Subject: Re: Birding Technique
Date: Apr 10 11:50:04 1995
From: Jolynn Edwards - jolynn at u.washington.edu


I have found that sitting in a good spot for an extended period of time
watching shorebirds, passerines (especially warbler migration waves in
the Midwest), waterfowl, etc. has been an excellent strategy for my
learning of birds and linking birds with habitat. I hate the tick and
run method. One thing is certain, if you snuggle down unobtrusively and
wait the birds forget about you and you get to see all sorts of
interesting interactions that you might miss standing around and
pishing. When you think you've seen what is in one locale (or your bum
is tired), slow, quiet walking to the next spot and then staying put is
an excellent method. This is a good way to learn behaviors which promote
good work on breeding bird atlasing. I realize that this approach is the
opposite of "big guy" birding so often flauted in tweeters and it
requires patience, but I've done a lot of excellent learning by waiting
and watching.
JoLynn Edwards
University of Washington, Bothell
jolynn at u.washington.edu

On Sun, 9 Apr 1995, Tom Foote wrote:

>
> Greetings--
>
> I'm currently reading a nice little compilation of natural history
> observations by D.A Orton, entitled "The Hawkwatcher: Adventures Among
> Birds of Prey in the Wild" (some of you may remember his famous monograph
> "Merlins of the Welsh Marches",where he observed nesting merlins for 4
> seasons in the early '70's and documented interesting behavior..i.e., an
> adult merlin entering the territory of a nesting pair and perching in a
> tree close by the nest--which had young in it--and socializing with the
> nesting pair by "kakking" back and forth),in any case he makes this
> statement:
>
> If one can find the patience to sit quietly in the same place
> -and the right place-for several hours at a stretch, waiting for
> something of interest to happen, it usually does.
>
> Now, that causes me to wonder about staying put as a methodology as most
> of the bird trips I've been on we've spent time running from here to
> there, or walking around, or driving, or otherwise changing venue all the
> time. Admittedly, Orton is really interested in raptors and goes where
> he thinks he can find them. I wonder if any *tweets* use the sitting and
> observing technique more than scurrying about? And, how did this evolve
> for you? I suspect one gets more observations of a reduced number of
> species, but maybe not. Just a thought..
>
> Tom
>
> Tom Foote footet at elwha.evergreen.edu
> The Evergreen State College 866-6000 x6118
> Olympia, WA 98505
>
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