Wildlife in Your Garden by Karen Lanier

Author:Karen Lanier [Lanier, Karen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lumina Media
Published: 2016-04-05T04:00:00+00:00

The Sharp-Shinned Hawk and other predatory birds can sometimes be found where small songbirds gather.

Hawk-Watching

The term hawk-watching often conjures images of fall days at places such as Hawk Mountain in Pennsylvania; Cape May, New Jersey; or Marin Headlands, north of San Francisco. These places remain concentration points for migrating raptors, and, in favorable conditions, observers can expect many sightings. Hawk-watching can be done in many other places, too, because raptors move across the continent on a broad front. During migration, hawks can be seen just about anywhere if you’re patient enough and have a sharp eye.

The same is true in your yard. In most cases, these birds are high-flying migrants as opposed to feeder visitors. During the fall (September through November) and spring (March through May), try sitting in your yard and looking skyward, scanning the edges of puffy clouds with your binoculars, searching for soaring birds. Chances are you’ll see some migrant raptors to add to your yard list.

Unidentified Flying Objects

What a thrill—a bird you’ve never seen before! For many birdwatchers, a big part of the hobby is observing “new” species. Here’s what to do if a new bird appears in your yard.

Don’t look it up in your field guide—yet. Why not? Because you don’t know enough after just a glimpse. Some birds are easy to identify, but some are not. The one critical detail you need might be the one that you failed to notice.

Birds have a habit of flying while you page through your field guide to look for a matching picture. Instead of immediately researching it, study the new visitor and maybe take notes. Use the field guide once you think that you could draw the bird from memory or at least describe it in detail.

Never identify a bird using less than three field marks. This tip keeps the experts out of trouble—if they remember to use it. For example, quite a few birds appear mostly yellow, fewer yellow birds also sport a light-colored bill, and only one yellow bird in North America has those characteristics plus a black cap and wings: the male American Goldfinch.

Note the fundamentals. Birding experts often skip the plumage details and begin their identification by looking at a bird’s size, shape, and behavior. Most important are a bird’s overall size and the precise shape of its bill. Remember that the way a bird is built and the way it acts offer much information about its identity.

When in doubt, aim at the head. Bird face patterns are often distinctive. If you think that you are going to get only a brief look, focus on knowing the new bird perfectly from the neck up. Note the shape and color of its bill. Does it have a dark line through the eye? A light eyebrow? A solid cap or a stripe through the center of the crown? A dark or pale throat?

It never looks just like the picture in the field guide. When someone claims that the bird he or she saw exactly matches a field guide picture, you can be sure that person didn’t look carefully at the bird.

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