Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Birding on a Budget
786 Plays6 months ago
In this week's unique episode of The Bird Joy Podcast, Dexter and Jason, both avid birdwatchers and budget-conscious individuals, delve into the world of birdwatching on a budget. They share their tips on budget-friendly birding equipment, including affordable binoculars, field guides, and bird feeders. The hosts also provide creative DIY projects, such as homemade bird feeders and baths. They highlight the benefits of shopping at second-hand stores or online marketplaces for discounted equipment.
Dexter and Jason also discuss free or low-cost birding activities and events. They share information about local birding clubs and groups that offer free outings and bird walks. Additionally, they suggest visiting public parks, nature reserves, and wildlife refuges that provide free access for birdwatching.
The episode explores creative ways to enjoy birding without a hefty price tag. Dexter and Jason emphasize the benefits of backyard birding. Lastly, they encourage listeners to participate in citizen science projects, often requiring minimal or no cost.
Remember to subscribe to The Bird Joy Podcast, a platform that celebrates diversity in birdwatching, to stay updated on future episodes. Please leave a rating and review—your feedback helps us improve and reach more bird enthusiasts. Share the podcast with your fellow birders to spread the joy of birdwatching. Follow us on social media @birdjoypod for more birding tips and updates, and join our inclusive community at the BIPOC Birding Club of Wisconsin and In Color Birding Club to connect with other bird lovers.
We hope you enjoy this episode. Happy birding!
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Bird Joy Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
What's good? Welcome to the Bird Joy podcast. I'm Dexter Patterson. And I'm Jason Hall. This is the podcast for all the bird nerds, the bird homies that want to find a little bird joy. So join us. Are you ready for some bird joy? Let's go. Let's go. Let's go, bro. Not much, man. Not much, man. Living the dream out here.
Challenges for Beginner Birders
00:00:20
Speaker
It's crazy, I swear. It never ceases to amaze me. Every time this time of year, I always get the question, what kind of camera do you use? What type of gear do you use? When I was a beginner birder, that stuff was overwhelming for me.
00:00:35
Speaker
I didn't know what I needed or anything like that. I think it might be worth the time for us just to talk a little bit about burning on a budget. You're getting started not breaking the bank when you're first starting to get out there because
00:00:52
Speaker
You don't know what you necessarily don't know at that time. So like you just start burning and you go out and you spend thousands and thousands of dollars on a scope and thousands and thousands of dollars on a camera and some lens or whatever it might be. That might be a little bit much. That might just be a little bit much. So let's talk a little bit about when you're first getting started. What type of gear you actually need to go burning?
00:01:15
Speaker
Let me preface this with saying that if you buy expensive
Essential Gear for Birding
00:01:18
Speaker
gear too early, you put a lot of pressure on yourself to bird in a way that may not be at your skill level level yet. I fell into this a lot early on. It was like I wanted to 600 millimeter lens, but I wasn't good enough birder yet. Right. And it took me a while to.
00:01:37
Speaker
understand that I needed to be with the birds with just the binoculars for a while and I didn't need to worry about trying to get the perfect shot just yet. And so to get started, like I think we talked about this in a previous episode, right? It's just getting yourself a decent pair of binoculars, right? Whatever your budget and handle. There are different options from $100 all the way to $4,000 for a pair of binoculars. Really just a matter of finding ones that are the right weight for you. Decent enough glass for you to see. Feel like you still have an intimate view of the
00:02:03
Speaker
bird. And one of the ways we talked about saving a little money is in your area, you may have bird clubs that provide them
00:02:09
Speaker
right for the bird outings, you may have libraries that allow you to check them out. I would encourage people to look online for used pairs, like gently used pairs. I would get pairs that are maybe made in the last 10 years because some of the ones, some folks will sell you binoculars from like the 1970s. And unless they kept them in pristine condition, they're usually not that great.
Budget-Friendly Birding Tips
00:02:30
Speaker
If you have a pair that, let's say your grandpa used and passed them down and they're in good shape, do it. Really just look for ways to
00:02:38
Speaker
minimize the entry point in terms of costs for the, for the binocular. So we're talking about birding on a budget. One of the things that your budget first wants to handle is a pair of binoculars. So I think those are, those are good ways to get started. The thing is, is if you have those, it's all you really need. Yeah. You don't need to go any further than that. And I think a lot of people get confused, like,
00:03:00
Speaker
All right, I got binoculars. Now what's next? Now what's next? Now what's next? Like literally you could be done. Yeah. And I think it I think it comes from the, you know, birding is this thing that just it's like a snowball. Like you have a joke with people that just get started birding and they come to you and they're so excited. They're like, man, I just I just saw my first palm warbler. Right. And, you know, they're about to see like 20 other warbler species in the first few years of their birding life. And you're like, you have no idea your life is about to change, you know.
00:03:29
Speaker
And so there's this natural, joyful, anticipatory nature of burning that bleeds itself into the gear part of it, to the budgeting and purchasing part of it.
Photography vs. Birding: Skill Over Gear
00:03:42
Speaker
And it's really hard sometimes to explain to people that you need to separate the two. Again, and I think we've said this before, if you have, you know, if you have Jay Z money, do whatever you want to do.
