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How to Start Birding Joyfully!
769 Plays7 months ago
In this week's episode, join Dexter and Jason as they cover the ins and outs of how to get started in your own birding journey. The guys cover building community in your local patch, choosing the right pair of binoculars for you, the most helpful bird guide and identification tools for your area, and most importantly, how to find that #BirdJoy in the process. Join them as they share in the joys of building a diverse birding community by accepting folks as they are. Are you excited to get started on your own celestial birding experiences? Don’t miss fun recaps of generating good birding juju and even our favorite ungovernable groundhogs LOL.
Be sure to follow our podcast on Instagram at @thebirdjoypd and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
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Transcript
Introduction to Bird Joy Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Phil is a liar, I would just say that. The groundhog? Yes. I gotta take that one on the chin. He's a Pennsylvania resident, so it's my bad. Just tell Phil he's a liar, but I also have to talk to Jimmy and some prairie. He's only about 10 minutes away. Jimmy and some prairie is also a liar this year.
00:00:18
Speaker
Are you guys have one too? Yeah, Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy the groundhog and some prayer He was naughty a few years back, bro. He bit somebody in the ear the mayor and every day for him and the mayor in the ear, bro That's right. I like my like my like favorite term this week is be ungovernable. Yeah
00:00:37
Speaker
Jimmy bit the mare in the ear, bro. He was on time out for a couple of days. Hey, go Jimmy. Tell the next season. Put Jimmy away. He's still next spring. He put Jimmy on time out. In the middle of winter to do what? Somebody catching these hands. Somebody's catching these little groundhog hands today.
00:00:57
Speaker
Oh, I can't think of a better way to start the podcast. Welcome to the bird joy podcast. I'm Dexter Patterson. And I'm Jason Hall. This podcast is for all the bird nerds around the globe, a loving and joyful and happy place where you can come to find some of that bird joy. That's what's up. That's what's up. Yes. So if you came here and you're listening today, hopefully you are ready for some bird joy. You ready, bro? I'm ready.
The Appeal of Birding
00:01:22
Speaker
Let's go. Let's go.
00:01:23
Speaker
So last week we were really kind of, we dived into the, that why, you know, I feel like life in general, birding, we kind of kind of start with the why. Why should we do this? Why birding? That appeal of birding as a hobby, all its various benefits. And that was a fun conversation. Yeah. It was a great conversation. And now I think we're going to, we're going to hit people with the how, how can you go get into it? What can you do?
00:01:48
Speaker
And I'm really excited to get some of this out there and hopefully create some new burdeners this spring. Yes. You know, sometimes you might need, you want to be a birder, you want to go birding. We talked a little bit about that last week, just paying attention is birding, but maybe you, maybe you want to take it to another notch up just a little bit. And there may be some, some basic equipment and some tools that you might need, like binoculars.
00:02:15
Speaker
a field guide, maybe tiring masks, you know, maybe, maybe you want to, we start talking about a little bit of that kind of stuff. Um, how do you identify birds? You know, maybe some, some tips on how we identify birds, whether it's their shape or how we pay attention to color patterns and behaviors and listening to them. Right. They make, they make a lot of noise.
00:02:42
Speaker
So listening to, uh, for vocalizations, different habitats and seasons, right? Right now it's early spring and everybody gets excited and really, well, why do we get excited Jason for early spring? What's happening right now? There are a lot of different things that are happening. Like talking about those things, dive into that. Cause I think if we can arm people with that type of information, they go out into the field and maybe it's not so scary out there.
00:03:06
Speaker
Yeah, so where should we start? Let's think we got a bunch of homies out there. And let's imagine that one of them is listening to the pie. They hit episode one and two. And they're like, all right, enough for the talk. It's time for business. I need
The Role of Community in Birding
00:03:21
Speaker
to
00:03:21
Speaker
to go birding, like proper birding. What do we start with? I think we've covered before just the mental approach of having curiosity is really a great place to start. We've covered starting in your own community, but let's talk about a little bit of how that happens. One of the first things I would tell people to do, and this is even before getting a pair of binoculars, is to get familiar with the spaces around your community where you could find birds. You know, this is your local parks, your local,
00:03:54
Speaker
life refuge near you. Just get familiar with where they are. Maybe pay them a little drive through, a little visit, go for a little walk. This serves two purposes. One is starts to give you what we call a
00:04:10
Speaker
one says, Hey, you know, I for the first time ever, I saw a yellow throat at Warbler in my patch. That's usually their local community, right? We would call it our neighborhood block really what represents those spaces around us. So get familiar with that. And so just know where that is, it gives you general sense of safety and familiarity so that when you're there burning, you only need to focus on the
00:04:34
Speaker
know that space. So that'll be a place where I would start. I love it. A lot of times people are like, wait, yes, I want to go birding. Where, where should I go birding? And I love that you say, all right, let's focus on where you should go first. And hopefully you can do that with a community as you're first getting going. And both of us leading birding clubs. I think this is something that we intimately care about is those initial experiences, making sure that they're inclusive, they're well
00:04:59
Speaker
They're fun. The pressure is taking off of you and you're just there enjoying the birds. And I think I love kind of starting with finding your birding spots and as a great starting point for everybody. And that is, I love that you mentioned that because I know I think back to when I first started going birding, it was that like, where do I go? And it was so cool when we talked about last episode, these windows to the wonder.
