Activity 1:  We expected high levels of different migrating birds this weekend in north FL due to the change in weather and it has been busy indeed. I saw a pair of  Purple Finches (they could have been House Finches, I didn’t get a good look at the male’s breast.)  Ovenbirds are migrating through and I used Merlin to identify these birds that were previously unknown to me. Sadly, 2 have flown into my window and perished. I also saw severalDowny Woodpeckers, Carolina Chickadees, & Tufted Titmouse  today as well.

Combining activity 2 and 3 in my fashion, I focused on identifying and learning more about some common local birds. I was happy to distinguish (elementary, I am sure!) an Eastern Towhee by notating (in my fashion) its song while in the field and then listening to a couople of possiblities when I returned home. Similarly from using Merlin and then listening to songs, I identified and then read  up on the black capped chickadee which is a new favorite bird for me. Also getting familiar with Northern Flicker, which I realize I hear often in my yard and nearby. Realized that many of us have been calling tree swallows in a nearby field "barn swallows" although there are some of these around - the swallows we see have bright white breast/belly feathers and steal the blue bird nesting boxes. I have gotten better with my binocular, have purchased the Kaufman North America Field guide and use it, joined a local birder Face Book page, and love seeing their wonderful photos, which on occasion confirm what I have identified, and in many ways is edifying and delightful. Almost anyone I walk or sit  with outside knows more about bird than me - so I am enjoying picking up bits of understanding here and there. If I don't try to "get" too much at once, I find it all a very delightful way to enjoy being in nature. OH - I also now get "rare" bird alerts, which is acquainting me with some new areas to go walking - even though I have not yet rushed out to see a rare bird!

Today I took a different birdwatching walk and headed to the pier at Quincy Bay, coastal MA south of Boston.  With the help of Merlin App and the The Audubon Society Field Guide, if identified many Barn Swallows living at the pier. I now know they have migrated from South and Central America for breeding. What expert flyers they are! So fast and agile as they zoom along catching insects (way too fast for a photo, always on the move). They must make their mud nests underneath the pier, but I was unable to see them. Later I saw some again around a small fresh water pond (I assume they need fresh water to drink). What fun! This course has really enhanced my enjoyment of birding. Stay safe. Ann

After the last lesson, I knew how to locate a "hot spot" so I looked up one near us on Long Island and we went there (wearing masks and social distancing of course). I was disappointed we didn't hear or see more birds, but using the app we could identify a Gray Catbird as well as an Eastern Towhee. This morning on my walk I was able to identify the song of the Black-capped Chickadee which had stumped us on an earlier outing. We put up a feeder but have not attracted any birds yet, so I enjoyed watching the bird cam from Sapsucker Woods - I could watch it for hours! A great way to practice identifying birds too.

Over the last three days here in northern New Jersey I have seen catbirds, male and female orioles, grosbeak, a bluebird, robins and the hummingbirds have returned. It is very interesting to see how the regular year round birds like the blue jays, cardinals, woodpeckers, nuthatches and mourning doves interact with the newly arrived migrating birds at the feeder. There is a definite pecking order and sometimes the party gets a bit rowdy!

Merlins's Most Likely found many of the same birds I see in my local area in Northeast Wisconsin. A few I didn't mention, but they are also here are Red-winged Blackbirds, Mallard ducks, Common Grackle, American Crow, Canadian Geese, Song Sparrow and Tree Swallows. There were many, many others mentioned. This area is great for bird watching.

Bird watching in the month of May in NE Wisconsin is great. Here are some of the migrating birds I have seen in my yard since the last week of April or so. Eastern Bluebirds, Robins, Baltimore Oriole (just came in about 2 days ago) and Brown-headed Cowbird. I'm still waiting for the Indigo Buntings and the Red Breasted Grosbeaks to come in. Two of my favorites. Then there are my local year round favorites: American Goldfinches (with bright yellow summer colors), Black capped chickadee, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Morning Doves, Northern Cardinals, Blue Jays, Downy and Red-bellied Woodpeckers.  I tried to get a few pictures to share. Tricky to capture some though.. I was able to snap a picture of the Oriole. I typically use the Peterson Field Guide for Eastern Birds for identification. I have had it for years and reference it often. My new favorite reference is the Merlin App. I am pretty sure the other bird pictured below is the Red-bellied woodpecker, although sometimes I get it confused with the Northern Flicker.