00:03:52
Speaker
Yeah, but if you like ninety nine point nine nine percent of us in the in this country at least and around the world have a budget that they have to stick to in order to you know maintain the resources for themselves and their family get the binoculars first if you're gonna get a camera.
00:04:07
Speaker
Start off with a simple, gently used or used DSLR. You know, got to go straight to the mirrorless cameras and all the fancy stuff just yet. But a lot of people are selling their DSLRs because they're going mirrorless. Some of them have low shutter counts. They're still in good shape. Get one of those and a little 70 to 300 millimeter zoom lens and you're good. Right. That's actually how I started. Right. I got a gift of a DSLR. It's like I think a few hundred bucks with a little starter lens and
00:04:36
Speaker
I was off to the races, but like I said, you very quickly want to upgrade everything because you think it's going to get you more birds. And that's not actually true. What gets you more birds is more birding. Yeah. Right. No, I think that's a great one. What gets you more birds is more birding, not new, not more gear. That's right.
00:04:52
Speaker
The gear can kind of get you maybe
Backyard Birding Tips
00:04:54
Speaker
a little closer. I would also, to piggyback on the camera part, I always tell people, look for point and shoot cameras right away. If you're brand new and you're a beginner, I say go point and shoot because a lot of them have amazing zones. They do.
00:05:08
Speaker
So when they ask me, people always ask me, what type of camera should I get? I'm just getting started. I don't have a huge budget. And I say, go get a point and shoot camera that shoots in 4K with a 1200x zoom on it or something. Because there's so many options now. It's crazy. It's crazy what these point and shoot cameras can actually do.
00:05:28
Speaker
Um, and, and start there. And I bet you will last you a couple of years. Um, if you're getting started and you have the reach, which I think that's what most people look for when they upgrade their lenses, they're typically going for more reach. So if you're just getting started, you won't have a reach problem with many of these newer point and shoot cameras and you still get pretty good image quality.
00:05:49
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we've had a lot of folks start that way. They go get a nice fresh Nikon cool pics and they get after it, you know. And one thing I want people to understand is that photography like birding is its own. It's its own world, man. Photography is not birding. It is not. It is not right. You can be a photographer.
00:06:10
Speaker
who is also a birder, you can be a photographer who's not a birder, somebody who just likes taking pictures of birds, but has no idea where you're taking a picture of, but photography has its own skillset, right? And similar thing is true with binoculars, like get good with what you have, learn how to use it, learn the principles of aperture and light and shutter speed and all that fun stuff, right? ISO. And then once you've mastered the situational awareness of when to use certain things, then think about upgrading. It's the same thing with your binocular.
00:06:40
Speaker
If they're working for you during daylight hours and you can see things, great. You're not missing any birds. Cool. But let's say you decide, you know, you've been a birder for a couple of years and you're like, man, I really want to get out this winter and I want to find some of these crazy waterfowl. Let me go look at it. Let's go. That makes sense. Right. But don't again, don't jump straight to the top.
00:07:01
Speaker
unless you got that Jay-Z money, you know, look for a nice use scope or a starter scope, Cowa, Vortex, there's some other companies out there that I think have some good ones. Celestron, I think has a good one, you know, and just just use it to better your skill as a birder. And we'll probably talk about this principle of burning on a budget is not
00:07:21
Speaker
comparing yourself to everybody every second. And that's, it's a really hard thing to do because birding is naturally this like, Oh, what's on your life list? How many birds have you seen in the county and the state? Right. And so you start to look at your own inventory and you're like, man, my life list is only like 95 and I don't have a 600 millimeter lens. If I get a 600 millimeter lens, maybe my life list can be 500.
00:07:44
Speaker
It's not the way that works, you know? No, no, please take that pressure off yourself. It goes back to like what I said, when I miss a bird, the attitude of like, I'm like, man, I'm gonna see it. I'll see it one of these times, you know, I'll see it. Just try to keep that attitude. I know it's hard. And I think it's very important not to compare yourself to the other people that you may see out there. They may
00:08:06
Speaker
Maybe they got the Jay-Z budget and 20 years of experience. You have no clue. You don't know. And it's like, don't worry about that. Don't worry about that. Make it kind of your own experience. DIY your birding experience. Do it your own way. It doesn't matter what your birding gear is. You could start by doing stuff at home. Maybe it's like homemade bird feeders or bird houses or bird baths.
00:08:34
Speaker
or just observing birds in your backyard or your front yard or from your porch or balcony or window or whatever it may be. I know I walked into Target the other day, bro. They're selling a new bird feeder that sticks on the front of your window.
00:08:51
Speaker
It's like right when you walk in Target where they sell all the little stuff on the left for a couple dollars. They got the bird feeder just chilling over there that you stick on your window. I've been seeing
Urban Birding Strategies
00:09:02
Speaker
them out there. I've been seeing them out there in the world. I got one. Oh, you got one. Somebody got me one for Christmas. It like sticks on my window, but the way it faces into the house on the border of it, it looks like you're watching a YouTube video. It's got the YouTube.
