I love birding by bike and have done so for years. I've done the CBC by
bike most of the past 20 years. Compared to a car, I can hear everything,
note mixed species flock and stop quickly, and pretty much park anywhere.
Compared to walking, I can cover much more ground. Even if biking out to
the lighthouse or some other destination, I can pick up flyby crossbills,
Evening Grosbeak, or even a Townsend's Warbler chip, whereas by car I would
never have heard them.
On Tue, Sep 12, 2023 at 7:54 PM HAL MICHAEL <
ucd880 at comcast.net> wrote:
>
While I don't bike much I do a whole lot of birding while running.
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Probably added at least half a dozen lifers. Plus I have "run" into quite a
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few mammals from shrews up to bison. I just find keeping m eyes and ears
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open is rewarding.
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Hal Michael
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Board of Directors, Ecologists Without Borders <http://ecowb.org/>
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Olympia WA
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360-459-4005
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360-791-7702 (C)
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ucd880 at comcast.net
>
>
>
>
On 09/12/2023 6:58 PM PDT Kevin Lucas <vikingcove at gmail.com> wrote:
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Tom,
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>
Details --
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>
I am actually birding while I'm pedaling my bicycle. Before the
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hit-and-run that shut down then greatly reduced my bicycling for years, I'd
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named areas along the Yakima Greenway Path, where I bicycled, for birds --
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'kestrel field', 'flicker field', 'egret slough',.... I have a nice quiet
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bicycle that fits me well. Even drivetrain noise is quite low. It's well
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adjusted, I wax my chain, and I ride on pavement. I whistle back to birds
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whose calls I can imitate passably. When my wife rides with me, I'm always
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pointing out birds, most of which I've first heard. I'm typically going 12
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to 20 mph, and with my current helmet, wind noise is negligible. A slight
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turn of my head can help when needed.
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My high pitch hearing is still good. It used to be painfully good. There
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is a great amount of high frequency noise from electronics in our world
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that doesn't seem to bother most people. I rarely carry my binoculars with
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me. I tried carrying small ones, but I'm spoiled on my Canon Image
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Stabilzer binoculars, and rely on their stabilization even more so when my
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heartrate is elevated. If I were to stop to view, I'd want them, but
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they're big and heavy, so I need a knapsack for them. I like to ride
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without that encumbrance when I don't need to carry food and liquids for
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all day rides.
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When I lived in Alaska, though I hated the noise, I found that travelling
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by tremendously noisy air boat, Bald Eagles were unlikely to flush as we
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passed. When in my canoe or raft on the same rivers, they usually flushed
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as I passed silently by. I figured they thought I was trying to sneak up on
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them. It was not a small sample size. Thousands were around.
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Crippled, I wandered on foot clumsily on the Yakima Greenway Path. I was
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amazed at the close looks afforded me by little brown jobs, started to see
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their plumage well, and I got into identifying birds. It seemed to me they
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were pretty sure I had no chance of trying to catch and eat them with my
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slow and awkward movements. Similarly with my bike, it seems I often am not
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part of birds' perceived imminent threats. I also have a high vantage point
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on my bike.
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A couple of years ago while bicycling I heard an Ovenbird singing away. I
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stopped and tried to spot it without binocs to no avail. It was singing
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again or still when I pedaled back past the spot. That was my rarest
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bicycling find, but I also often heard and saw Lesser Goldfinches along my
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rides long before their "rare" eBird designation was dropped locally. I get
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joy from all sorts of birds while I ride, and often say to the Turkey
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Vultures that I'm not ready for them yet, while hoping that the diclofenac
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I've used for pain reduction wouldn't kill them if they ate me, as it has
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done to vultures in India and Pakistan.
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>
In a noisy, echo-y room, I'd have a tremendously hard time picking out
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bird vocalizations. Echoes and peoples voices wipe out bird sounds to my
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ears. The loud yammering of a local prominent bird lister always trashed my
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ability to hear birds at stops on his field trips. When he'd loudly schuss
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others, I'd laugh with a big smirk. Another lister makes loads of noise,
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clanking his tripod and talking, flushing birds all around. In addition to
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his carelessness and selfishness, I attribute his noisiness to his impaired
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hearing -- not realizing how much noise he is making. Their noise
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contributes to our desire and efforts to stay far from them. Even the noise
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of someone walking alongside me can obliterate many bird sounds to my ears.
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But the noise of my biking doesn't wipe out nearly as much. I don't hear
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most of the quietest chips and peeps and such, so there's the effective low
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sound pressure level notch filter that's built in to bicycling, but I hear
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enough to keep me happy and attentive while I ride.
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Since I bicycle at an aerobic pace, when I stop I can often hear the sound
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of the blood coursing through my ears if I try to listen intently, so stops
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aren't the greatest birding opportunities for me, other than the final stop
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at our home.
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Good Birding,
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https://www.aba.org/aba-code-of-birding-ethics/
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Kevin Lucas
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Yakima County, Washington
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*Qui tacet consentire videtur*
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>
On Tue, Sep 12, 2023 at 4:58 PM Tom Benedict <benedict.t at comcast.net>
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wrote:
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>
On Sep 12, 2023, at 16:34, Kevin Lucas <vikingcove at gmail.com> wrote:
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Lately I've finally been able to return to enjoying birds while bicycling,
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something I thought I'd never be able to do again. It helps me get my fix
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of hearing and seeing birds with a much smaller turbine/lithium/carbon
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footprint.
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I'm interested in details Kevin. I have a hard time birding while walking,
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much less while bicycling. Or am I jumping to the conclusion that you are
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birding _while_ cycling rather than cycling between stops where you bird?
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Tom Benedict
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Seahurst, WA
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>
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>
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--
Steve Hampton
Port Townsend, WA (qatáy)