00:05:24
Speaker
I remember finding myself going to all these places in my community that I had no clue existed. And that was kind of cool for me. It wasn't just the birds that I was seeing. It was like, wow, I had no clue that all these different areas to see birds were around me this whole time.
00:05:40
Speaker
It kind of like, it kind of amplified the bird joy, I would say. It's just like, cause I was like, wow, this is really cool. I have some amazing places around me to explore. I found a lot of those places, whether it was going out with people that I knew in the community already. You talked about that, but I was a part of like some Facebook groups and people will be posting birds and putting in locations. And I'd be like, Oh, what is this place? I've never
00:06:08
Speaker
Right. And I remember finding myself like, wow, that's how I found some of these places. eBird as well was a really cool tool. Cause like, especially when you're early on, you have like what they'll call targets in eBird. You have five targets in your, in your county right now.
00:06:23
Speaker
Like getting all excited like, well, but I've never been to this place. Where's this target? Yeah, that's another new place that and going out with people already with birding clubs and people that are creating spaces for people to go see birds was super helpful for me to start finding locations. And I think once you are able to find some locations, not only is it exciting, but you kind of have a little bit of direction on how to get started.
00:06:49
Speaker
I'm going to go to this local park. I'm going to check out this conservancy that is near me. Or maybe I'm going to go check out this place that I've never been with this group of people because they're already going. They're already going and they tell me I'm welcome to tag along. I think that is a great way to get started as a beginner. Yeah, for sure. You can't really discount the idea of building the community aspect into how you start birding.
00:07:20
Speaker
and I know you and I love that. Yeah, I think it's a great way because you feel like you belong because you're like, well, there are a lot of people that are at my level right now. There are a lot of beginners here and there are people here that are a little bit more knowledgeable. There are some people that have a lot more knowledge. There are a few people that have a little more knowledge and probably everybody out here. So you kind of have access to every level of knowledge that you need. I think that's important because not everybody wants the same information.
00:07:50
Speaker
and i think i love this about our groups and i'm sure you feel this way sometimes you just kind of hear these pockets of conversation and they're at different levels come to the events and there are a lot of beginning burgers people that have never been burning before.
00:08:05
Speaker
There are intermediate level birders. There are people that bird all the time. And there are all these little pockets of conversation happening throughout the event that I find just really kind of joyful in the sense of it's all about the birds. And no matter the level, all those questions matter. All those conversations matter.
Choosing Birding Equipment
00:08:23
Speaker
And I really get excited about hearing about that stuff.
00:08:26
Speaker
show up and understand that your level and your expertise of birding, none of that matters. None of that matters. When you're getting started, it doesn't matter. Just show up. Yeah, that's right. And if we had a birdwalk this morning, and we had the same thing happen. It was cold. We had a lot of beginner birders. We had people where it was their absolute first time birding. We had people who had only been birding since the fall. So they've known
00:08:57
Speaker
at the Arboretum we were at who was retired and he leads the bird walks there and he was kind of our ambassador to the space. You could tell he knew a lot, right? And he was talking with some of our more experienced birders about different things they've seen over the years. I think the cool part about those outings when you go with communities, if it's the right kind of bird club where they are accepting of different levels of conversation, it's just a great place to learn. And if everyone understands like, hey, you may be talking about two different types of red crossbill
00:09:33
Speaker
to distinguish them myself. But if you hear them talking about it, if it's the right kind of community, they'll stop and explain it to you. And you'll be like, yo, that's dope. Number one, this bird looks ridiculous because his bill is crossed. Number two, the fact that they have these very specific calls that people mostly identify them by when they're flying over. That's really cool stuff. And all of that, I think, creates a really good foundation, right? Knowing your space, knowing
00:10:04
Speaker
is getting some binoculars, right? And I would say, I usually tell people don't spend more than a hundred, $150 on your first pair of binoculars. Unless you have just tons of disposable income and you know for a fact that birding is going to be a part of your life forever, I wouldn't go out and spend too much more than that. You can get a nice pair of celestrons on many,
00:10:35
Speaker
When they're going to look at binoculars, how do they know what's going to work for them? What do all these numbers mean? You know, eight by 42, 10 by 42, 12 by 50, all this crazy stuff. What do they need to know? Dex, what do you tell folks? You know, I think this is also a benefit of that community portion showing up at a place where maybe it is an organization that's leading monthly walks in your community.
00:10:59
Speaker
I would say a lot of times that will include these organizations, I don't know, In Color Burning Club, Your Burning Club, Our Burning Club here in Wisconsin, the Bi-5 Burning Club of Wisconsin. We have binoculars and we offer binoculars to anybody. They may not have them. And we will also show you how to use them. I think that is also a really, that's a benefit of community because maybe you don't know where to start.
00:11:22
Speaker
You can show up and we have some 8x32s, we have some 10x42s, we have the little ones for some little knocks for the little kids. You know, we have some smaller ones. You can get some experience, some real life experience using some of this equipment. And this is very common and I don't think this is unique to our birding club. Most birding clubs, if you show up, they have a knock right around.