1. I feel so fortunate to be watching a Barn Owl in my neighborhood on a Webcam, The Mother Barn Owl laid 5 eggs in April. Incubation is approximately 30 days. Four have hatched, one is left. It is hard to get a good look at the babies because they are so small but I can see their movement under her wings. When she stands, I have seen her caress the babies with her talons which I know have very sharp claws. Nevertheless, she strokes them, one at a time. I have seen her fly in with a rodent and then eat it. She does a lot of preening of her feathers and occasionally will expand her wings almost as another way of protecting her babies. My grandchildren made me an owl box for Christmas which will be mounted early next year with the hopes of housing an Owl family. 2. Likely birds in the area that I have identified and seen within the last few days are Dark-eyed Junco's, California Scrub-Jays, California Towhee, Acorn Woodpecker, Violet-green Swallow, American Robin, and a Northern Mockingbird. The Northern Mockingbird was at a friend's house who has learned to call the mockingbirds to her. This one came about a month ago, injured with half its beak gone. As it was very thin and unable to get a good grip on food, she helped by feeding it mealworms. The bird will come to her but until I was there , would not come down when anyone else was around. I felt privileged that the bird felt it could come to the feeder while I was there approximately two feet away.

Sat on my back deck and watched birds while working this morning. Really enjoyed watching a pair of nesting robins forage and bring their three little chicks food, as well as remove white fecal sacs from the nest! Other treats were a calliope and a rufous humming bird, each of which flew right up to me and hovered in front of my face checking me out. I saw two birds that I didn't know, a yellowish, grayish songbird, and some sort of sparrow with a lovey rust-brown cap. Using a field guide and Explore birds, I decided the sparrow was a chipping sparrow (black eye stripe, white brow, striped tan and brown back, and light, un-striped breast - although I saw a very faint rust-brown spot in the middle of its breast, something I couldn't find in my book or online), which was exciting because friends have identified them by ear for me before, but today I finally got a really good look at one. Has anyone else seen a chipping sparrow with a breast spot? The songbird was harder - very distinct white eyering, gray head, yellow breast, dark yellow/olive wings, yellow on the rump and under the tail, but a bit more white under the legs. It was moving around pretty fast, but I watched it for five minutes or so and took down all those details. My best guess is a Nashville warbler.

Watching back yard feeder and pond early this morning and later in the afternoon. Saw a few Brown headed cowbirds and house finches at our feeder. A crane waded around the pond for a little while, as did a goose couple with three goslings. A mallard couple has also been in/around the pond over the past couple weeks, but lately it’s been just the male. We’ve been hearing a bird singing around sunrise over the past several days and I’ve been searching Merlin’s “most likely species” feature to find a match to the call/song. I think that it’s a Scarlet Tanager, but haven’t actually seen it yet. Need to get out around daybreak to look for it.

This morning just reporting on activity 1, as I went to stand at a favorite spot the other day, as - when departing from a nearby spot earlier in the week my friend slowed her car and pointed - and later told me that she saw night herons, which I did NOT see then. SO, I went and stood with my binoculars late one afternoon - not considered "prime time" but it was the time I had - and close up, I watched a red wing black bird, mid vision cormorants perching on posts sticking up from the water, and occasionally drying their wings, far off to the left while I was watching some great egrets, down and around swooped an immature bald eagle (no white head). Bald eagles have only recently returned to nest in Barnstable County, MA - so still thriling to see them. I had only seen the "classic" white heads before - and thanks to this course when it LOOKED like a bald eagle but with different head color, I trusted myself to check further and confirm, and finally - looking off to the far right ... I saw two night herons (I am going to need to comce back to edit whether black crowned or other) perching at the very top of some medium sized pines ... I realized that when people told me "look in the trees" I was looking too low down. I am facebook friends with two local spectacular bird photographers (and now the local bird club). One of them recently posted a beautiful photo of a night heron in flight at sunset - which I hope to see in person some day. So that is what I saw, standing still late one afternoon.

