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Birding Summary, Education, Featured

My first time recording birds with a shotgun microphone

Microphone. Power supply. Shock mount. Windscreen. Pistol grip. XLR cable. Headphones. Recorder. Bird. All of these things work together to capture a bird song. Following the Audubon’s Guide to Recording Bird Song, I scoured the internet to put together my own secondhand bird recording kit.

mitchell lake pond

Birding Summary, Education, Featured

Transitioning from Photographing to Recording Birds

I’ve been photographing birds for years as a way to document what I see and to satisfy creative endeavors. If a picture is worth a thousand words then a sound may be worth ten-thousand. When you go birding, you often hear a bird before you see it, if you see it at all. To go from being a good to a great birder, the ability to pick up and identify birds by their song or call is critical.

passenger pigeon illustration

Education, Featured, Main Feed

Passing on the History of the Passenger Pigeon

What if I told you that the there once was a population so vast and mighty that its members could block out the sun.

A combined power so great it could shape the continent. These creatures were not the dinosaurs of the Jurassic period or Roman soldiers two millennia past, but the Passenger Pigeon. A North American bird who’s extinction came just a hundred years ago.

bird watching outside

Education, Featured, Main Feed

The Health Benefits of Bird Watching

Do you love nothing more than grabbing your binoculars and heading out in the woods to see how many different varieties of birds you can spot? Bird watching is a popular hobby – according to the RSPB, some three million adults do it every year in the UK! Plus, it is one of the easiest hobbies to start because they can be seen anywhere, and you don’t even need binoculars to do it. (They are a big help though)

But, did you know that it is also good for your health – both mentally and physically?

Education, Featured, Guides, Main Feed

Duck Feeding PSA

No bread, of any kind, has any nutritional value for ducks. By feeding them bread, it fills their stomachs while providing no nutrients. It’s essentially the equivalent of humans eating cotton balls, or grass. This also goes for such snacks as tortilla chips, regular chips, pretzels, cheesies etc. The oil, salt, and/or flavoring on any human snack is no good for ducks. This is especially important for the wee ones during the breeding season, while they’re growing.

christmas bird count

Education, Featured, Main Feed, Science

Did you know there is a bird census every year?

For the past 116 years the Audubon has organized the annual Christmas Bird Count where groups all over the country gather between December 14th and January 5th to count birds in a particular area.

Like many people do on bird outings, the number of species spotted and how many of each species is recorded and submitted to eBird to help scientists monitor population fluctuations and migration patterns. The Christmas Bird Count bird census was started to replace the tradition of the “side hunt” where men would go out and hunt as many birds in a day as possible.