During the summer months, nestling and fledgling birds begin cropping up, and birders everywhere rejoice. It feels so special to spot a hidden fledgling, waiting for mom or dad to return with a tasty morsel. Often, a parent is nearby and may even be waiting for you to move along so it can safely feed its young. This time of a baby bird’s life is treacherous, as it hasn’t yet developed the ability to evade predators or the experience to even know what threats may be lurking about. Continue reading “Baby Bird Out of the Nest: What to Do?”
Category: Bird Musings
Guerneville’s Dawn Chorus
Undoubtedly, taking in a dawn chorus is one of the more magical birding experiences. In the tranquil period before and during sunrise, while most of the world is fast asleep, springtime birds greet the new day with a bout of singing unmatched during the daylight hours – their voices coalescing into one large, living and breathing, euphonious symphony.
One easily accessible salve for the anxious and painful emotions we’re experiencing right now is a regular dose of the dawn chorus. With that in mind, turn up the volume (or better yet, put headphones on), close your eyes, and enjoy a few dawn chorus recordings as performed by the birds of Guerneville, California.
Continue reading “Guerneville’s Dawn Chorus”
I’m Crittering Right Now
As we wrote about in our post “10 Things We Learned From Keeping An eBird Checklist 365 Days In A Row,” we love that birding naturally leads to other wildlife encounters. Birding gets us outside, slows us down, and heightens our awareness. We appreciate the opportunity that birding provides to observe and learn more about our local fauna. Continue reading “I’m Crittering Right Now”
Tips for Beginning Birders
Last year, we began leading bird walks geared towards beginners. Helping these first-time birders get to know the local birds has been incredibly rewarding.
In Praise of the eBird Quiz
We’re bird quiz-aholics. If there’s a bird quiz online, chances are we’ve taken it. We pore through bird photo Flickr pages and cover up species names to quiz ourselves. On our laptop, you’ll find folders labeled “Wren Calls” and “Warbler Chips,” from which we frequently pop-quiz each other.
Say, which wren’s scold is this?
Okay, is this a Hermit or Black-throated Gray chip note?
Our Guest Post for The Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Macaulay Library
Back in January, we received a “Thank you for your recording contributions” auto-generated email from The Macaulay Library. The email reported that we’d submitted 320 audio recordings during 2018. Continue reading “Our Guest Post for The Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Macaulay Library”