Joy of Birdwatching

Getting a mini forest started. Used local trees that supply food for birds and also local log trees.

Quiero agradecer por este maravilloso curso, ha complementado de una manera muy especial y técnica mi admiración por estos seres especiales.  Los inicié a apreciar cuando tenía pericas y finches, les preparé una jaula especial pero me di cuenta que no había nada mejor que verlos en libertad, me percepción ha cambiado y hoy voy al bosque a buscarlas y disfrutarlas.   He planeado desarrollar un proyecto comunitario de aventurismo en mi comunidad ya que hay bosque ancestrales y espero infundir en la niñez y la juventud la LA ALEGRIA DE OBSERVAR AVES.   Todo esto me ha hecho pensar en la necesidad de cambiar mis hábitos y formar de relacionarme con mi entorno y la naturaleza.

Activity 1: I love birdsong and observing bird behavior. Activity 2: We have a large veganic garden. That means we don’t use pesticides or any animal products. We grow native flowers to attract beneficial insects. It is extra work not using chemicals, but worth it to give us this joyous lifestyle. While I work in the garden, I hear birds singing. This evening, I listened to the beautiful birdsong of the wood thrust just before sunset. Activity 3: When I was 28 (almost 40 years ago), I moved from the Washington D.C. area to a rural county in the Appalachian Mountains. I was amazed to see goldfinches and bluebirds in real life. I had only seen them in World Book encyclopedia before. I felt like I was in heaven. There are still a lot of birds in this area, but I am sad to hear of their decline. That is one reason we live a vegan lifestyle, so our life causes the least amount of harm. Activity 4: I am becoming a Master Naturalist, so I can make a difference, if possible.

Activity 1: Like the title of this course birds are joyful. I have loved watching and listening to them all my life. I smiled every time my husband asked, “What’s that bird?” Now, he’s recognizing them and we are enjoying adding birdwatching to our hiking activities. Activity 2: As for steps to help the birds: *I enrolled in the Feeder Watch program this year, as well as, the GBBC, and most likely will do it again next year. I enjoyed it. *When I moved to this house 25 years ago, I dug up all the grass and planted gardens in the front and back. The birds love it. Lots of place for the sparrows to hide, many branches for the songbirds to sing from and plenty of trunks for the nuthatch and woodpecker to climb. *I am also a big fan of wild bees having documented over 40 species in my neighbourhood, so I don’t use pesticides. *I don’t have any cats, just fish in my pond. The birds love the pond, they even bathe in it during the winter. See the photographs below of a female Northern Cardinal and an American Robin using the pond this winter. *I don’t drink coffee, but my husband does, so I’ll look into that. *I replaced all my windows. *Like most people, we are conscience of all that plastic and using our own bags when shopping.

#3 - Living in the Tampa Bay Area in Florida, in the 80s and 90s, I used to always mark the beginning of early spring when I heard the annual call of the Eastern Whip-poor-will.  I haven’t heard the call of the Whip-poor-will since the early 2000s and it saddens me that Florida’s loss of habitat and byproducts of suburban lawns have driven away this wonderful bird. #4 - Birdwatching has opened a new world of learning and community, and I plan to become active in my local Audubon chapter.

Activity #1 - Birds have held a prominent place in my life for some time. Having shared my life with parrots opened my eyes to their beauty, various antics, and intelligence. However, wild birds are also important for the ecosystem services they provide and as indicators of environmental health. Finally, I'm fascinated by birds as descendants of the dinosaur lineage.   Activity #2 -

• Making windows safer - Ours are definitely bird-safe as they're perpetually fully covered by curtains, blinds, or outside security blinds. It's a win-win, as my household has an interest in keeping our home from overheating from excess sunlight while birds can't misperceive the space as an area they can fly through as there isn't a way for them to see any reflection of sky or trees.
• Keeping cats indoors - We don't keep cats however I try to chase away any that venture into our yard.
• Planting native plants - I have a mini-meadow of native wildflowers growing in the section of our yard where I find birds foraging.
• Reducing pesticide use - I don't use them but am currently engaged in trying to convince other household members not to.
• Drinking coffee that's good for birds - Although I'm not an avid coffee drinker, I'll look to purchase “Bird Friendly” or “Shade Grown” coffee whenever I decide to get some.
• Reducing and reusing plastics - I've been good about cutting down on plastic product purchases and recycling, and I've been trying to get other household members to do so.
• Citizen science - I've participated in the past and have been forced to take a hiatus (due to a local disturbance that's severely interrupted my backyard birding during this pandemic). I look forward to continuing in the future.