00:11:47
Speaker
That's right. I would say most. Most of it. I'd be pretty rare that they don't. Showing up and being able to use or borrow equipment if it's out of your budget or you don't know what type of equipment that you need. Use some. Use some and be like, hey, these actually work really good for me. And that's a great start because you're like, oh, wow, I use some 10 by 42 binoculars this entire time and they worked really well. I had the 8 by 32s and they worked really well. Yeah. I really like this. Oh, I tried a monocular today. I thought the monocular was for me.
00:12:17
Speaker
Yeah, so trying out different stuff I think that is also an appeal to community and Organize birding as a whole is a lot of times you have resources at your disposal If you don't have any or people to show you how to use that stuff Yeah, and I think you get a chance to test it out right and you see to yourself Okay, so I used a 10 by 42 and I really liked it. What does that mean? Right? Okay, so so the 10 by 42 that means that it's
00:12:47
Speaker
it magnifies 10 times what your naked eye can see. And 42 is the millimeters across your field of vision that you can see. So if you have 10 by 42s, you get 10 times magnification and your field of view is 42 millimeters, which is pretty wide. If you get eight by 32s, you have eight times magnification and just a little bit less field of view, but eight by 32s are lighter and easily
00:13:13
Speaker
to carry right 10 by 42 you start to get a little heavy depending on what you get giving people a chance to check that out and find out what works for themselves i think you and i have both been in circles where people come straight off the top rope with like oh let's go you know check out these $4,000 Swarovski you know in hells and like
00:13:33
Speaker
like I said that's cool if you got the funding for it and you want to make that purchase but if you've never used binoculars before you need to slow down before you get into that piece because they may not be the pair that you like the most they may not be what you want so you know giving people a chance to just kind of start at the basics is really
00:13:51
Speaker
great. And a lot of libraries, I know in Philly, we have this at the at the free library of Philadelphia is these birding book bags you can check out that have binoculars in them, you can try them out. So definitely would suggest folks if they can't find them with their local bird club to see if there's other opportunities that libraries are otherwise to borrow a pair.
00:14:08
Speaker
Yeah, I love the birding backpack programs. I know our friends at the feminist bird club do that. We're starting a little backpack program in the Milwaukee area as well as in Madison. Our bags came in. They're freaking adorable. They're a little osprey bags. I'm really excited. I wonder who picked the osprey. I wonder who
00:14:26
Speaker
Yeah, I was like, this just, no, what was really cool is we partner with a local company, Fontana, that does like sporting good stuff. And they're actually, their CEO picked this stuff out for us. Oh, that's dope. He told us that, hey, these are the best ones for you all. We think these would be great for your bags. And they show up in their osprey. And I was like, go figure.
00:14:52
Speaker
Maybe you do kind of want to venture out by yourself. I just say grab a pair that's within your budget. Don't worry about the price when you're first starting out, you're going to get value out of that.
00:15:03
Speaker
And then if they feel like this is for me and you're going to do this for a while, you can get some experience and you'll be able to get to a point where you can discuss, all right, maybe I'm going to invest into a higher, a higher priced item here, but don't let that price or thinking that equipment as a whole is like this. You need all this equipment to get started.
00:15:23
Speaker
I just want people to understand that there are no, yes, you need to have all these things to get going. There are some starting points and it could be, yes, I'm going to borrow some stuff for a little while until I figure out what I need. Or, hey, I got 50 bucks. I got a hundred bucks. I'm going to go out and find a pair of binoculars that work for me. Make those binoculars work for you for a little while and understand that they're perfectly okay. Yeah, that's right. That's right. And really, as you upgrade your
00:15:51
Speaker
your gear, those are things that are made to make it easier as you go, but it doesn't really have any bearing on developing your skillset, I think, as a birder, especially as a beginning birder. Our homie out there somewhere, they have explored their local community a little bit. They have found a bird club to hang out with. They got a pair of binoculars to borrow, and now they're out there and they're birding. What else should they know? What should we be talking to them about as they move forward at
Tools for Bird Identification
00:16:20
Speaker
this point?
00:16:20
Speaker
I would say if you're really kind of curious and now, yeah, I got binoculars, I'm going out, you're a birder. You know, this is kind of, this is, this is a part of you now. Now you're curious and always say, birder's are always going to be lifelong learner.
00:16:37
Speaker
That's right. And if you're out burning, you're always going to be learning. So then this is maybe where you start thinking about a field guide or other tools, maybe some burning apps when you're out there that kind of age your learning process as you're out there and you get eyes on something and you see something in the binoculars, but you haven't seen it before. How are you going to identify this?
00:16:58
Speaker
Are you going to figure out what you're looking at? And I think field guides and birding apps like Merlin are a good next step. So I would say let's talk a little bit about field guides because I think when I, when I first started going out or even when I go to new areas, always find myself breaking out the field guide.
00:17:18
Speaker
I kind of go back to the field guide. So if you're trying to learn, I think a good field guide, Sibley, Kaufman, either one, I think it would be a good way to go. Number one, look for used field guides on anywhere you
00:17:31
Speaker
out there that sell them. I particularly enjoy David Sibley's guide to Sibley guide to birds. It's a little heavy. I don't carry it around with me out in the field. It's a really good guide because everything is drawn by Mr. Sibley. And it's able to call out some of these minute details that you can't always see in every photo because of lighting and shadows and coloration and all that kind of stuff. So it allows you to get a good sense of things.