I work for Missouri State Parks and I am doing this class as part of my continuing education.  I know several birds but there are so many more and so much more to learn and I am excited that this class has helped tremendously with ideas on how to explain bird id to others.  I have even made up an Observation sheet to help with a future event that is coming up. With that I was able to get some field work in this afternoon. I spent approx. 30 min at Current River State Park in Missouri set my timer for 15 min. and then there were so many birds I just kept watching.  The list is relatively short but I was watching and noting behaviors.  Indago Bunting  3 adult males 1 juvenile male at least 1 female. They were really fun to watch they were eating and occasionally one bird would jump over the other like leap frog! Several brown headed cowbirds, they were eating as well.  Two Eastern Kingbirds. a Carolina Wren, Crows, Gold Finches, Northern Cardinal and a couple that I didn't get a good enough look at to be able to id. I spent 15 min. at Echo Bluff state park and only SAW one bird a Turkey Vulture soaring overhead.  I heard several and tried using the Audubon app. sounds to help not sure if Merlin  has that feature I am still learning it.  I know that I heard a crow and a Northern Cardinal but other than that unsure but could have been around 7-9 different birds per vocals.

My backyard in Long Island New York has started to see some new visitors with the coming of Spring and warmer weather.  The last 3 weeks have brought us Brown-headed Cowbirds, Yellow-rumped Warblers, and American Goldfinch's.  My eyes are open for more visitors as it warms up more.  Stay safe and healthy everyone.

1. The birds that I saw were: Sulphur Crested Cockatoo, Rainbow Lorikeet, King Parrots, Noisy Minors, Crimson Rosella, and Currawong 2. I  have checked on Merlin for the birds most likely to be found in our area. Going out to look for them is not practical at the moment. I will however go asap. I will  also continue to watch from our back deck. 3. 5 birds that apparently can  be found in our area that I have not seen  are: Little Lorikeet, Eastern Yellow Robin, Rose Robin, Eastern Spinebill, and Golden Headed Cisticola. I am on their  case!

By sitting long enough and quietly, I guess, more birds flew close but I’m still sorting out which hummingbirds and songbirds are visiting. Using the Merlin app photos and songs/calls actually confounded things, as there are overlapping color patterns and my ear is not refined. I love to learn, yes, but the joy of birdwatching for me is in the watching and the listening, and talking to them, to the gestalt of sharing space with them. I did use “explore birds”, and look forward to noticing if the soaring swift I see has a white throat, spotting the forked tail of the barn swallow, catching the sweet song coming from the plain brown-ness of the house Wren, spotting the distinct black phoebe (name source for the daughter of a birder friend), and looking at the woodpecker in our nearby oak grove to see it looks like a Nutell. Also, when restrictions lift, and I can visit my Dad again, I want to see the Northern Road Runner with babies that he watches from his back porch in the mornings.

We spent the day at Griggs Reservior and then Walnut Woods Metro Park (Columbus, Ohio).  My sister and 11 year old nephew went to Griggs with us to try out birdwatching.  Ian, my nephew, was good at spotting birds with his young eyes but got bored easily.  Oh well!  We saw barn & tree swallows, Baltimore Orioles, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Yellow Warbler, Palm Warbler, Eastern Kingbird at Griggs.  My huband and I then saw House Wren, Orchard Oriole, Cowbirds, Eastern Towhee and Field Sparrows at Walnut Woods.  We used Merlin a lot.  At Walnut Woods we were walking and saw a bird in the distance.  We couldn't make it out very well because the forest was a bit dark so we used the Merlin app to narrow down what it might be.  I suspected that it was an Eastern Towhee so we played that song on our phone.  Immediately, the bird flee to a tree next to us and sang back to us.  It was so close!  I guess it thought it had found a mate or something.  See our picture below (plus a few more from yesterday's outing.)

1. During my observations I spied Cassin's Finch, Black-capped Chickadees, magpies, Hairy Woodpecker, Bullock's Oriole, robins, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Vesper Sparrow, Red-winged Blackbird, Canada Goose, and five Sandhill Cranes. 2. I love Merlin. Most all those on the "Most Likely" to see today, I saw except for the Song Sparrow. 3. Most of those I selected, interestingly, happen to be shore or water birds which do inhabit our county but are in habitats unlike where I live. They included the American Coot, Wilson's Snipe, Sora, and then I hope to see, near where I live, the Pygmy Nuthatch and the Belted Kingfisher. I've really enjoyed using the resources available through our classwork. I've also added the National Geographic Guide to Birds in Western North America. I, too, need a better zoom lens for my camera! Could someone explain why the Bullock Oriole, I believe, was once called the Northern Oriole?

