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Posted: 6/16/2024 12:21:05 PM EDT
[#1]
I have literally travelled the world on bird watching trips and am driving five hours on Wednesday for an event with a Bird Club.
When I was a kid in the Marine Corps they called me the “Bird Nerd”. I guess it fits. |
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Posted: 6/16/2024 12:22:20 PM EDT
[#2]
We have a bird feeder right outside the kitchen window. We keep it full of suet ball and black oiler seeds. Enjoy the interaction of all the birds. We have a couple families of woodpeckers that are fun. If the suet balls get too far gone or not there, the woodpeckers tap on the window to lets us know. The birds I like are the Nut thatches. They kind of rule the feeder.
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Posted: 6/16/2024 12:22:58 PM EDT
[#3]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I have literally travelled the world on bird watching trips and am driving five hours on Wednesday for an event with a Bird Club. When I was a kid in the Marine Corps they called me the “Bird Nerd”. I guess it fits. I know that feel bros were like "WTF whiskers" at work because I was super excited to see a green heron. I showed them a gif on the internet about the neck, and they kinda got it but didn't think it was as cool as I did. |
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Posted: 6/16/2024 12:29:02 PM EDT
[#4]
I will be packing the spotting scope and binos tonight. Already have my field guides gathered up.
This event is the Brooks Bird Club Foray in West Virginia. My mother was doing bird trips with them when she was pregnant with me. Her birthday is this week and now 48 years later I am going to surprise her by just showing up to the event without her knowledge. She will be thrilled and shocked. It should be good fun and it will be good for me to spend some genuine time to something I just love but rarely make the time for. |
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Posted: 6/16/2024 12:30:58 PM EDT
[#5]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I will be packing the spotting scope and binos tonight. Already have my field guides gathered up. This event is the Brooks Bird Club Foray in West Virginia. My mother was doing bird trips with them when she was pregnant with me. Her birthday is this week and now 48 years later I am going to surprise her by just showing up to the event without her knowledge. She will be thrilled and shocked. It should be good fun and it will be good for me to spend some genuine time to something I just love but rarely make the time for. That sounds awesome brother. She will definitely love it. 
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Posted: 6/16/2024 12:32:43 PM EDT
[#6]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Stalking around out in the wood's with binoculars, nope. Stepping out into the yard and seeing some cardinals or something, yeah pretty cool. I've got some freeloaders that need to move on. They are some sort of blue split tail that build mud nest in the corner of my cover porch. They are all flying now but the roost up there and shit all over my deck and wall. As soon as they move out that nest is comming down an bird spikes are going up! Barn swallows, they are migratory they will leave. They will definitely try to do it again in the same spot next spring though. |
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Posted: 6/16/2024 12:44:53 PM EDT
[#7]
If you ever spot an all black bird with a yellow head, don't look it up to see what it's called. You'll just feel stupid afterwards.
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Posted: 6/16/2024 12:53:39 PM EDT
[#8]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I use Seek but it's not 100% accurate. Often I'll get to genus then open up a field guide and figure it out from there. It thought a female red wing blackbird was a yellow meadowlark, but the field guide helped me figure it out The one I use is called Merlin. I get an email update a few times a year about it, but not often enough for it to be a pest. https://merlin-bird-id-by-cornell-lab-of-ornithology.neneo.com/en/us/android/com.labs.merlinbirdid.app/app/ |
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Posted: 6/16/2024 12:59:00 PM EDT
[#9]
Don't know shit about birds, but can ID the common ones. Have three feeders though. Little bastards never used the birdbath, and we finally just gave up and got rid of it.
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Posted: 6/16/2024 1:01:04 PM EDT
[#10]
Nice! I rarely get a shot at an Eagle. It seems like I only see Eagles or Swallow Tail Kites when I am driving down the road.
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Posted: 6/16/2024 1:03:35 PM EDT
[#11]
Quote HistoryQuoted: The one I use is called Merlin. I get an email update a few times a year about it, but not often enough for it to be a pest. https://merlin-bird-id-by-cornell-lab-of-ornithology.neneo.com/en/us/android/com.labs.merlinbirdid.app/app/ Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: I use Seek but it's not 100% accurate. Often I'll get to genus then open up a field guide and figure it out from there. It thought a female red wing blackbird was a yellow meadowlark, but the field guide helped me figure it out The one I use is called Merlin. I get an email update a few times a year about it, but not often enough for it to be a pest. https://merlin-bird-id-by-cornell-lab-of-ornithology.neneo.com/en/us/android/com.labs.merlinbirdid.app/app/ I'm going to grab it now, thanks fren |
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Posted: 6/16/2024 1:08:46 PM EDT
[#12]
I keep a piece of indoor/outdoor carpet at the back door so that the pups don’t drag in too much dirt. Caught this one the other day getting dog hair to line a nest.
