Paula

Birds are beautiful and I love their colors and song. I was never specifically interested in bird watching as I've always focused more on flowers and plants, but a trip to Costa Rica with people where were birders opened my eyes to the fun of finding birds while out in nature and there were so many beautiful birds. Although it was almost 2 years ago now, it inspired me to take this class and I've learned a lot and enjoyed it. I do most of the things on list, except perhaps seeking out shade grown coffee. Will have to work on that. Bird populations have changed a lot near me.  Both in NYC and in NJ.  Falcons have come back to NYC, and two pairs of Red Tailed Hawks nest and live on the campus where I teach in Queens.  By me in NJ, I've seen an increase in hawks, wild turkeys (that now saunter down the street sometimes), but also the loss of many birds during the period they were trying to restore the NJ Meadowlands.  Before the restoration they will full of wading birds and red wing blackbirds, then the dug the place us and the catails and grasses vanished and for years there were almost no birds at all. Now more than a decade later red wing blackbirds are back and the other birds are returning as well. I hope to get better using binoculars, to go out for regular walks and look for birds and hopefully get better at spotting them, identifying them and photographing them. This has been great.

In my area I have a more suburban stretch with flowing trees and gardens, and also not too far away a boardwalk along and estuary.  In the former I see and hear many types of sparrows, woodpeckers, robins, cardinals, blue jays, mourning doves, starlingss and red wing blackbirds.  These species also appear in the estuary area but join ring and herring gulls and mallard ducks, cormorants and fish crows.   Comparing Roger Road vs Mt Lemmon, we have a wetland or marsh area at Roger Rd vs a Moutainous region wt Mt Lemmon with both open and wooded areas. Looking at Down House and Seven oaks we have two areas in 'settled' zones. The former in the midst of rural fields with trees and hedges dividing them while Seven Oaks seems to be a small wood near a village.  

In these activities I note that in the first birds compared the ranges are often very different. Either mostly east vs mostly west, or that one species migrates very little but the other has quite a wide range. In the second activity there are apparently a lot of birds that are in my area of the NE all year round. More than I thought.  On the other hand, there are also many seasonal birds some of which I have never seen nor even heard of so perhaps that's because I wasn't attentive to them 'seasonally'.  These would include the Ruby Crowned Kinglet, the Northern Parula  and the Yellow Rumped Warbler among others In the 3rd activity I see that the gold finches really change quite a bit from summer to winter. The first thing that struck me was that their bellies seem might lighter/whiter in color so the blend in better in the winter and they seem to loose the black cap on their heads.  Their beaks also change color becoming less bright.  It's amazing to me that their beaks can change color (but also seems to me to make identification that much more challenging). The loons also change color a lot. Their colors are intense black/white and blue or blue green in the summer but more gray and brown in the winter. They loose that distinctive black head in the winter as well as that blue collar and the prominent black and white patterning on their backs. I don't have a favorite spot yet, but there is a park near me that runs along an estuary and has marshes as well as trees and lawn so that might be a good place to look.  There are areas of woods and forest near me as well as marshes so I think I'll have to look up what should appear in each and then try and explore (when things open up again - right now all parks are closed by me).

@Katie Thanks for that information Katies

@Michelle Thanks.  That's helpful.

For activity one I can compare sparrows (there are all different types by me) with a blue jay.  They differ in shape, size and color.  The second activity seems a bit harder.  Selecting black/grey, I can say there are blue jays that have some black on their wing feathers, mocking birds that are overall more black grey, and red wing black birds that are generally black with a reddish orange and yellow on the upper wing.  Three birds that search for food differently... Robins hoping on the grass, a woodpecker pecking a tree and sparrows at a feeder and in trees.

could it be a pine warbler?

Awesome pictures and what a great expression on the owl's face in the second one.  I also love how you can see the different feather shapes and textures.

Wonderful photos and as Donna said, great at capturing their feathers and colors.

Taking pictures of birds is really hard!  As a person who loves to take pictures of flowers... at least they stay still!  That said this morning I saw a blue jay (and there are lots in my neighborhood), as well as a bird I've never noticed before.  It was small, an bright yellow, sort squat/fat the way some sparrows are when 'sitting up'.  I think it might be a yellow goldfinch but there are screens on my window making it even harder to see. The bird was in a river birch.  We have lots of songbirds in my neighborhood and I gather a wide variety of sparrows (took a walk with ebird the other day and realized there were many types of sparrows out there). As and aside I'll say, that while I've always noticed birds it wasn't until I went on a trip to Costa Rica with folks were were knowledgeable and birders that I became excited to try and learn how to do this better (including finding the birds with my binoculars before they fly away!).  Very much looking forward to this class.