Sitting in my back yard around 6:00 p.m. and observing my yard and an open behind it, I saw grackles, house sparrows, Inca and whitewing doves, some kind of flycatcher (ash-throated and Great crested, couldn't tell), a hummingbird (I think buff-bellied), and two mockingbirds that were...doing a mating dance?  Not sure; I've never seen that behavior before. Usually if I see two mockingbirds, one is trying to drive off the other.  These two were on the ground doing what looked like a Mexican hat dance, sort of circling and doing a tapping step.  Also I could hear a killdeer, a mourning dove, a kiskadee, and some kind of oriole (I think). Looking at eBird for this month for my county was pretty amazing. I was surprised at the number of birds I associate with water, ducks, for instance.  We don't have a lot of large water features in our county, besides the Rio Grande, but I know there are small ponds and lakes on private ranches, and irrigation canals, and I guess collectively they offer more water resources than I realized.

This section's activities prompted us to use our local Audubon Society's bird map to explore locales new to us. Cornell's E-bird site led us to lesser noted sites so as to seek out out less foot trafficked places. Using our optimized binoculars, and the well loved Merlin App, we identified buffleheads and a turkey vulture along the shore. The red-winged blackbirds were everywhere with their distinctive sounds. When we returned home the Black-capped chickadees were defending their territory (as usual) with the American Goldfinch. As Brown thrasher's have taken up residence in Arborvitaes adjacent to the bird feeder the Chickadees have been forced to relocate to yews in the backyard. Thanks to the course we're using bird behavior as an added discriminator for bird identification!

this morning, I was able to see and hear Cardinals, a Mockingbird, Crows, and Field Sparrows. I saw a Phoebe, a Kingbird and a Bluebird. I also saw four Turkey Vultures. My walk lasted more than 15 minutes, but time flew by with so many birds to see and hear.

This morning here in North Myrtle Beach, SC, I saw several Northern Cardinals, House Finches, and Black Capped Chickadees at my feeders and in the trees. I also saw one Mourning Dove and a few American Robins roaming around. They’ve taken a break from eating for now and I can hear the Cardinals in the trees. I plan to bike to a nearby lake today to see who I can see and hear from the Most Likely list. I am also at the beach most days, either walking or sitting, and always have a hard time positively identifying some of the sea and shorebirds with the guide I carry with me. I am sure Merlin is going to be a good improvement in helping me to learn these birds!

May 1,2020 Cincinnat Nature Center, Milford, Ohio. I observed several local bird species today including, the Red Winged Blackbird, Red bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Mourning Dove, Blue Jay,  male Cardinals at the ourdoor bird feeder in  this private nature preserve.   The weather at 12  n oon is cloudy , overcast and chilly for early May.  I am a member and also a volunteer Ambassador at this nature center.  also I participat e in the Cornell Lab Project Bird Feeder Watch from November to April each year and send local bird count data to Cornell each winter.   IN comparison, My home backyard had only robins in pine trees and  hunting worme on ground.

Activity 1: Watching from my yard: European Starling, House Finch, House Sparrow, Eurasian Collared Dove, Mallard, Lesser Goldfinch. (The mallards were a big surprise.) Activity 2: At Antelope Island State Park yesterday, I heard a song in the sagebrush. I couldn't see it, so I pulled up Merlin's most likely. The first bird on the list turned out to be what I was looking for: Western Meadowlark. Activity 3: Birds that I didn't know were in my area: Barn Swallow, Ring-necked Pheasant, Lazuli Bunting, Double-crested Cormorant, and Yellow Warbler.

Activity 2: Sounds. California Quail, American Robins for sure, Song Sparrow, noisy Red-winged Blackbirds, Canada Geese were quiet under a large tree (They are most noisy when about to take off. They are most plentiful on our large lake). California Quail makes a sound like they are saying boo. lol. Was hard to see the small birds in the large, overgrown marsh area today, but I was sure I saw House Finches, and listening to the sounds on my app it was definitely them. I have to find Chickadees! So cute! But listening to their song on the app, I did not hear one today. 

Activity 1: I went to one of our many marsh areas. There were the usual Mallards, Canada Geese, red-winged Blackbirds, Yellow-rumped Warblers which I am seeing for the first time (this is their breeding area), sparrows (I think they were Song Sparrows but they were moving in and around thick bush), American Robin (I have seen these my whole life and I did not know the full name. We have always said it is spring when we see the Robins). I love to watch the California quail; so cute. Didn't see any little ones yet. I heard what I think was Chickadees, but they were very high up in the trees. There were some big nests up there too, but I did not see any birds around them. Owls do inhabit this area.