won’t get up before dawn but I have been known to drive 50 or 75 miles to see birds that don’t visit me now, at home, in Tucson.
So, is anyone interested in looking at birds? Even though you’re down in Mexico with no binoculars or bird books, I can get you started. All you need is paper and pencil and a few minutes of your time. You need the paper to jot down what you are seeing….and we can start on the beach, which is where you spend most days anyway. See, no driving 50 miles.
Let’s start with one everybody knows, the Pelican. You don’t even need paper for this one, but when you get home and check a bird guide you’ll see that there are two kinds, the Brown Pelican that we have here along the ocean, and the White Pelican that is more a bird of lakes and rivers. And as a point of interest, besides the color difference the Brown, as I am sure you have seen, has a spectacular plunge dive into the water to eat, while the White just floats on the water and ducks its head under to grab a fish.
Up there along with the pelican is another diving bird, a little smaller, the Brown Booby. Now I know I’m giving you the “answer,” but what you want to do with your paper and pencil is take a note or two. Still a large bird but smaller that the pelican, dives to feed like the pelican, mainly brown with a sharp line between the white belly and neck, has a rather long bill. This should be enough information for you to find this bird in a guide book when you get home. Another bird up there…. start taking notes now…. seems rather large, mostly black, some with a red pouch, with long pointed wings, not diving into the water to feed, has a long forked tail….and then note the other large black bird soaring up there that is completely different from the forked tailed one, and try to describe what this one looks like.
One trick to remember for size when it won’t hold still for you to measure it with a ruler is to think of it against something you already know. Is it the size of a sparrow, a robin, a chicken, a bread box etc? It also helps to note foot and beak color, and what it is doing while you are watching it, running along the beach, up in a tree, in the grass etc.
Don’t bother with the Gulls and Terns you see flying over the water, you’ll have to get much too close to see differences for you to identify which ones they are, save those for a later year. However, there are still two more birds along the water that you’ll be able to watch without binoculars, one is that black bird that is looking for food around your table at the beach and the other is that brownish bird that runs back and forth along the waters edge.
OK, here are five new birds and one old one so you can start building your bird list. Another place to see birds up close without binoculars is in the canal that empties into the ocean at Playa Madera. Last year (2006) there were probably 10 more birds that were easy to spot and take notes on. If this exercise begins to get interesting, there will also be a few more that you’ll see on the way back to your hotel, apartment, bungalow, room, tent or wherever you’ll sleep tonight.
When you get home and want to get start working towards birding 102, here are a few things you can do:
Buy a pair of binoculars. I know you can save a lot of money by buying them over the internet but I think it’s very important to actually try them first to see how they “feel” when you use them. My wife has a wonderful pair (hey, come on guys, I’m talking about binoculars here) that just doesn’t have the right spacing for my eyes and I feel clumsy when I use them. You can use most any pair if needed, but one that will close focus is best. You’ll find that many times you’ll be able to get quite close to a bird and the pair that you use for the football games just won’t do a proper job. Binoculars, like most things, come in many prices, and usually, the more you pay, the better the item will be. The more you pay for binoculars, the sharper the image, the lighter in weight, and more light will be available to make the colors brighter.
Bird guides come in different shapes and sizes too. The one I think you should start with is the National Geographic BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA. I like it because the pictures are sharp and the map of their territory is right along side the bird to make it easy to tell if your bird lives where you are birding. But before you do buy one, check at your local library to see what they have available for you to try first, you might find one that you like better than what I suggest. Another suggestion, and one that you can do with many of you’re reference books, is to take it to Office Max or Office Depot and have them cut off the spine and spiral-bind the book for a couple of dollars. This makes it easy to lay out the page that you’re using rather than having it close on you when you let go of the page. And last but not least, see if there is a printed bird list of the area that you’re going to be in, a very useful guide even for the experts.
Last, if you can, find some “live” help to get you started. There are chapters of Audubon all over the country and they all have birding field trips that are free, (except, some request gas money if you share someone’s car). The Nature Conservancy has nature preserves where bird trips are offered. You also might Google “free bird outings” in your local area to see what, if any, is available. Another advantage with Audubon is that, at least here in Tucson where I volunteer, the members get a 10% discount from their nature store and because we are non-profit we do not charge sales tax. Also if you go on an Audubon field trip, and you do not have to be a member to do so, I’m sure you’ll have a chance to try other participant’s binoculars if you ask. We always like to help out fellow birders… because we remember that we were all beginners once….And now you can become one of the over 50 million other birders up north.