00:18:02
Speaker
some great photos in that one. But I would encourage people to explore a little bit. So what they do sell also in certain regions are field guides for your region. You can almost guarantee whatever state you live in or municipality, province, country, there's probably a smaller field guide specific to that region. And I would definitely Google those, look for those. But you really want to crack them open as you get them and see
00:18:31
Speaker
a lot of people what happens with field guides is they buy them and they jump straight to the verse and they end up having to keep jumping back to the the beginning stuff to figure out oh what does purple on the map mean what does blue on the map mean they said this bird has a
00:18:46
Speaker
Right. So one piece of advice I like to give people is the bird guys. Awesome. Crack it open, explore it, but take a little bit of time to get used to those first. It's usually the preamble of the preface to the actual chapters of birds. This explains how to use the guy. What does it mean on the page? If it has a little red dot, what does it mean when they talk about the primaries on goals or P eight and P nine?
00:19:11
Speaker
you like what does that mean so just you don't have to memorize it i don't want people to do that but i want them to just get familiar with it just get a cup of coffee one more and spend an hour just paging through those first pages and understanding so that when you are out identifying birds you're understanding what you're seeing on the page and it gets you quicker to
00:19:28
Speaker
or an identification of the bird that you're looking at. You stress, be patient, and sticking with something. I think sometimes the best tool is just being able to get the most out of the tool. Yeah. And people always are asking me, well, what kind of camera should I have? Or what kind of binoculars? I'm like, these are tools.
00:19:44
Speaker
Honestly, you'll get what you need out of these tools. And at some point, if you need to find new ones, you will. And I think be patient with yourself. That's really important. Sticking with something is going to get you a little more comfortable with it. You're going to start to build skills and confidence because now you are just going to always tell people one bird, one call at a time.
00:20:06
Speaker
You ID one and you're like, Oh, I'm not sure what that was. And then you go back and like you said, you're, you're kind of paying attention to birds in your area. Maybe you're using a field guide that is specific to just your area. And now you're able to locate what you saw and you're like, yup, that's it. That's what I saw. And you ID that bird. You get this confidence and it's, it's really cool because it makes you want to find the next one and you just kind of building it up. It's like, yup.
00:20:31
Speaker
Yep. Yep. It's that checklist vibe. You start getting that. And I would say don't be always be list driven, but it could be it can feel good when you start to check off these bird on your list. Maybe you start entering into the world of lifers. I got a lifer today.
00:20:47
Speaker
And I will tell you this, last night we had our Woodcock walk last night. It was really cool because there were a bunch of people that got their life for Timberdoodle last night. And there's something about that, you know, like seeing people get excited, whether we had a piliated flyover, we start the event. We had about an hour because when you go out for the Woodcock walk, obviously it's a different timeframe than our typical burning event.
00:21:14
Speaker
So we start, uh, six 30 central time and the sun's not really going down to like seven 30. So you get like an hour with the light and we start to walk on the trail and we have the piliated flyover and now it's a lifer for a bunch of people. And it was really cool to kind of see them when they fly over, they, they show their size, man. And you're like, whoa, that's a woodpecker. That's a big old woodpecker. Just a tank of a bird. The largest woodpecker in North America, by the way. Um,
00:21:42
Speaker
So that, and then it's so crazy. You mentioned rusty blackbirds. You remember I texted you a couple images of the rusty blackbirds. We saw some rusty blackbirds last night, which was really cool. So that was another bird that was life risk for people. But then the American Woodcock at the end of the night was just, they were putting on a crazy show. Like the little homie like jumped into the path, bro. We're talking about bird nerdy men of the week. Yes.
00:22:09
Speaker
bird nerd moment of the week, it's back. It's not going anywhere now, all right? So the little homie literally just jumps in the middle of the path of the trail that we walked up. So everybody is seeing this American Woodcock. He's like 15 feet away, painting like crazy. Right on the path, in the open, everybody can see him. Obviously it's darker. It's nighttime, but it's still, he's right there. And like everybody can see him. And then he takes off.
00:22:39
Speaker
And he comes back down, he lands in the middle of fields, starts painting again. They're kind of painting all over the place. But then all of a sudden, another one pops up on the other side of the trail. So not only once did it happen, it happened twice in front of all these people in our club. And I said, I promise you, this is not normal. It is not normal.
00:22:58
Speaker
I was like, I don't know why, but these type of things happen at our events a lot. I was like, all these people here and there's, you know, we have witnesses all the time. That is amazing. These miracle bird moments that happen at our events. I think it's the vibe. That's right. That's right. Putting that good birding juju out into the world, that good community juju.
00:23:19
Speaker
and they're like flying, like they got males chasing other male birds off. We're getting flyovers of all these different, I'm like, this is crazy. This is so cool. Welcome to the Bi-5.