00:09:20
Speaker
Like outer, outer border. So I have like the little house benches and the carillon show up and I'd be like just standing at the window like a creep just watching them, you know, eat these seeds and stuff. And that's hilarious. But you know, you mentioned making your own bird feeders, right? Like.
00:09:37
Speaker
We did this great event down at the at the Chester library in Chester P.A. where they had us take pine cones and covered them in like animal derived fat or lard and then roll them in you know some high quality bird seed. Just tie them to some biodegradable string.
00:09:57
Speaker
I did it as an adult. There was like four of us after the birdwalk that went to go do it at this library. It was like the best time ever. Put it up in my backyard and a little, you know, talk to tip mice for hopping in, chickadees, some woodpeckers. And it was great because it was like, it was low impact. It was fun to do. It's something you could do with your family, which, you know, that's a great way to introduce kids to birding is to make a bird feeder or a bird house and let them then find the joy and the birds coming to
00:10:27
Speaker
them, right? That's low key, like all natural peanut butter and stuff like that. You can make it with a lot of different things. A lot of stuff. Want to do some affordable at home DIY. Make it your own way. Have some fun with it, man. Yeah. It's supposed to be fun, right? It's supposed to be. Like the bird bath too. Like if you can get any type of water source, if you have the opportunity, you're always going to have some type of fun, interactive experience with a bird.
00:10:54
Speaker
Keep it clean and you have fresh water and if it's running water, the better they hear that and they're kind of attracted to that, the sound of running water. Freshwater too is a huge help, especially if you're already feeding birds. Bird baths are super entertaining, dude. They really are.
00:11:13
Speaker
They really are. I can't stress it enough. My bird bath is not super fancy. I've seen some wild ones where they got waterfalls and little spritzes. It's mostly on the West Coast because they have a plethora of riches out there of these hummingbirds that like to spritz themselves through the water bath. I found it was like 15 bucks on Amazon, I think, and it was a little solar
00:11:37
Speaker
birdbath fountain that just floated. And it's like 15 bucks.
Benefits of Local Birding
00:11:42
Speaker
It creates the movement for you. Yeah. And so you don't have to go out either and buy like a big stone birdbath. Just get the little plates that you put at the bottom of potted plants. You can get one of those. Just set it on a platform somewhere in your yard, on your balcony, put that little solar zone in there. And I promise you.
00:12:00
Speaker
the birds will come because you would think that calm safe water sources are everywhere but they're not if you were in the forest most birds aren't gonna go down to the part of the river that the water is rushing fast and they're exposed right they're gonna go find underneath the thicket underneath the
00:12:19
Speaker
The under story they're gonna find that little creek that's feeding into the red when they have some cover they can sneak up and waters not moving too fast so your bird bath is similar to that it's making noise it's it's soft water it's in a safe environment hopefully wherever you are right and you can do it yourself and it's not gonna cost you more than twenty bucks.
00:12:38
Speaker
Yeah, I love
Ethical and Community Birding
00:12:39
Speaker
that. I love that. Birding at the crib, man. Birding at the crib, birding in the neighborhood, start that backyard birding list, start a neighborhood list. That's fun stuff. That's fun stuff. Yeah, backyard bird lists or house lists or block lists, neighborhood lists, patch lists. You really start to take inventory of how many bird species you have in your area.
00:13:01
Speaker
if you're doing it regularly. And every time you get a new one, it's exciting. And it's yours. That's the part that people don't understand. It's like, you don't actually own the bird, but it's like, this is my list. This is Instagram reels, right? Birding is Pokemon, right? Like, this is my Pokedex, you know? Like, these are my jobs. These are my homies in my neighborhood. You know, I bought a new house last year. And you know how excited I was when the Osprey show... Oh, bro, I was texting you. I remember. I was like, where you gonna put them bros?
00:13:30
Speaker
bird feeders though. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and I got them all over now, bro. Do you know how excited I was when my spark bird, the Osprey showed up in my neighborhood. I was done. I was done. I was like, I was supposed to move here. I was so dramatic.
00:13:48
Speaker
He's probably like, what is wrong with him? Yeah, I was doing the most, bro. I was doing the most. The most I've ever done. I did more. Yeah, I hate it. I hate it. No, bro, I got you. I got you. I went no way to Osbir and then it came back and it came back and I was like, this is crazy. This is crazy.
00:14:10
Speaker
That's awesome, man. And we have one of our founding board members, Bernie Wilson. He just texted us this morning. He was like, I have my first pine warbler in my yard at my suet feeder. And I know I can see him. He saw it. He probably tripped over a bunch of stuff to go get his camera. And I know I can feel how excited he was, you know? So like it's, I'm trying to think. My last yard bird was a green heron flyover and it was the best. Cause I don't got no like creeks really near me that they would hang out in, but that John just flew over in my backyard.