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Posted: 6/16/2024 1:09:04 PM EDT
[#13]
Pat MacNamara is a bird nerd. I guess sitting out in a hide for days you gotta do something to pass the time and it stuck.
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Posted: 6/16/2024 1:12:44 PM EDT
[#14]
I started when I was a young kid until I discovered women watching.
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Posted: 6/16/2024 1:15:57 PM EDT
[#15]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I started when I was a young kid until I discovered women watching. You can't have coffee or a beer and stare at women that come into your yard though. If you were really into women watching you'd get a membership to hot yoga or Orange Theory or something |
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Posted: 6/16/2024 1:22:18 PM EDT
[#16]
Birds are detrimental to people who garden and raise food to eat.
Birds eat seeds out of prepped ground, young plants and mature ready to pick fruit and vegetables. Birds are having a feast on our blueberries right now. For every bird lover, there are many more people who are frustrated with the birds. Owls, hawks, eagles, buzzards. Now, they do good work not evil. |
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Posted: 6/16/2024 1:23:02 PM EDT
[#17]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Yeah I don't go anywhere either. I kinda treat it like fishing and try to attract what I want to see. I should try the owl box, but then again it might go after goldfinches Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: Stalking around out in the wood's with binoculars, nope. Stepping out into the yard and seeing some cardinals or something, yeah pretty cool. I've got some freeloaders that need to move on. They are some sort of blue split tail that build mud nest in the corner of my cover porch. They are all flying now but the roost up there and shit all over my deck and wall. As soon as they move out that nest is comming down an bird spikes are going up! Yeah I don't go anywhere either. I kinda treat it like fishing and try to attract what I want to see. I should try the owl box, but then again it might go after goldfinches I'd like to build some bat boxes if nothing else than to suppress the local mosquitoe population. |
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Posted: 6/16/2024 1:27:15 PM EDT
[#18]
The people coming back from bird watching on Pelee Island were all weird as fuck.
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Posted: 6/16/2024 1:37:35 PM EDT
[#19]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Birds are detrimental to people who garden and raise food to eat. Birds eat seeds out of prepped ground, young plants and mature ready to pick fruit and vegetables. Birds are having a feast on our blueberries right now. For every bird lover, there are many more people who are frustrated with the birds. Owls, hawks, eagles, buzzards. Now, they do good work not evil. Everyone likes raptors. Vultures are pretty cool as well to watch their wings are gigantic |
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Posted: 6/16/2024 1:38:08 PM EDT
[#20]
I like bird watching, have 2 Hummingbird feeders a Cardinal Feeder plus a Finch feeder. We get golden and Purple finches, Cardinals, Nutcrackers and Hummingbirds.
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Posted: 6/16/2024 1:45:03 PM EDT
[#21]
I've been bird watching since I was a kid. My older brother is a Dr of Birdwatching (Ornithologist).
I've got a couple hundred species world-wide; its been a while since I looked at my list. I need to dig that out. South Texas along the coast has a metric ton of species and is one of the top birding locations in the world. |
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Posted: 6/16/2024 1:46:07 PM EDT
[#22]
I have cut way back on bird feeding after having to spray a bear multiple times. It also busted the feeder. Hummingbird feeders get taken down and drank by raccoons like a 2 liter soda
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Posted: 6/16/2024 1:47:09 PM EDT
[#23]
Watching my front and backyard. In my front yard I’ve got a dead tree that has a nest of baby woodpeckers. Both mom and dad are caring for them. Woodpecker babies are very loud and they never shut up. In the back I’ve got a pair of hawks. I have not spotted their nest yet. They are constantly circling and hunting. Already found a baby possum that one of them dropped. They came back and snagged it when I left the immediate area.
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Posted: 6/16/2024 1:50:21 PM EDT
[#24]
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Posted: 6/16/2024 1:50:52 PM EDT
[#25]
I'm late 30s and always loved it. Bought my 5 year old daughter binoculars and a bird book and she loves it, too. She'll hear birds while we're out and tell me what they are by the sound.
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Posted: 6/16/2024 1:51:26 PM EDT
[#26]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I have literally travelled the world on bird watching trips and am driving five hours on Wednesday for an event with a Bird Club. When I was a kid in the Marine Corps they called me the “Bird Nerd”. I guess it fits. Username does not check out. |
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Posted: 6/16/2024 1:51:32 PM EDT
[#27]
Plenty of birds around the house but I've been picking on these guys.