Other actions I take to help birds:

• Noise pollution impacts birds (as they need to be able to hear each other and not strain to communicate, alter their calls/songs, etc. - as I learned through Cornell Bird Academy's ornithology course). I'm trying to reduce my neighborhood noise pollution, something that's negatively impacted the numbers and frequency of birds visiting my yard. Although outdoor cats are the more pressing matter when it comes to animals humans introduce, irresponsible dog ownership (which thankfully appears to be more rare) can negatively impact on wild birds. I've found that it's true that constant, loud barking scares birds away and also negatively impacts people's ability to enjoy birds and other local wildlife. While I could retreat inside my home, pop my iPhone earbuds into my ears and play music to drown out the noise, I decided that it would help the birds if I can stop this, especially with springtime upon us.
• I've been limiting my use of electricity, and go with solar-powered gadgets whenever I can. I'm also trying to conserve more water.
• Through the American Bird Conservancy, I discovered a site they run which allows you to find and take action on communication towers which migrating birds can potentially collide into, here: https://abcbirds.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=3661c8d8562c404eb402656f608aab15
• I support and donate to bird conservation organizations whenever I can.

Activity #3 - Although I didn't formally take any counts of birds during the 1980's, I seem to recall seeing a greater abundance of birds flying in giant v-formations through the sky during migrations times back then.

#1: I love watching and listening to birds, especially during nesting season.  I hadn't thought about how important birds are to the ecosystem though.  I loved hearing about birds planting trees! #3: I have noticed bird declines in some areas near me.  Especially due to construction.  Open fields are turning into housing developments and business complexes.  One field used to have lots of red winged blackbirds, another field used to have lots of meadowlarks.  One construction area near my home used to be a field with lots of barn swallows catching insects.   I wonder if these birds are just moving to more remote areas where people don't see them, or if they really are declining in population.

Birds are beautiful , keep ‘em safe reducing plastic use

Re. helping birds: The course points out how terrible climate change is for birds (and for course for humans and all species too). One of the most important things we can do for birds and for all living creature is to help stop climate change. We need to  demand our elected officials and corporations take real action and we need to take our own individual actions too. Each of us should be getting solar or wind energy; we should be driving less often and when we we do drive we should be driving small cars and the most efficient cars possible; and we should stop or at least drastically cut down on our air travel--we should leave the flying to the birds!

Activity 1: Birds are important in our area especially since we are in an agricultural district and grow a lot of plants as well. They take care of the pesky insects and worms (I’m not even going to get started on Jumping Worms- we need to find some aggressive attack-chickens for those!) and also make our lives more enjoyable.   Activity 2: - Decreasing plastic- good for the birds and the ocean! - Increasing native plants- we garden extensively, and love seeing birds. We try to attract as many birds as possible with colors, but I think we could go even further.   Activity 3: We have started seeing more birds in the past two years that we have in the past. We now have an established flock of Red-breasted Grosbeaks and some Carolina Wrens that hang out. We’d never seen them before at the farm. Also saw a Bald Eagle for the first time in our fields.   Activity 4: I want to start keeping a log of bird sightings and get more into photography and nature journaling. We have a good family friend who is a nature photographer, it would be nice to go out with her and see how she gets her photographs.

#1 - I have always found birds fascinating - beautiful, entertaining to watch and so important to our planet. I absolutely love walking the dog in spring and summer and listening to all the birds calls, trying to figure out who's singing. #2 - We've always had a bird-feeder and birdbath, but now I am inspired to add more variety to try and attract some different species. While we have quite a few native trees/shrubs/perennials, I am keen to add even more. Still have an issue with a big bay window which is a problem at certain times of the year - will look into what I can do about that. #3 - When we first moved to this area about 30 years ago, I remember seeing Baltimore Orioles and Grosbeaks, but they haven't been in our yard for years. Planning to offer more variety in feeders to see if we can attract them back. On a positive note, I noticed way more hummingbirds last summer as my collection of flowering plants has grown. #4 - So far, I've mostly been birdwatching in my own yard. Now I'm keen to try and get to other spots and expand the number of birds on my little list. eBird is great for letting me know nearby hotspots and sightings to get me started on that journey.

Activity 1. Birds matter to me for a number of reasons. First, seeing and hearing birds just makes my day better.  Second, they play a vital role in practically every ecosystem, from forests to deserts. Third and finally, the fact that they're living dinosaurs makes them totally awesome! I already thought that birds were important; taking this course merely reinforced that belief. These lessons are great! 👏

Activity 1.  I have always enjoyed looking at and listening to birds, but this course has increased my awareness and appreciation for the roles birds play in ecosystems by pollinating flowers, dispersing seeds, cleaning carcasses, and creating shelter for other forms of wildlife.  Activity 2. I will support forest biodiversity and birds by buying coffee that is labeled "Bird Friendly" or "Shade Grown," when possible, and grow more native plants.  Activity 3.  The Bald Eagle was on the verge of extinction due to hunting and pesticides.  The Bald Eagle has now been removed from the Endangered Species List.  Activity 4.  I took this course for entertainment.  However, this course has inspired me to continue birdwatching and include birds as subjects in my watercolor projects.