00:14:39
Speaker
What's the best is the green
Travel Birding Tips
00:14:41
Speaker
heron in the backyard is kind of it's not bad, though. It's not bad. I want to make this a whole yard bird episode, but you will be surprised how many bird species fly over where you live, whether you're in the city, suburbs and the country. If you're in the city, I promise you, just look up the very least. You're going to have migrating raptors. You'll probably have plots of geese. If you're in the Midwest, you're definitely going to have a bunch of sandhill cranes flying over.
00:15:05
Speaker
We had a freaking white pelican fly over Philadelphia last year, which was wild. One of the homies was just sitting on his rooftop deck and looked up and was like, what the? In the summer, you might get a kite, you know, or something that comes out from the south. Like just, I promise you, just enjoy the space you're in. I have a lot of friends who are birdies that don't have yards.
00:15:26
Speaker
They live in high rises or apartment buildings, and they have balconies, they have little plants on the balconies, and they do a lot of birding of the sky. And they tell me, like, it's one of their favorite. Christian Cooper, he sits on his rooftop and is looking at peregrine falcons and kestrels. Yeah, I was going to say, you might see any type of falcon or something flying by. Yeah, you might see something getting got, right? You see, I got the kestrel hat on. I see that. That's a nice hat. That's a nice hat. Is that the bird collective, Jeremy?
00:15:56
Speaker
Yeah, shout out to you. Yeah, that's right. You know, unsolicited, you know, unsolicited. We show in love just out of nowhere. I mean, that might be what I was rocking earlier, that loon, that loon hat. You know, I'm like always in the booth. Me too. Me too. I freaking love this. Shout out to the booth. Yeah. Shout out to the booth. I look good in your stuff. Yeah. Yeah. It looks good on my peanut butter skin. I'll tell you that much.
00:16:25
Speaker
Oh, see what else I like. I like wearing little murderers on my head. Yeah, that's right. You got to watch. You got to listen to episode five for that one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, we covered binoculars, we covered cameras.
00:16:43
Speaker
But yeah, I would always say you touched on it a little bit. Explore those secondhand options, man. There are a lot of resources online where you can get discounted gear and why not? A lot of this stuff is as good as new as it's going to get, man. And you're literally just trying to learn. What better way to learn on some discounted equipment in your own backyard or in your neighborhood or in a park near you, you know?
00:17:07
Speaker
That's
Resources for Learning About Birds
00:17:08
Speaker
right, that's right. And I, you know, we talked about that kind of stuff and a couple other things. One is bird guides, right? Like you don't go find a used bird guide for your area, right? There's probably a guide, you know, I guarantee there's probably a.
00:17:21
Speaker
The birds of Nebraska bird guide that you can find used online. You can buy, you know, just a full Eastern United States bird guide. Look around and look at the ones that you think you like. Would you like ones with more pictures or like ones with more drawings? If you don't want to buy a bird guide, just download the Merlin bird ID at all about birds on all about birds.com, I think.
00:17:40
Speaker
there are free resources out there and just tons of information continue to stress them go out and get it getting involved too especially when you're first getting started get involved really do join up with a local club like you know something like what we do with our clubs but there's always some type of local organization that's going to be putting on field trips to
00:18:01
Speaker
Explore like all these really cool places. And they're usually low cost options. Yeah, lower costs and they're kind of handling. They do a lot of the work for you. They take the guesswork out. It's a great way to get started. So check out the local clubs. And I know a lot of them too, they'll have like scholarship or lower fee options for families and different things like that. But many
Eco-Friendly Birding Transportation
00:18:25
Speaker
of them
00:18:25
Speaker
Like you said, our minimal registration fees and things like that, or if not free, you know, I tell people if it's free, it's me. Hey, hey. If it's free, it's me. I'm there. I got you. Yeah. And that's, you know, speaking of speaking of transport, I mean, most public part in the nature reserve.
00:18:40
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Most of those spaces are free too. There's a couple of big national parks that I know are not. They also offer discounts for different groups of folks. So definitely check that out, especially for kids. Transportation. Let's talk about that a little bit because it's something that we find to be quite a challenge at times around Philadelphia. Now, Philadelphia, I would say, doesn't have a
00:19:00
Speaker
It has a pretty good public transit system. I wouldn't say it's the best, but it's pretty good in terms of reaching a lot of the green spaces that are in Philadelphia County proper. But I encourage folks to explore that. Explore where the buses run, where the trains run, the trolleys. We have trolleys out here. And be prepared to spend a little extra time maybe if you're using public transit, because it's not usually as quick as either an Uber or driving yourself. Explore.
00:19:27
Speaker
A bike, so I don't know if you guys have this in Madison or in Milwaukee, but we have this small bike rental companies where you can just kind of check it out from the little bike stand and return it to any bike stand around the city. I think ours I hear is called Indigo. But look at that, right? Or if you don't want to do that and you want to just get your own bike, get a used bike.
00:19:49
Speaker
I know a lot of birders that love birding by bike. It's also better for
Combining Birding with Exercise
00:19:53
Speaker
the environment. In terms of transportation, if you don't have a car, don't let that stop you. There usually are public transit ways. You just got to budget your time a little differently or get a bike. I have one friend that just told me yesterday that they started running and birding. I am superbly curious on how exactly they're doing that, but they're essentially running and listening while they run. I wouldn't be able to because my lungs and my breathing would be so awful that I wouldn't be able to hear anything other than myself dying.