They need to ask and I'll throw a peanut  " />
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Posted: 6/16/2024 1:51:47 PM EDT
[#28]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Barn swallows, they are migratory they will leave. They will definitely try to do it again in the same spot next spring though. So I noticed, I thought wrongly that an old nest would keep them away like wasp and hornets, nope, let's add on this year! |
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Posted: 6/16/2024 2:01:38 PM EDT
[#29]
I love watching birds. I really need to set up a bird feeder in my yard but it will also be a squirrel feeder. we have a ton of them. we have a couple birds that you don't always see like Azure Headed Conures which are basically blue headed parrots. there are a couple colonies that have thrived here in the immediate area and have been here for many many years. I've also spotted Swallow Tailed Kites which are cool to see. They nest here on the east coast and we have some in the wooded area by the intracoastal. Other than that we have the usual suspects, blue ones and red ones and brown ones and tall ones. we have the gangs of Ibis' that roam the neighborhoods cleaning out yards and I have a red shouldered hawk that sits on my fence. the worst ones are the Sand Hill Cranes which I have dubbed "the worlds stupidest bird" and they're endangered because their too stupid to get out of the way of something coming to kill them. If they actually tasted good, they'd be extinct.
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Posted: 6/16/2024 2:14:09 PM EDT
[#30]
I live on a large property in the middle of the state and have a ton of different woodpeckers (hairy, downy, pileated), not to mention all the other birds that have been at my feeders. I used to have a half dozen feeders scattered about, to include a thistle feeder at the end of my yard so the goldfinches didn't have to compete for food.
   I, too, had a bird bath with a heater so it would not freeze in the winter. I never saw a bird use it, and I never saw any poop in it. |
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Posted: 6/16/2024 2:14:57 PM EDT
[#31]
Birds aren't real. I'm you want a whole gaggle of them around you, say things that could be construed as anti big government.
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Posted: 6/16/2024 2:15:58 PM EDT
[#32]
Anyone know what bird, looks similar to a female cardinal, all brown with raccoon eyes?
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Posted: 6/16/2024 2:16:43 PM EDT
[#33]
When my wife started hunting with me, she would watch birds.
Now I watch birds with her and enjoy a nice jack and coke It’s fun time we spend together. |
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Posted: 6/16/2024 2:19:08 PM EDT
[#34]
I'm 66 and have been feeding and 'watching' the birds since I was 10, maybe 12 years old. Birds, insects, various furry critters. All of them.
I keep a sunflower filled feeder going all year long. Everyone uses it; furry critters too. The neighbors pond gets canada geese, an ocassional duck, herons, and even the ospreys looking for fish. edit: Almost all of the birds will go for the black oil sunflower seed. I buy the 40 pound bags at TSC, The woodpeckers love the peanut suet cakes. |
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Posted: 6/16/2024 2:22:49 PM EDT
[#35]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Had a Lazuli Bunting visit the yard last night, among others. That is a cool find. I have only seen a Lazuli Bunting exactly once. It was in a desert area of Colorado hiding out in some oak bushes |
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Posted: 6/16/2024 2:25:38 PM EDT
[#36]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I live on a large property in the middle of the state and have a ton of different woodpeckers (hairy, downy, pileated), not to mention all the other birds that have been at my feeders. I used to have a half dozen feeders scattered about, to include a thistle feeder at the end of my yard so the goldfinches didn't have to compete for food. https://i.imgur.com/JC6M8zv.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/XSIeewY.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/7gdClD5.jpeg I, too, had a bird bath with a heater so it would not freeze in the winter. I never saw a bird use it, and I never saw any poop in it. That owl is awesome |
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Posted: 6/16/2024 2:27:44 PM EDT
[#37]
@Jambalaya this app is pretty cool!
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Posted: 6/16/2024 2:28:10 PM EDT
[#38]
I enjoy seeing the Ospreys near the Jamestown - Scotland ferry in VA this time of the year.
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Posted: 6/16/2024 2:37:55 PM EDT
[#39]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Goldfinches love nyjer seed that's what I use Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: I’ve set up a second feeder just for finches since spotting a gold finch last month. Haven’t seen him back yet, but something is nibbling away at that feeder. Meanwhile I was re-filling the main feeder with a seed mix twice a week until I noticed the pile of uneaten seed under the feeder. Greedy bastards will have to eat off the ground before I fill that feeder another time.  Goldfinches love nyjer seed that's what I use That is what I got, they must have moved on. There may still be other finches snacking on it, but I only saw that goldfinch once and the seed has only dropped 2-3” since putting it out. |
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Posted: 6/16/2024 2:40:28 PM EDT
[#40]
You don't need to get all those different seeds for those birds if you want to simplify things. Use small or medium sunflower chips/hearts. By far the most versatile bird seed.
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Posted: 6/16/2024 2:42:10 PM EDT
[#41]
My dad is a biology major and loves birds. A little of that rubbed off on me.
