Just returned home from the Childlight USA conference. Upcoming posts will be my narrations about the conference. Since my brain is REALLY fried, I thought I'd start with the Bird Watch I went on.
We met at 6:30 am at the Bell Tower and were given awesome tips for bird watching. We had a wonderful guide who has been all over the country bird watching for over forty years. She was very sweet and the thrill of her bird watching was contagious!
To start us off on the right foot our guide provided binoculars (she uses 8 x 32s) and taught us how to use them without loosing the bird. First, she says, you find the bird. Then, without taking your eyes off of it, you bring your binoculars up to your eyes. This way, the bird isn't lost in the process of getting the binoculars in place. I was very impressed with how much of a difference this very basic advice made in my bird watching experience.
As we walked along the trail around the beautiful pond and natural areas, she taught us to listen for birds that we heard and mimic the sounds we heard. If we were not able to identify the sound, she would tell us. Some of the birds we heard with in just a few minutes were a cardinal, a mocking bird, a sparrow, a crow, geese (oh course, they were everywhere) and well, I'll remember some more as I go.
She taught us that the first place you look is around the outline of the tree. Of course, if you do not see it there, then to the inside. To tell others where to look, you describe the location of the bird like the hours on a clock. Twelve o'clock of course the top, three o'clock to the right, ect. If it is the interior, you can add to the "location" of the tree how far down or over. This was also very helpful as we spotted birds and shared what we found with each other.
She also taught us that often the smaller birds will come to you is you Pish. Pishing is simply done by sort of blowing out the sound P Sh P Sh P Sh. We were all a bit fascinated with this.
I learned that what we call the "black capped chickadee" around here, is actually a Carolina chickadee....who knew??
Three birds we got to observe where a Kill Deer, a Eastern King bird and a Sparrow. The Sparrow really got us tickled because it says tweet, tweet, tweeeeetttt. And as it says the last and longer tweet it shakes its whole body. I got really tickled that it did it every time (like it just couldn't contain its glee!).
The guides she recommends are the Sibley Guide to Birds (Eastern or Western) and for beginners, Peterson's Guide. I can't wait to take the kids now!!!!!!!!
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