00:20:19
Speaker
from running. If that's you, do it. Again, it's a way to save money, transport yourself, get some exercise, and still go birding. If you say, hey, I'm going to go bird at that wildlife refuge, it's a mile away. I'm going to run there.
00:20:33
Speaker
go birding, run home. That's cool, right? But don't leave yourself to thinking that birding is only for people with cars because it's not. Public transportation is a really good one. That neighborhood, walking in your own neighborhood, birding parks near you that's within walking distance. Most parks have access to the bus lines and
00:20:54
Speaker
in bigger cities. And I don't want to put every city into that category. But for the most part, you should be able to get to any public park, you would think, by bus, if it's a public park. There are typically nature preserves, like shoot, Horicon National Wildlife Refuge. Obviously, it's a car ride away. You could try to organize a carpool with multiple people, and that's what we'll do.
00:21:17
Speaker
Yeah, with the club, we'll have people, we'll carpool and we'll actually do Google Docs and have people sign up beforehand and organize that. That way more people feel they don't have to take their own vehicle, obviously better for the environment. We get more people not riding out to these less cars going out to the refuge and things like that.
00:21:40
Speaker
Yeah, I think there are really good opportunities to just take advantage of the things that are around you and don't get discouraged or the fact of like repeat visits, you learn that spot. I still go like, my favorite spots, like I go to over and over and over and over again. And it's like every time I go, I learned something different. Or I'll notice something different or you'll see something different or you'll meet someone different.
00:22:05
Speaker
Or like, it's like, don't let that discourage you. Like, Oh, I'm only near this one park. That's your spot. So who cares? Who cares? Keep going to it and keep going to it and just keep paying attention because you're going to see something new every single time. Yeah. And tell you what happened to me today. I'm doing this, this Pennsylvania bird Atlas, and I have this little one mile by one mile block that I'm responsible for over the next five years to bird.
00:22:27
Speaker
And I'm burdened the park that my son plays at
Cost-Effective Birding Strategies
00:22:30
Speaker
the playground, like it's right up the street. And I'm walking the backside of the park is like this preserved woodland in this little field that they only cut like once a year. And I'm just walking. I'm just doing my birds every right. I'm looking for singing birds, birds, maybe carrying nested material on me. I turn to the right. There's a squirrel on this tree.
00:22:49
Speaker
And it runs into this little hole, but it wasn't a normal eastern gray squirrel. Like, it didn't have a big tail. It was probably half the size. And it was grayish. It wasn't brown or red. It was a flying squirrel, bro. It was an eastern flying squirrel. And I've been told that they're in this area.
00:23:08
Speaker
And you have had friends that say, you know, they actually fly at night and they make more. They don't come out. Yeah, they don't come out. But my other buddy said that he sees him. The only one he's ever saw has been in the daytime. And I think I startled it because it just ran. And like the way it like a normal squirrel would just kind of run up the tree. This don't look like it was like it looked almost like a gecko walking on the like it was like flat against it, not like expanded, but just like in my head. I'm like, this is why I came burning.
00:23:35
Speaker
I was happy just to be logging all these singing Cardinals and Eastern Toeys. And like, you know, I watched some territorial defense of a Toeys chasing two Blue Jays out of his nesting area. And I get this bonus, bonus mammal. And so I didn't go far. I went a block up the street. And so it's just a testament to like, there are things around you, right, that you can notice if you go there often. And I've probably birded that park a hundred times. Staying local, using public transport, affordable,
00:24:05
Speaker
Use binoculars if you can, free bird ID apps and websites, starting point and shoot cameras.
Safety in Birding
00:24:12
Speaker
Right. These are all ways to minimize the entry point to birding. Trying to think like what else they would be out there. That's a huge cost. I know there's another layer of this when it comes to like birding on a budget for travel, like travel birding. And that is.
00:24:27
Speaker
Interesting and there's a number of things that people do for that that one kind of leads the line between what's safe and what's not safe right i'm not gonna suggest anybody to say i want a bird on a budget i'm gonna back back to eastern europe you can that's your call i'm certainly will save some money. I just urge people like if you're traveling abroad look to bird on a budget in ways that doesn't compromise your safety right even if you're going to.
00:24:53
Speaker
Maybe not sign up for the most expensive birding trip to South Africa. That's fine. What you want to do is you want to find some bird clubs in South Africa that you can connect with. Want to find reputable places to stay right at it within your budget. You want to really plan out and map your route. Make sure you got your paperwork for everything, but don't just go somewhere. Like I'm not going to like there's a level of entitlement to just going somewhere and thinking you can do whatever you want to do. And I do not suggest that for anybody.
00:25:22
Speaker
The world is not necessarily that place. Most people are good, but that doesn't mean that there aren't folks out there that might try to take advantage of you. So I just want to give that little caveat around travel birding on a budget, continue to do it safely, please.