There’s that Steve Martin / Jack Black / Owen Wilson movie about breaking the bird spotting record that was really good. ETA: The Big Year |
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Posted: 6/16/2024 2:42:31 PM EDT
[#42]
Couple of Ring Neck doves .
In laws get an albino Cardinal . Haven't been able to get a picture .  |
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Posted: 6/16/2024 2:43:07 PM EDT
[#43]
OP,
I have several feeders out. The one that gets the most different species of birds contains a mix of sunflower seed and safflower seed. That one gets cardinals, goldfinches, purple finches, rose breasted grosbeaks, bluejays, and numerous other species of birds. The squirrels like it too, but it's less than 10 feet from our sunroom windows, and an old Red Rider BB gun seems to educate them. |
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Posted: 6/16/2024 2:46:08 PM EDT
[#44]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Purple Martin's are really cool, if memory serves they actually require humans to live because we've been taking care of them for centuries. I think the Indians started it with gourds. Are they a lot of work? Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: Been enjoying Purple Martin's for years now. This year has been my biggest colony yet. https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/218019/20240609_125055_jpg-3242632.JPG https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/218019/20240609_125050_jpg-3242635.JPG Purple Martin's are really cool, if memory serves they actually require humans to live because we've been taking care of them for centuries. I think the Indians started it with gourds. Are they a lot of work? @WhiskersTheCat Your memory is correct for except for the South West and the West coast where they will nest in hollow natural cavities. They are a joy to watch as they fly and glide around, reminds me of F-16's the way they manuever. Their songs are great as well. I could spend my days sitting in a chair with a drink watching them and napping and not need anything else. No work at all other than putting up safe and good gourds or houses. You can also get into doing nest checks and tracking them by banding the chicks. |
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Posted: 6/16/2024 2:49:17 PM EDT
[#45]
Quote HistoryQuoted: You don't need to get all those different seeds for those birds if you want to simplify things. Use small or medium sunflower chips/hearts. By far the most versatile bird seed. Squirrels like that though as well |
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Posted: 6/16/2024 2:49:44 PM EDT
[#46]
Quote HistoryQuoted: OP, I have several feeders out. The one that gets the most different species of birds contains a mix of sunflower seed and safflower seed. That one gets cardinals, goldfinches, purple finches, rose breasted grosbeaks, bluejays, and numerous other species of birds. The squirrels like it too, but it's less than 10 feet from our sunroom windows, and an old Red Rider BB gun seems to educate them. Nice |
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Posted: 6/16/2024 2:50:44 PM EDT
[#47]
Quote HistoryQuoted: @WhiskersTheCat Your memory is correct for except for the South West and the West coast where they will nest in hollow natural cavities. They are a joy to watch as they fly and glide around, reminds me of F-16's the way they manuever. Their songs are great as well. I could spend my days sitting in a chair with a drink watching them and napping and not need anything else. No work at all other than putting up safe and good gourds or houses. You can also get into doing nest checks and tracking them by banding the chicks. Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: Quoted: Been enjoying Purple Martin's for years now. This year has been my biggest colony yet. https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/218019/20240609_125055_jpg-3242632.JPG https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/218019/20240609_125050_jpg-3242635.JPG Purple Martin's are really cool, if memory serves they actually require humans to live because we've been taking care of them for centuries. I think the Indians started it with gourds. Are they a lot of work? @WhiskersTheCat Your memory is correct for except for the South West and the West coast where they will nest in hollow natural cavities. They are a joy to watch as they fly and glide around, reminds me of F-16's the way they manuever. Their songs are great as well. I could spend my days sitting in a chair with a drink watching them and napping and not need anything else. No work at all other than putting up safe and good gourds or houses. You can also get into doing nest checks and tracking them by banding the chicks. Oh I thought you had to like always be cleaning the nests or something |
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Posted: 6/16/2024 2:55:19 PM EDT
[#48]
I just installed a birdfly video bird feeder for my father an hour ago.
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Posted: 6/16/2024 2:58:00 PM EDT
[#49]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Squirrels like that though as well Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: You don't need to get all those different seeds for those birds if you want to simplify things. Use small or medium sunflower chips/hearts. By far the most versatile bird seed. Squirrels like that though as well  Attached File |
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Posted: 6/16/2024 2:59:29 PM EDT
[#50]
Quote HistoryQuoted: You need a Squirrel Buster feeder. https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/157230/IMG_8589_jpeg-3242871.JPG Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: Quoted: You don't need to get all those different seeds for those birds if you want to simplify things. Use small or medium sunflower chips/hearts. By far the most versatile bird seed. Squirrels like that though as well https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/157230/IMG_8589_jpeg-3242871.JPG Do they ever actually learn though? Squirrels are retards |
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