Activity 1: I've always loved birds, mainly thanks to my mom. This course has encouraged me to spend more time just watching birds and noting what they're doing, instead of thinking only about keeping lists. Activity 2: I already do the seven actions for birds, but I find the most challenging one is to cut down on single-use plastic. I recycle all my plastic, but normal daily life is almost impossible without a significant consumption of plastic, for packaging, in appliances, etc. Whenever there are alternatives, I use them. Another important action we could all do is to make sure we vote for politicians that will act to protect the environment and wildlife. Activity 3: I see that populations of many birds have visibly declined over my lifetime, but populations of some species that were extremely rare when I was young (the Bald Eagle and Peregrine Falcon) have bounced back. Activity 4: This course has made me want to start keeping field notes of birds from my favorite local patch, and keeping track of bird activity throughout the year.

This course has made much more aware of local issues regarding birds and the general environment.   It has also inspired me to become more active in my local birding groups, particularly  Birdlife Australia. I am now also contributing to eBird :-)

This year, I will eliminate plastic use, only consume shade grown coffee and plant more native plants in my garden. Already do the other ones.

Learning more about birds has inspired me to share that knowledge with others.

Activity 1:  Birds are beautiful to look at and are very interesting and fun to observe. This course made me more aware of the important role birds have in the world’s ecosystems through their diversity in shape, size, habitat needs and behaviors. Activity 2: I will aim to make windows safer and drink shade-grown coffee. Already doing the other 5. Activity 3: Yes. I have noticed there are more raptors around. When I was a kid Bald Eagles were endangered and I learned about them from books. It was a spectacular sight to see them in the wild on a recent birding trip. Also, I would never have thought that I would see Peregrine Falcons perching outside my office window in New York City, and now this is a common sight around the skyscrapers in the area. Activity 4: I started a Life List, and am using Merlin and eBird to help me identify birds on my outings. Thank you for another terrific course!

This course has inspired me to watch and record data in eBird the entire year. I currently participate in Feeder Watch, but found from this course it’s extremely important and beneficial to report feeder watch observations year round.

We are participating in the Feeder Watch Project this year.  We have been wanting to plant a mulberry tree since last Spring after visiting a birding site near the gulf coast and seeing he beds flocking to that tree.  We will follow through this Spring

Because of this course, I am more likely to watch birds through binoculars, check field guides, and pay attention what I see and hear walking in the woods.  I went out with a birding group one Saturday.  I would like to do more of that.  I am using birding apps and starting to make lists.  I will continue to feed the birds,  provide water, and bird-friendly plants. Thanks for building this online introductory course!  I enrolled when my local Audubon chapter decided not to offer its in-person course due to Covid-19.

#2  We feed the birds, provide water for birds,  and grow plants in the garden for birds. We could get involved in community awareness projects to decrease light pollution during migration periods as well as promote efforts to fight global warming which harms birds and their habitats.

This course has introduced me to new tools like Merlin Bird ID and other resources available to birdwatchers.  Apps, electronic lists, weather radar, migration and range maps are all involved in birding today.  These tools are sophisticated and technology dependent.  Birders rely on more than their field guide and binoculars.  Now scientific data is collected and used to track bird populations, migration, and identification.  Birders can contribute to this data collection through various projects.

Activity 1) Birds matter to me because they are a tiny glimpse of the genius of the Creator. Birds add a colorful burst of joy and energy into those who choose to notice them. While this course hasn't changed my view on the importance of birds, it has revived and reinforced my love for them.   Activity 4) Even though I have loved birds since I was very young, I have never had direction in pursuing birding habits or activities. This course has definitely given me ideas for furthering my passion for birds, and I soon hope to embark on the enticing journey that birdwatching offers.

I've always loved birds but until my recent retirement had not really studied in depth or done much birdwatching other than on vacations to shore areas and wildlife refuges.  Now I've become more serious as I have more time to devote and am taking field courses as well as online offerings like this. It's endlessly fascinating and engaging. I am a city dweller with a small front and backyard. Both are planted with native plants to attract birds, bees, and butterflies.  Since doing that I've been delighted by the increase in bees and butterflies in my little yard and also see more birds flying through or stopping by my feeders and bird baths. I was distressed this summer at having to remove them because of the mystery bird illness, but was so happy when the thumbs up came to sanitize and reintroduce them.  I've also paid more attention to the types of feeders and feed that attract different birds and have augmented my feeding stations.  I am also looking forward to participating in the feeder project.  I have also been trying out the Merlin app features on various birding excursions and am learning a lot from them as a novice serious birder.