Blaine,
Welcome to the Northern Virginia Birding Community.
While birding isn't always as easy as some veteran birders would have
others believe, time in the field usually helps with most
identification problems.
Sure, it can be frustrating getting an identification wrong, but
calling a bird incorrectly is not some kind of big-deal birding sin.
I have made a career out of calling birds incorrectly, and so far as
I can see, the world is still turning; and no one who I bird with
believes that I am anything other than a veteran birder. When you are
in the field working identification problems to the best of your
ability, you will be flying as close to the heart of the "birding
flame" as any veteran birder I know.
Besides your field guide, look for a copy of Brian Wheeler's Raptors
of Eastern North America. You can probably pick up a copy of this
excellent desktop resource at One Good Tern on Fern Street in
Alexandria, VA. Lots of great photographs, range maps, and species
accounts in this very readable reference.
When you are in the field, don't be in a hurry to look a raptor up in
your field guide. Instead, look at the bird for as long as
circumstance and common sense permits. Don't be afraid to call a bird
incorrectly. I have learned quite a bit from my own birding mistakes.
When I am looking at at perched raptor, if possible, I look first at
the bird's head, then its wings, and tail. When I am looking at a
flying raptor, if possible, I look first at the bird's wings and then
its tail. This approach usually helps me begin working identification
problems from a solid footing.
With enough time in the field, your own raptor identification skills
will improve.
Paul Kane
Falls Church, VA
On Mar 6, 2007, at 10:53 AM, Blaine Elliott wrote:
Hi. This is my first spring as a birder. I took up the hobby with
the new
year and have been very gratified on many different levels. I am antsy
about trying to learn as much as I can before the trees fill out and the
birds really start arriving. However, I have encountered one major
source
of frustration (among many minor sources): raptor identification.
Specifically hawks. I have been privileged to see a ton of hawks,
either at
work at the National Cathedral or from my own backyard in Arlington. If
there is a hawk "visiting" my feeder, I know that it is probably a
Cooper's
or a Sharpie, but then I get a good look and it really doesn't look like
either. I seem to get greast looks at these magnificent birds,
positively
id them according to as many field characteristics as I can think of,
only
to find myself doubting and never feeling sure that my id was correct.
For example, Saturday at Dyke Marsh, I saw a gorgeous hawk soaring
high. I
consulted my field guide and came to the unmistakable conclusion that
it was
a Broad-Winged Hawk...only to find later that a Broad-Winged Hawk is
highly
unlikely in early March and that everyone else at Dyke Marsh that day
was
seeing Red-Shouldered Hawks.
How do you ever feel comfortable IDing these birds? Any tips would be
highly
appreciated. I am tired of listing Hawk sp. everytime I go out.
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