00:25:35
Speaker
Yeah, I would say don't want to travel at all. Just focus on trying to attract the birds to your own. That's right. That's right. Yeah. So use your own yard. And that means setting up bird feeders and keeping them clean, keeping them full, and keeping an eye on them. You never know what might be showing up. I know a lot of times this time of year, people like to put out mealworms. I got them out right now, man. See? See? Because the birds are making long trips, and they's hungry.
00:26:05
Speaker
Another thing I like to do is if, you know, if you do have a little bit of a yard and you're doing a little yard work, one thing I'll do is I'll take a couple of days in between.
Personal Birding Reflections
00:26:13
Speaker
Like if I'm, um, if I'm just turning my soil in my garden, when I turn it, there's a lot of, you know, worms earthworms.
00:26:20
Speaker
So I won't immediately mix in any of my new soil. I'll just turn it. And then the robins just, they just desecrate. And they just, and I'm like, eat up, fellas. You know, and ladies like eat up, you know? And I'll leave it like that for a couple of days and let them kind of pick at it and then go in and turn in the rest of my amended soil or whatever. It's just, it's one of my ways of saying like, thank you. You don't need me to do this. And then you can sit out there, you know, then you can sit out there, sit out there with your Merlin out. That's right. And just listen. And I'm like, Oh yeah, yeah.
00:26:49
Speaker
Yeah. You start checking off birds on your little backyard bird list. Adding birds to your little bird, your backyard bird list. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I'm at five.
00:27:03
Speaker
That's how I started, man. We bought this, the house I'm in, we bought in 2017. And I was the same way as you. I was like, where am I? Like the first day where I was late. Honestly, before we even closed, I'm looking at the Google map and I'm like, where in the yard am I putting bird feeder? Because I was so excited just to sit here and just see what's around. It was a new space. So yeah, my first bird was a dark eyed junko. Hey, I'd be walking around the neighborhood and I see people with bird feeders and I'd be giving them this.
00:27:31
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. That's what you know you have. You have compadres around the neighborhood, right? I'm like, what's up? What's up? What's up? I'm like, what is this dude doing? Why are you just kind of getting old? Man, I'm not going to put it past me creeping on somebody else's bird feeder either, right? If you got some cool birds in your yard, I will creep.
00:27:53
Speaker
The one thing I would say, do not point your binoculars inside people's houses. No, don't do that. Don't do that at all. Yeah. But, you know, one of the cool parts about letting the birds come to you is sometimes you get something really interesting that comes and hangs about your property or your balcony or your block for a while. And if you're connected to the right community, others are going to want to come see it. So it's an opportunity to
00:28:15
Speaker
and buy folks into your space. And there's a lot of really awesome birders out there that allow folks on their property. Not that people that don't do it, they're not bad people. Some people just, you know, they don't want a bunch of strangers at their house, but some folks
Community Engagement in Birding
00:28:29
Speaker
do. And it's a really great community moment. You know, I know around Philly, we regularly have vagrants pop up in random spots. I think I was maybe telling you a previous episode that I drove out to see this red flank blue tail.
00:28:40
Speaker
from Eurasia, and there was a lot of signage, and I was told in previous days, the owner came out with fresh cookies and talked to people. So that kind of stuff is really awesome, really awesome. Yeah. It was towards the end of fall, early winter, somebody had an Allen's hummingbird in their yard, and they were letting people come for a while, but then people were showing up unannounced, and then that turned into the owner like, I don't want nobody here.
00:29:07
Speaker
Yeah. Like you got people can be traveling from all over the place. And next thing you know, people got like 10, 20 people coming to the yard. That can be weird. Yeah. Yeah. And we probably see that everybody is a birder or even if they are a birder, they don't want like all this attention on where they lay their head at night. So yeah, I get that slippery slope.
00:29:29
Speaker
It is, it is probably amendment to our previous episode on ethical birding, right? It's like, it's not your property. Make sure you have the right commissions to go there and whatever rules they have out, follow those rules. You are not. This is, this is a comprehensive learning environment. It is. We look back on things and we pull it back and then we, you know, a little bit of this, a little bit of that.
00:29:52
Speaker
No, I love it because at this point you can be an ethical birder and you can have nice, you know, starter gear. You didn't come out of your budget.
00:30:02
Speaker
and you're out there and you're birding, right? And you're having a good time. And really birding is this place where you can kind of, you can settle in for as long as you want, right? You can bird your neighborhood as your primary birding experience for the rest of your life and see tons of species and have great times and have great communities, right? You don't need to get on an airplane and fly to some far off country all the time, right? So, you know, it's really- I think that's important. I think that's really important.
00:30:31
Speaker
It's amazing what you see when you start to pay attention.
Birding Tips Recap
00:30:34
Speaker
I've loved that the little one block or is it one mile or one block radius you're working in for your citizen science project? Yeah. I love the idea of doing citizen science projects because a lot of that stuff is low budget and free too. So that's right. Whether it's Eastern Bluebird nest box monitoring or setting up
00:30:57
Speaker
maybe making a little nesting box and hanging it outside in the tree. And seeing if a bird actually uses it. Little stuff like that is fun. Yeah, it's a really good point, too. Folks should look at what are those conservation organizations around you in your city or your town or your state and look at their websites and see what they offer. For example, the Valley Forge Park near us, I was just informed that they have a bird count where they just give you a point in the park, like coordinates.