00:23:30
Speaker
I'm going to text you a video from last night where I'm nerdy now. Please. This timber doodle on the trail, bro. And I'm just like nerd now and somebody's recording it. And they got me in the background just nerd now. I'm going to send you. I'm going to send you the text. It's hilarious. It's hilarious. That's great. That's great. What was your bird nerd moment of the week? Oh, man. Today, actually, we had it. Like I said, we had it. We had a birdwalk at a spot in the Greater Philadelphia area. And we had
00:24:00
Speaker
a nesting great horned owl. And the bird nerd moment wasn't necessarily the owl, obviously. We talked about owls, right? It's in an episode two, I think. Love them. It was watching all the people that never seen an owl in a while. Like if I could bottle that and sell it, I would be a billionaire. Just watching the smiles, like, cause people can't help it. They're just, you know, that female owl looks over the edges of the nest at you and people's, you can
00:24:29
Speaker
face, they're high fiving their friends in the background. There's a lot of oohs and ahs, especially when they're looking at it through the scope, you know, because it's close and it's intimate and we're far enough away, we're not bothering the bird. That was my bird nerd moment of the week is just number one, having a moment to talk with people about the ethical viewing of owls and the approach everybody
00:24:52
Speaker
before we went to go see the owl and just like people having that payoff of knowing that there's an owl coming up they're gonna see it and they're with the right group of people to do it ethically so there's nothing for them to worry about and then they see it and I could tell all of them were like I can't wait to tell my Nana I can't wait to show my cat when I get home I can't wait to like people were just
00:25:12
Speaker
They were just losing their mind and it's funny. I love it. All the other guys, we were all kind of just standing to the side. Once we set the scope set, we all just backed off and let the lines form. And you just watched that bird joy. I feel like if I put on a special set of goggles, I'll just see bird joy emanating from everybody's body. They're all celestial beings.
00:25:35
Speaker
That's the main thing that we were doing last night. We're literally looking at all these people just freaking out over the American Woodcock. We're talking about these basic tools. Before every walk, we'll ask people, all right, who needs binoculars? Anybody want a field guide? We'll talk about Maryland. We'll let people know, hey, you might see people looking at their phone. What are they using? And we'll talk about that.
00:26:00
Speaker
And last night, this never gets old. We're nerding out about all the bird joy, but then a person comes up to me and they're like, look, look, look, it's on my app.
00:26:10
Speaker
And I don't care what anybody says, that gets me excited, because they're like, here, pink, pink, pink. And they're like, look, look. And then they see, it says infrequent. So they're like, oh, this bird's not supposed to be here. I was like, well, it's a little early, right? Like, it's a little early, but they're here. Like, some of them are starting to show up. They're like, look, it's right there. It is. It's the American Woodcock Dolls moments right there. I love that stuff.
00:26:34
Speaker
I love when people do that and to have that moment with them, like, yes, it is, it is, it is so cool. And I'm like, I'm geeking out just like they are. Of course. They're like, well, haven't you seen this bird a lot? I'm like, yes. And every single time I see it, I get this excited.
00:26:50
Speaker
Because it's that cool. And now what you've done is you've set an expectation, which is something that we haven't talked about is like, be excited when you bird. Right? Like the whole point of getting into the right community and knowing your spaces and having the tools in terms of binoculars.
00:27:08
Speaker
Is that so you can be in the moment, you can enjoy the bird for being the bird. You're not worried about where you are, who you're with. You're just, Oh my goodness. There's a woodcock, which looks like nature's version of a, of a chicken nugget, you know, sitting on the trail, making this ridiculous painting noise. That is beautiful. Right. And you mentioned, you mentioned Merlin and, uh, for folks that don't know, Merlin is an app by the corner lab ornithology. And it allows you to record bird sounds in your area.
00:27:38
Speaker
and it'll tell you what they are. Usually at a pretty good rate of accuracy. It also allows you to try to figure out what kind of birds you have based on where you live. Let's talk a little bit about the tools that people can use in terms of technology. Now that they are out there, they have a space to go to, they have maybe a set of binoculars, they're finding bird joy. What's that next step in terms of tools?
Overcoming Birding Challenges
00:28:02
Speaker
Yeah, because you're going to want those tools to start identifying birds. Yeah. So I think having some tools and some practical tips to go along with those tools and helping you identify common birds is a logical next step. And we saw that. And I love having like these real world examples because we saw that with the American Woodcock last night where first you start to observe size and shape and you start noticing these birds flying around. And then it's like, wait, that's not a morning dove.
00:28:31
Speaker
What is this the bird flying around so we start talking about I noticed that's the first questions that start coming up is like that What was that that looks different that shape different than any bird I've seen before so that's kind of like this first step is yes That's important. Let's start to observe size and shape thinking about body proportions and tail length and bill shape and
00:28:53
Speaker
all these different key identifiers, because when you start seeing birds, you can start asking yourself, was it the shape of a robin, the size of a robin? Or was it more like a chickadee? Or was it the size of a crow, which is really big? Or an owl, like you mentioned. So kind of starting with that and having tools like field guides, but also the Merlin app is important because if you are able to get pictures, you can upload pictures and they can offer suggestions to you depending on how clear your picture
00:29:22
Speaker
It's a potential bird you may be seeing at the time. And it's really cool because once you start to observe size and shape, then you start paying attention to things like color patterns on the bird's plumage and markings on the head or the wings or the back or the belly.
00:29:38
Speaker
you know, all these different things. And then you start thinking about behavior. And I found myself explaining the behavior of the woodcock last night. And when you start to hear the painting, I was like, it starts there. But then eventually, as it gets a little darker and darker, we're going to start to hear those feathers, right? The rustling of those feathers and these high pitched noises as they're starting to shoot into the air to do their skydances.
