[ucbnet] First time birding

[birderb at aol.com]

Casey:
 
Welcome to the world of birding.  We have free Saturday birding trips throughout the year.  You can log onto our web site at www.wildbird.com/layton to see upcoming trips.  The calendar gives a three month look.  
 
Your e-mail took me back to graduate school, a wife, two kids in diapers, two jobs, etc.  I can relate.  However, your hard work today will pay off later and enable you to pursue a career that holds your interest.
 
I tell students in my birding 101 identification workshop to think of the bird in relative terms, i.e., size, color, identifying marks, etc.  For example, when you first see a bird, ask yourself a few questions.  What size is it?  Compare the visual image that you have with commonly known birds.  Is it sparrow, robin, pigeon, pheasant, sized, etc.  This enables you to later eliminate possible suspects when reviewing birds in your field guide.  Don't look at the filed guide until the bird has left your field of view.  Make mental notes, such as you described in your e-mail, it had a black wing with a wing bar.  The yellow bird that you described could be one of two likely suspects, the Bullock's Oriole or the American Goldfinch.  Look at the bill shape.  The goldfinch has a conical shaped bill for crushing seed.  The oriole bill is longer and slender, pointed at the end.  It is a nectar robber and insectivore.  The finch is a sparrow sized bird while the oriole is robin sized.  How did your bird match up?
 
These tips always help.  A quick sketch, nothing fancy is helpful too, remembering the placement of wing bars, etc.  Look at the map in the field guide to help you determine whether it is a likely suspect or should be ruled out of consideration.  
 
One of the better field guides that I recommend to birders (especially beginning level) is the very user friendly Field Guide to Birds of North America by kenn Kaufman.  ken is a friend of mine who lives in Ohio today.  His book groups birds in categories that make searching for the bird seen easier.  Fore example, you see a bird you are not sure what it is but you know that it is some sort of duck, goose or swan (the group is color coded and there is a quick snap shot of these birds to illustrate what he considers a duck, goose and swan).  You decide it is not a duck goose or swan but it is definitely "swimming in the water" or it is "wading" in the water and so forth.  You can quickly turn to the section of the book with the page edges displaying that color code to see the line up of possible suspects.  
 
Most other  field guides list birds in taxonomic order which is not of concern to you but makes it hard to find a bird that you are not familiar with.  
 
Good luck and enjoy the birds.
 
Bill Fenimore
Wild Bird Center
Utah Audubon Policy Advocate
1860 North 1000 West
Layton, UT 84041-1858
801-525-8400 Store
801-525-8415 Fax
801-699-9330 Cellular
www.wildbird.com/layton













 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: kclantz <kclantz49 at yahoo.com>
To: ucbnet at utahbirds.org
Sent: Wed, 31 May 2006 09:11:06 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [ucbnet] First time birding


Greetings everyone!

I have been on this list for quite sometime now, and have wanted to started birding for a long time.  Unfortunately being in graduate school and working three jobs makes this quite difficult.  

Anyhow, I finally went out for the first time to officially bird.  Gathering my field guides (I have the National Audobon Society, as well as a green book called Utah Birds) and binoculars I went to the Airport Dike on memorial day.   As it turns out, my identification skills are more or less limitted to Yellow-headed and Red-winged blackbirds.  Nonetheless I had a good time and look forward to going again.  I really hope that I will be able to start going on the club field trips, since my identification skills really not a lot of help.  (i'd like to be able to say I saw something besides blackbirds!).

Just off the road as I got started on the dike I did see some yellow birds that I was curious about.  They were absolutely beautiful.  There were about five or six of them hopping about the bushes.  They were mostly yellow with black wings.  Some of them had white or light yellow stripes across their wings.  I also thought I could see orange on some of the heads.   Unfortunately they were kind of hopping around too fast for me to get a good solid look.  It appears to me that they were either Western Tanagers or Bullock's Orioles.  How possible are either of these?  Have other people seen them at the Dike and might be able to clear up their identity for me?  

Any help I can get would be greatly appreciated.  I am completely ignorant about all of this, and would love to learn from someone a bit more experienced.  I also look forward to getting more invovled locally.  

Thanks in advance!

Casey





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