00:31:27
Speaker
And you just hit it for 10 minutes every two weeks for a six week period. So it's like 30 minutes total. Right. That's really low impact. The 125 bus runs the Valley Forge. You could get out there and do it if you were in Philly. Right. But it's a great way to meet some people, participate, explore a new area. You're not leaving the greater Philadelphia area. You know, so I'd encourage for us to do that, whether you have a wildlife refuge, a national park, a state park.
00:31:53
Speaker
Even sometimes private gardens and arboretums offer this kind of thing, right? So definitely check that out. That's a, that's a, that's a good point, Dex. I missed that. Yeah. Volunteer, man. Get involved in science. That's that, that deeper, you know, we talked about in episode five about having that understanding that like, you're just a part of this.
00:32:12
Speaker
you're sharing this space with this birds.
Practical Birding Attire
00:32:14
Speaker
Once you take it to the next step, that citizen science, you're kind of giving back and you're doing a, it just kind of, you go down the rabbit hole a little bit deeper and you get a little more invested and it just starts to all click and make sense. So I highly encourage people to get involved and just dig a little bit deeper.
00:32:33
Speaker
Yeah, that's absolutely beautiful, man. Yeah. Next thing you know, you're doing a bird banding event or something. I know, right? Next thing you know, you got your hands on a northern saw wet owl and you're like, how did I get here? You know, how did this happen? Like what is going on? I'm holding a Connecticut warbler. Are you kidding me? I know. I know. Right. Like this all started with me just looking for some used binoculars online and here I am.
00:32:56
Speaker
Let me just speak about clothing really quickly a lot of folks you don't you know there is a healthy conversation right now around the cost of outdoor clothing for different reasons but i would tell you number one.
00:33:12
Speaker
Wear what's comfortable for you, what you know is gonna be comfortable for you. That homie's out here that as soon as the weather hits 50 degrees, it's straight t-shirts and shorts. I can't do it, but they do it. That's what's comfortable for them. That's fine. Don't feel like you have to do something else. If you know you're gonna go somewhere where you're walking through fields or places where there might be ticks, you don't need to go buy these special pants or socks or anything. Just whatever pants are comfortable, pull the socks over the pants, tie your shoes. You don't need,
00:33:42
Speaker
$300 hiking boots. You need shoes that have grip and tracks and you can walk a little bit in. And if you're if you're someone that is privileged enough to be able to walk everywhere, you know, so really, I just want to encourage folks like don't get caught up in. I got to have this perfect tan vest from, you know, North Face with all the pockets, you know, you know, I got to have this perfect birding hat, you know, these specific boots, you know, like you don't.
Joy and Discovery in Birding
00:34:08
Speaker
You know, you don't, you don't literally take people on hikes, two and a half mile hikes in my crocs. Like let's show. All right. Like we're not, we're not climbing Kilimanjaro Everest. Now, if you're going to go somewhere where it's a little bit more challenging, yeah, sure. Right. But if we're talking about burning your community as a way to enter burning and stay on a budget, you don't need to come out of pocket for a bunch of crazy stuff.
00:34:30
Speaker
Yeah, there's something about that, a nice sun hat though, bro. Yeah, you can get a nice sun hat. Just don't feel like you got to spend like $180 on a sun hat, you know? No, you don't. You don't. Go to your local garden store. They sell sun hats. Probably $20 a kiss. Bird as you are. Bird as you are.
00:34:49
Speaker
Cause I have to, I'm like bald, man. I can't be out there in the sun. I'll get burnt up on the top of my head. Uh, you know, so, but yeah, just be comfortable cause it'll make your birding more enjoyable, right? You won't be thinking, Oh man, like
00:35:03
Speaker
Why did I buy these expensive pants? Now I'm all hot. I don't even like them. I should've just wore my sweatpants, which is what I wanted to do in the first place. Just be yourself and you'll learn things about yourself as you go birding and that will define your comfort level. What you wear to go birding will be different than what you maybe wore to do a hike, which was at a faster pace, right? That's fine.
00:35:23
Speaker
But learn that about yourself, do what's comfortable. I know a lot of people say like, you know, you need to wear stuff that's not bright colors. Sure, if I'm stalking something in the forest, maybe, but for the most part, these birds are not like, I don't care what you think you're wearing, they see you coming. You're literally like 200 times the size of them. You look like a giant. You're not quiet. You're not sneaking up on this bird, right? Like,
00:35:50
Speaker
So yeah, maybe it's a little better if you have a green shirt instead of a neon yellow shirt. But honestly, like it's not worth coming out of pocket to buy a whole new wardrobe for. If you like bright clothes, wear, wear bright clothes, right? Some of these birds are some of the brightest things you'll ever see in your life. Do it, you know, have a good time. Wear it, wear it. Where would you want to wear it? Bear it as you are. Yeah, bird as you are. That's another one. What was your bird nerd moment of the week, Jay? Oh.