00:30:02
Speaker
I found myself being able to explain behavior and that's a next logical step in listening. Those vocalizations and whether it's the paint, paint, paint, you know, I know I talked about that last night, but to hear it in the flesh last night and they were painting like crazy, those vocalizations, but also the sound when they take off into the air, those whistling sounds that you hear was really, really cool. And to be able to talk about
00:30:29
Speaker
Not only that habitat, this open prairie type area that they like, and a lot of these habitats are threatened, you know, when we're thinking about habitat loss and different things. These prairie habitats that are here in the season, they're here a little earlier in the spring and they start painting, but they also start to nest a little earlier than some birds on the ground in April. We're a couple of weeks away from them actually starting to get into nesting, which is kind of cool.
00:30:57
Speaker
That is, that seems to be the next logical step is like you have your, you have your binoculars, you're maybe using a field guide. You've maybe downloaded Marilyn and now you're trying to identify these birds that you're seeing or hearing around you. I think that's kind of cool. Identifying birds and taking that time to learn each bird at a, you know, one bird at a time, you're not going to know them all, but it seems like a logical step. What do you think?
00:31:22
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's a great step. And I just to summarize for folks here, right? So when you're out there, you have a few different ways to help you identify birds. You have the community you're with, right? And people that want to help you. You have a field guide, which you familiarize yourself with in terms of just how to understand what's on the page. And now you have the Merlin app. And Dexter mentioned not only the sound identification, but the
00:31:45
Speaker
photo identification. Another cool thing Maryland does, it'll actually let you run through a checklist. Like you said, is it the size of a robin? Is it the size of a crow? What kind of colors did you see on it? What time of year was it? Where you located? It'll give you a list of probable birds. That is really helpful because it allows you to
00:32:04
Speaker
start thinking like that, right? And I certainly encourage folks not to bypass that function of the app because it makes you slow down a little bit and say, well, how big was it really? If you can't take a picture close enough, that's good enough to upload, right? Or maybe you can't, it's not making any noise. Just write down somewhere or, you know, type a little note on your phone on what you're seeing while you're looking at it.
00:32:28
Speaker
try to figure out what kind of bird it is. I remember when I first started birding, you know, in terms of publicly and like putting like pictures on Facebook and stuff. I didn't know a lot and I was out in Idaho at some family's place and I had gone on a little drive and I took a picture of a bird and I put it on Facebook and I was like, I think this is a Caspian turn. It was not a Caspian turn. It was a black round night hair. Two totally different birds, right?
00:32:55
Speaker
But in my head, what happened was I was in such a rush to identify the bird based on the photo that the first thing that looked close in the bird guide, I got so excited about it. Now that's, that's what I labeled it as. Right. And it was just because of the black cat. That was it. That was the only thing really other than the, you know, a few white feathers here and there, but it was just the black cat. And I remember somebody on Facebook just clown me just judiciously.
00:33:20
Speaker
they didn't really need to. It was one of those things I'll never forget because outside of someone just being rude to me on Facebook, which happens, it reminded me I needed to slow down and really pay more attention to the details.
00:33:32
Speaker
That's one of the nice benefits of birding. It's kind of living in the moment. And I would say I love that you mentioned that because I found it valuable when I first started to take notes and I'm terrible at drawing, but doing little sketches of different things and kind of keeping this burden journal and recording observations to learn. I'm a visual learner myself. I would include these different descriptions and write down all these little
00:33:59
Speaker
little encounters that I would have and it helped me grow. It helped me remember different things. It helped me be able to identify birds to other people. Like I would always say another part of community as you're starting to learn is you can ask a more experienced birder. And I used to love this because the co-founder of our club, Dr. Jeff Galligan was my bird guy. So like,
00:34:21
Speaker
When I was a beginner and I was trying to figure stuff out, I was always sending him pictures or I was sending him descriptions that he would help me like get through that. So I would say find your bird person. I think that's really important part is like, trust me, like if they're a true bird nerd, they're going to love that like you're paying attention and you're like trying to learn all these new birds. Send them to me. I would love to hear about all the cool new birds that you're seeing. I will be your bird guy and be like, yep, that's this, that's this, or I think this is it, or
00:34:50
Speaker
I don't know. I don't know what that is. This is exciting. Find your bird person because I think that would be really, really cool. Write down some stuff. Keep a journal. Find you a bird person. And I before we move on to the next topic, I would be remiss if I didn't mention, like, don't be afraid of getting stuff wrong.
00:35:06
Speaker
Yes. You know, like, that's a real barrier, I think, to new birders is they don't want to speak up, whether it's posting your picture or, you know, trying to idea bird when you're out with a bunch of folks. Speak up, take the shot, right? To me, it's no different than shooting a basketball and just bricking heroically, just boing off the off the thing and just no, no chance of that shot. That's fine. You took the shot. Take the shot. Because you'll find more times than not, even if you do get corrected and something different, you learn something, you learned why
00:35:36
Speaker
It's not the bird you thought it was.
00:35:43
Speaker
doing it publicly and you're just at home looking at the pictures you took and you think oh this is this or this is that right just practice doing it. Practice is is one of the things that is necessary and a lot of people don't do it want to do it in front of folks because they're afraid to get things wrong because some of the culture historically in the birding community has been quite judgmental but that's why we asked you up front start to build a good birding community and find that right organization that treats you with respect and wants you to come in and learn.
