[va-richmond-general] Re: Question about birding by ear

  • From: "Barnett, Lewis" <lbarnett@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: Richmond Audubon Society mailing list <va-richmond-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 9 May 2014 17:07:06 +0000

Hi Lisa,

I will also count birds I hear but don’t see, but I have a sort of sliding 
scale of familiarity that I mentally use to decide when I’m comfortable doing 
that. If we think about spring warblers, there are some species that I’m very 
familiar with or that are very common that I don’t think twice about calling 
the ID on, and I don’t spend a lot of time looking for them, like Northern 
Parula, Prothonotary, Black-throated Blue, Black-throated green, Blackpoll and 
Black-and-white. I have a habit of making the effort to track down and get a 
visual the first time I run across the species each spring, because you do get 
rusty over the course of the year, but after that, I’m a bit more likely to 
report the species when I just have heard the bird.

That said, the recent post by Jeremy McEntire, and an experience I had 
yesterday where a Redstart totally had me believing it was a Chestnut-Sided 
warbler serve to keep me humble and alert.

I have to agree with Wendy’s comment though - once you have gained some 
facility with identifying birds by ear, about 90% of the time you “get on the 
bird” because you have heard it and therefore know it is present before you 
have any visual cues.

Lewis


On May 9, 2014, at 12:01 PM, Wendy Ealding (Redacted sender 
"wealding@xxxxxxx<mailto:wealding@xxxxxxx>" for DMARC) 
<dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:

Yes - I do, and I estimate that I find as many as 90% of the species in forests 
that way.  It's a skill that takes a lot of effort and it really pays off.


Wendy Ealding
North Chesterfield

-----Original Message-----
From: Catharine W. Tucker <cath.tucker@xxxxxxxxx<mailto:cath.tucker@xxxxxxxxx>>
To: kunsthure <kunsthure@xxxxxxxxx<mailto:kunsthure@xxxxxxxxx>>; Madden 
FreeLists.org<http://FreeLists.org> 
<va-richmond-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:va-richmond-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>>
Sent: Fri, May 9, 2014 10:38 am
Subject: [va-richmond-general] Re: Question about birding by ear


Of course!
Half the fun of seeing them is learning who says(sings) what! Then you can ID
the ones you know by sound & go on to hunting more elusive birds. It's also
important to know who's sharing the habitat/community.

Sent from my iPhone

On May 9, 2014, at 9:05 AM, Lisa Mease <kunsthure@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hi, all,
>
> I've been wondering how many of you count birds that you hear but don't see?
I keep reading about all the great species you find so I'm jealous, but I don't
count birds unless I see them (ubiquitous birds like Cardinals) or photograph
them (trickier birds like warblers).
>
> -Lisa
>
> ---
> the hardest thing is rendering a moment moving too fast to endure.   --
incubus
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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