Subject: Re: Bird Watching Methods
Date: Oct 25 09:06:22 1995
From: Scott Richardson - salix at isomedia.com


>I enjoy walking
>quietly through the woods listening for a bird call that I
>can't identify. I then track the bird down by stalking down
>the paths but usually through the woods/undercover. This method
>is most enjoyable for me because I can associate bird calls with
>the birds. It also reinforces bird calls that I have forgotten ...

Excellent method. The best, in my view, to really learn the birds.

>Is it OK to walk off the paths?

I would be shocked to hear any Tweeters say "no" to this one (except when
paths are so marked). Not that that's a very good thing...

>Another method I have is to sit still in the
>woods and wait for the birds to cross my path.

This was the strong recommendation of my earliest birding mentor. And the
method by which I encountered my first Scarlet Tanager and Black-throated
Blue Warbler (goodness, no, not at the same time--I wouldn't have lived to
tell about it!).

>This isn't as
>exciting because they rarely get close enough to photograph.

I used to be excited by photography, and thought it would be good/fun to
take lots of pictures of lots of birds. And I do have a few decent pictures
of interesting species doing interesting things. But I found myself focusing
(pun?) so much on the photograph--my technique, the composition--that I
began to lose sight of the bird. And when it was all over, the memories of
the encounter would be sparked by the photograph, not by the images and the
full experience as they registered in my mind (and heart).

Scott Richardson
NE Seattle
salix at isomedia.com