00:36:10
Speaker
No, I think that's a great segue into, I think a logical next phase is understanding that there will be challenges. You can have all the tools. You can understand you have your field guide, you have your binoculars, you have your bird person, and you're going to get stuff wrong. Like you mentioned, and that's okay. Give yourself some grace and understand that you're learning something new and you will not have all the answers. You just won't. You're going to get some bird IDs wrong.
00:36:38
Speaker
You're going to be like, what is happening? I don't understand that behavior. You're going to be like, I can't find it. I hear it. I don't see it. You're going to have trouble locating birds in the field. You're also, you're going to have different life experiences than a lot of people. And that might impact, you know, that might be a challenge for you. Getting into burning or how you feel out burning or whatever it may be. So the life experiences could be different and that could be a challenge for you. You could be differently able. That could be a challenge for you.
00:37:05
Speaker
There are a lot of different things and I want people to understand that like it won't be perfect. We can talk a little bit about some of the challenges I think that Beginner Brothers will face. It's the perfect place I think to really use the golden rule, treat others the way you would want to be treated. For me, I find pride
00:37:24
Speaker
in the fact that when I'm out burning with a group and there's someone that is, let's say, differently able than I am, I take that extra time to make sure I'm understanding whether or not they're getting the most out of this experience as they possibly can. I may pay a little bit more attention to them to make sure they have everything they need. We ask out front with folks RSVP, right? Are there any accessibility needs that you have? Because I know what it's like as a black man in America to feel left out, to feel looked over. And so
00:37:53
Speaker
why not take that knowledge that I've had myself and use it for good in that moment when there's someone that's different to me, right? Because we all have these places we come from. And so, you know, you can say maybe on a larger scale in terms of being able to maybe physically recognize someone's ability to do something versus the smaller, more subtle
00:38:24
Speaker
When you're with a group of people, right? Different cultures have different social norms, especially with birding, right? Because everybody thinks you got to be all hush hush and like hiding in the bush all the time. Like, you don't have to do that. So trying to create a place where people can be comfortable for that. I think also just in general, for black and brown folks, birding is at this point still mostly a activity of old white men.
Inclusivity in Birding
00:38:46
Speaker
asking someone who grew up not in that kind of environment to go into that kind of environment and feel comfortable looking at birds is tough. So I implore all of our allies, especially old white men.
00:38:58
Speaker
to think about that perspective. So when you say something very simply, oh, you should get a pair of these Swarovskis, they're really nice. Or, oh, that's- Let me hold a couple of dollars. Yeah, right. Or they say, oh, that's just a house sparrow. That's just a robin. It's not just anything. This may be this person's first time actually having any intimate connection or acknowledgement of these birds in their own community.
00:39:24
Speaker
Like you said, where people come from makes a difference and they're coming into birding with the expectation they should come into birding with the expectation.
00:39:36
Speaker
They're going to be helped if they're beginners. And like you said, it's not all perfect, but there is a basic way that I think we should be treating each other because the birding is going to be hard enough as you get, as you get through it, right? As you start to branch out and you know, maybe it's your first spring migration and it's just warblers everywhere and you have no idea what's going on. It is so much easier for a person to tackle that challenge and feel good about it. If everything else around them is
00:40:06
Speaker
and support it. So it's really key for folks, no matter who you are, you are not everyone. So there was always going to be someone that has a different perspective than you. And we always have time to consider that when we're out birding with one another. Love it. You are not everyone, but birding is everyone. That's right. I love it. We might have to do a spin-off podcast. Yeah, we might have some. We might have some. Put it on a t-shirt. Put it on a t-shirt.
00:40:32
Speaker
I love it. Dude, we've kind of addressed this at a lot of different levels. And I think once you're getting started, we gave you a lot to chew on. Let's give them a little more to chew on. We're thinking about some resources. Community's been a big one. Are there any online resources, books, workshops, different things that you think beginners should be checking out or, or being aware of? I think there's just so much out there. Just understand that there's something, there's a little something for everybody out there, but any that you want to highlight.
00:41:02
Speaker
Yeah, I would tell folks, go out and explore a few different places. One, I would start with the American Bird Conservancy. If you go to their website, they have some really cool stuff there. Just do a little reading. eBird, we were talking about how the Merlin app on your phone will help you decide what the birds are. And one of those factors is where it's located and what time of year. Well, they get that data from eBird.
