Cool! I have found it so relaxing and meditative. It was a thing that I thought was boring until I started just sitting and watching them out my window. The more I watched them, the more I wanted to know what they were, and the more interested they got. I started keeping lists of what I saw, noting the time of year, then before I knew it, I became that nerd who gets really excited to see something new or different - some of my friends are like “WTF?!” But I find it relaxing and fun. Then I started taking photos - it has been an evolving process. I don’t go out looking for them, I just have started to notice what is already around me - I never payed attention to those things when drinking. Now I can observe my surroundings and appreciate them.
I didn’t understand fishing, until someone described it to me as “the art of doing nothing with a purpose”. That is bird watching for me. I am relaxing and doing nothing (usually from my couch or back deck), but with a purpose. It allows me to slow down. I highly recommend
Morning Bald Eagle out my window. @ifs - I need more zoom and am getting annoyed with winter photography, or maybe I just haven’t gotten the hang of not having everything look dark and drab. @anon30771928 - there was a single crow nearby squawking loudly at this guy - crows are brave and courageous creatures.
Saw a nice fat blue jay in our yard this morning, my favorite bird! Tried to get a photo but he flitted away into the forest before I could get a half decent shot.
Anyhow, my girlfriend (who spotted the jay first) decided to name it “Blueberry Pie”. So that’s his/her name now.
How have I missed this thread,love it, I live beside a nature reserve with lots of hides around the wetland lake, I have bought binoculars and I’m going this weekend, going to let my inner geek go wild and buy a book too .
This morning, smoking my morning cig, i heard birds singing for the first time this year like the spring is coming. And it seems theres a bluetit nesting in my birdhouse. I say its mine, because years ago i wished to have that as a Mothers day gift
I love birdies too! We have some green birds that look like parakeets that live in the park near my house. Do yall know if these are usually wild? They make funny sounds.
They could well be parakeets! When i lived in London, there were colonies of wild patakeets and it was a delight to see these green flashes. Sometimes people let out their pets and then they start breeding. If can manage a photo, id be interested to see.
Yesterday morning out on my run, I saw a small bare tree in someone’s front yard that had at least a dozen blue jays in it.
My favorite bird, so you can imagine my delight. But I’ve always known them to be generally solitary birds, not inclined to congregate like that. I wonder why they were? Maybe some bird party I didn’t get invited to
There was also a report on the news here last night that a woman in Alabama has had a yellow cardinal living on her property. Apparently they are highly rare. I prefer the classic red, but the yellow was cool to see!
I often see Blue Jays in what I refer to as a “gang”, like 5-12 together. They sometimes hang together and help each other - it is pretty cool to watch their social structure. They will sometimes come to my feeders in groups - some stay in trees for lookout and they come back and forth to my deck. they are ground feeders, so I throw some seed out on my back deck and they come hang.
I love the photos of the yellow cardinal - they are rare indeed. There have also been some recent reports of dual colored ones - like a mix of genders or something. I like seeing the female ones with their more subtle brown-yellow-orange colouring.
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