00:36:19
Speaker
I mean, honestly, it was probably that squirrel.
00:36:23
Speaker
Cause I just, it was, and I, you know, I know where, I assume it lives at that spot. I was texting my buddy. I was like, so you know, I'm going to creep on it. But it was that just feeling of wonder of seeing something new, something unexpected. And what it did was it made everything else that much more sweet. All of the birds that I see regularly after seeing that squirrel and what I assume is a flying squirrel, right? I'll have to
00:36:50
Speaker
Confirm every singing cardinal, the Cooper's Hawk pair that was chasing the red tail Hawk, the singing toys, chickadees, tit mice, right. Everything was that much sweeter because I was like, you all are just so beautifully mine in my little patch here. Yeah, that was it was like a very grounding moment. So, yeah, what about you, homie?
00:37:09
Speaker
Man, I was out because it was saying that it was going to rain. So I was like, all right, I got to get out real quick. So I got out real fast and heard the first metal arc of the season. That was pretty cool. What got me was the Eastern Bluebirds, man. This time of year, they're so bright. They want their mate to see them. They're so bright blue right now.
00:37:36
Speaker
I just found myself like, look, look at all these, it wasn't even little murderers anymore, right? There were little, little paintings. That's what I love. They are little paintings, aren't they? Flying across the sky. And I was like, this is unreal. So my bird nerd moment of the week was definitely just seeing these, these Eastern bluebirds, man. And I just, I'm just stunned. Every time I see them, I'm just like blown away. Do you guys get any Westerns or mountain bluebirds up there at all?
00:38:04
Speaker
No, I can't even imagine getting those. I would go crazy. I saw a picture yesterday. Someone had a hybrid mountain western bluebird, and I didn't even know they hybridized like that. But you guys are not so far from there. Like, I feel like they got to slide in every now and again. Well, it ain't slid yet. If it's slid, I'm flat, you know?
00:38:29
Speaker
That'd be one of them. I talked and I told you, like, ain't many birds on chase. I'm sliding on that one. Yeah, yeah. The Mountain Bluebird is all blue. It's all different shades of blue. There's no orange. It's unreal. I'm pretty sure they are.
00:38:46
Speaker
It's absolutely gorgeous. You never know. Like I said, I'll never say never. We had a Clark's Nutcracker pop up in our area this year. I dipped on that in Las Vegas. He was just hanging around. I was like, this is kind of weird. Wow. Was not afraid of people or anything. It was so weird because sometimes there's these birds and, you know, last episode we talked about ethical bird watching. But sometimes there are birds that are just not afraid of people. No.
00:39:12
Speaker
or don't know no better or anything. And that's usually what it is. It's usually young birds that don't know the bird. Right. Like sometimes that
Influence of Mentorship in Birding
00:39:21
Speaker
happens. And I want people to know, like you don't have to like run away from the bird. It don't care. It doesn't care. Like it's not flying away. I've seen birds that like there was a prairie warbler like landing on people's feet. And then like there's little things that happen sometimes where you're just like, I can't I can't explain this, but like it's going to happen. Enjoy that moment.
00:39:40
Speaker
Yeah. And that's the, you know, you mentioned earlier, like carpooling and we talked about public transport, right? So as you get connected with these communities, you'll get, you know, they'll probably say, Hey, do you want to be on our, you know, our bird listserv or there's, you know, um, discord listservs or different rare bird alerts for different communities. As you do that, don't be afraid to ask if anybody's carpooling, right? Or look at the location and see if there's public transport there, right? So don't,
00:40:04
Speaker
don't also feel like you can't chase a bird because you're not a driver. There may be bird clubs going to see that bird. Yeah, this was a good episode, man. I really kind of reconnected me with when I started birding and having to learn that lesson around separating the gear from the practice.
00:40:23
Speaker
You know what I mean? I got this, a burning mentor of mine, Bob Welch. He passed away recently. And there's this picture of him and I. He was the person I first ever banded a bird with and all these different things. Whenever I start losing focus, I'll look at that picture and I'm like, what would Bob do?
00:40:43
Speaker
Like one of those, like where, where I like check it to like get back to the essence. And it's the bird and it's caring about the bird is caring about their, their habitats is caring about their survival because we want to be able to continue to enjoy them. Yes. When I'm gone, I want my kids to enjoy them. I want their kids to enjoy them and my neighbors and all that. So ultimately that's what it's really about. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. That is. Oh man.
00:41:09
Speaker
Yeah. I want to thank everybody for joining us again on the bird joy podcast.
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:41:14
Speaker
We hope you enjoyed exploring the world of birding with us. And I am Jason Hall. Thank you all for joining us. Uh, if you want to check out what color birding club is doing in color birding.org hit us up on Instagram and in color birding club or Facebook.
00:41:29
Speaker
And I'm Dexter Patterson. Make sure you check out what we got going on at the BIPOC Birding Club of Wisconsin at BIPOC Birding Club.org. And please share, subscribe, and shout out the podcast to all your fellow bird nerds and help us spread a little bird joy. Yes, sir. Until next time, brother. All right, brother. Peace.