00:41:25
Speaker
an e-bird is a free service also by the corner lab of onathology when we see birds as birders a lot of us logged those sightings into e-bird so now you as a beginner bird are you
00:41:38
Speaker
the what's out by you, the Horicon National Wildlife Refuge. And I see that last March, Dexter logged all these different birds here. So I'm going to go there and see if they're there at that time. And you can see not only Dexter, but everybody else that logged birds there. And it'll tell you what the likelihood is. You know, you'll see these little bar charts that you can look at. So American Bird Conservancy is great because it gives you a sense of the fact that there are people out there spending time and money
00:42:05
Speaker
to take care of these species that you're going to the Mars to see. eBird gives you the data. I would obviously listen to our podcast. So there's a couple other podcasts out there that you could go check out as well. I'm not going to tell you which ones because you got to find the ones that are right for you. But I think in the end, you can always look for your local birding clubs. So I know there's a lot of organizations around the country that are popping up. I know in Chicago, there's a
00:42:38
Speaker
see Philly we have in color and Wisconsin has the BIPOC Birding Club of Wisconsin. There's Oxnard Birders Club out in California. If you find any organizations called Bird Alliance, that's really cool too because most of those are formerly known as Audubon Organizations and they've correctly changed their name to get rid of
00:42:55
Speaker
the moniker for the racist John James Audubon. So those are likely good steps to explore. Shout out to the Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance. Love it. Love it. Love it. And there seems to be a new one every month that finally changes the name. So yeah, those are just some general resources I would give people to look at. You cannot go wrong with the old Google machine. I love starting local though. Tapping in, I think community, that string of community is strong again.
00:43:24
Speaker
Jeff, our co-founder, he teaches a birding 101 course. He actually partners with the local chapter, the Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance to teach that. He's been doing that for three years now, teaching a birding 101 course every spring, which is kind of cool because
00:43:39
Speaker
That is kind of like peak. Like when you get into burning and you get your first spring migration, I think spring migration as a whole, people are the most excited. I think it's really cool that he literally teaches that class four weeks, every week of April, every year. Wow. And it's free and people are getting a ton there. Cornell, so many excellent online resources. You talked about
00:44:04
Speaker
But finding it at that local level, I think is really cool because you get to connect, but I think you'll get more learning and opportunity to grow because you'll probably find other people in similar situation as you and you all can kind of grow together. I just want to remind people.
00:44:20
Speaker
Just be patient. Give yourself some grace. Understand. Focus on one little bird at a time. One little sound at a time. One little behavior that you notice at a time. One location at a time. And just kind of ease yourself in and understand.
00:44:38
Speaker
show up as you are, show up to these spaces. I think that's really important. Show up as you are and enjoy them however you choose to enjoy them and that probably will evolve and change over time and that's okay. Yeah, it's totally okay and I want to just give a little example of what I'm talking about or what you're talking about when you say one bird at a time, one sound at a time is there are
00:45:00
Speaker
Like, I think 35 to 40 different worler species that pass through the east coast every spring and fall. Your first spring, it's not going to be easy to identify all of them unless they are in perfect light, posed exactly like they are in the field guide, and making the exact noise that you've heard. That's never the case.
00:45:18
Speaker
So, what you want to do is say to yourself, okay, what one am I seeing the most? Right? A lot of people, I think we mentioned the common yellow throat in the previous episode. What did he, what did he, what did he do? Yeah, right. The yellow wargler. Sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet. I'm so sweet. Those two are pretty common. Once you learn those, then it's just a matter of comparison. It's that old like Sesame Street song, you know, one thing's not like
00:45:48
Speaker
like a yellow warbler kind of, but it's got more streaking and it's got like Rufus cap, right? It's twerking, right? It's palm warp. Or, you know, you find something else and it's a little bit bigger than a warbler, but it's like super loud in the forest. It's kind of like Rufus stripe on his head. It's a little chunky thing and it's hopping around the leaves. It might be an oven bird. So really start where you're seeing the common birds and learn those and it'll make it easier. Cause at the very least you'll say,
00:46:19
Speaker
thing I've never seen before. And now the fun starts. Now the pictures and the bird guide and like texting your buddy, like, what in the world is this? All that is the fun part. It is. And that's how you identify birds. One bird at a time. It all kind of comes together. You're like, well, I know what this looks like. It wasn't that one, but it was kind of similar. It had this, it had that. And you kind of start to work your way through it. And next thing you know,
00:46:45
Speaker
You figured out another one. Put it in the bag. Put it in the bag. It's so cool. Just know that they're going to come when they come. That's right. And it's so I am so excited for folks because it's just a whole new cohort of new birders this spring that have never experienced a spring migration wherever they are. You know, I guess in the in the northern
00:47:08
Speaker
And I think we gave people just about everything they needed to at least get started.
Encouragement to Start Birding
00:47:14
Speaker
Yeah. If you need a bird person, we're here for you. That's right.
00:47:19
Speaker
Oh man, this has been a good one. I want to thank everybody for joining us today on the Birdjoy podcast. We hope you enjoyed learning and exploring the world of birding with us. A bunch of upcoming spring events. If you want to know what we got going on, check out the BIPOC Birding Club website at BIPOC Birding Club.org. That is right. And until next time, my bird nerd homies in color birding.
00:47:50
Speaker
have going on, you can find out on our calendar at InColorBirding.org or Instagram at InColorBirdingClub. And just never forget, please share, subscribe, and shout out the pod to all your fellow birders. Help us spread a little bird joy. We will also list all those different resources we talked about. Those tools will be in the show notes. So you'll be able to go and check out all these different things. I know we threw a lot at you, but just get started. Grab your binoculars.
00:48:18
Speaker
whatever that budget may be. Don't gotta buzz it. Show up. Let your community support you. Borrow some binoculars. Learn. Get yourself started. Download maybe the Merlin app. Check out Cornell Lab of Ornithology and all the different online resources they have. Pick a field guide and shoot us some notes and let us see if we can help identify all those amazing birds that you all are seeing this spring. All right, homie. Peace, brother. Until the next one.