How did you get interested in Birding? Want to share your life list?

[Minimus]

I am a backyard birder, but do take my binoculars whenever I travel. I got interested in bird watching a couple of years ago when I first moved into my house.

I put up a bird feeder and saw all the "normal" birds daily, then one day I looked out my window and I saw something blue on the ground. At first I thought is was trash, but it moved. I got out an old pair of "mini" binoculars and saw an Indigo Bunting. Of course at that time I did not know what it was but I got on the internet and soon had a name for the beautiful bird. I had I whole bunch of them that year. One time I had 5 males and 3 females at the feeder. Well from that point I was hooked. I bought books, software, better binoculars. I even visited the Cornell Lab of Ornithology on a trip to upstate NY.

There is something so calming about sitting on my back deck watching the birds come and go.

So here is my life list. It is not in any order. I am sure it pales in comparison to most, but I'm still proud of it. All visitors to my yard and feeders:

Brown-headed Cowbird
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Red Bellied Woodpecker
Yellow Bellied Sapsucker
Indigo Bunting
Eastern Bluebird
Blue Jay
Blue Grosbeak
Chipping Sparrow
House Finch
Carolina Wren
Dark eyed Junco
Purple Finch
Northern Cardinal
Mourning Dove
Great Horned Owl
Brown-headed Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
Carolina Chickadee
Yellow rumped Warbler
Tufted Titmouse
Eastern Kingbird
American Robin
Northern Mockingbird
Ruby Throated Hummingbird
Summer Tanager
American Goldfinch
Pine Warbler
Brown Creeper
White Throated Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Killdeer
Eastern Towhee
Sharp Shinned Hawk
American Crow

The following were sighted elsewhere:

Cedar Waxwing
Brown Thrasher
Canada Goose
Greater Roadrunner (business trip to AZ)
Red Tailed Hawk
Turkey Vultures (woods near my yard)
Northern Flicker yellow shafted male
Belted Kingfisher
Red winged Blackbird
Gray Catbird

[amazona]

1. tee hee you don't want me to share my life list

It is over 900 species. I would like to make it 1000 this year. However, in all fairness, you can "buy" a lot of species by traveling to areas very different from your own and getting a guide to help you find and identify birds.

A few years back I decided to scrape together funds and travel to a birding destination every year. If you do that, eventually you will accumulate quite a list. However, I don't do Disneyland, Paris in Springtime, or cruises. I have never owned a DVD or subscribed to cable TV. I have a very limited income and budget, so I have to make choices with my entertainment dollar. People think some of the places I go are very odd indeed. I have seen Kenya but not Disneyworld and my mom is from Florida!

Conversely there is an expert hummingbirder in my area who told me she has less than 200 species on her list. Her focus is on banding, measuring, and study the hummingbirds of Louisiana. So she makes a huge contribution but has a short list.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

[Minimus]

2. Wow, over 900! I knew mine would pale in comparison of others.

I am a beginner indeed. Taking trips for birding would be great, but it isn't a hobby my husband got into, so we went to Disneyworld :D .

I have a few books and guides, mostly eastern regional, so I have many yet to see just in my region. I doubt I will ever get to your level but I will have fun trying!

[primavera]

5. On how many different continents?

I'm pretty sure there aren't that many species to be seen in the US, even if one were miraculously able to see every species conceivably possible in the US. Where else have you been birding?

[amazona]

9. 4 continents depending on how you count

North/Central America

Europe -- very short list from there, because it's a bit pricey for me

Africa

South America is the dicey one. I wasn't actually on the "continent" of South America. I was on the island of Trinidad. But it is part of South America (offshore Venezuela) as far as the bird life goes. So I count that as a 4th continent.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

[blindpig]

3. started as an urban birder

Grew up in East Baltimore with House Sparrows, Starlings & Rock Dove. Started working the railroad tracks and brown fields when I was about 12, good for winter sparrows and migrating Woodcock in spring. I think walking up my 1st Woodcock(jesus!) and witnessing their courtship flight hooked me. A large sewage treatment plant outside of town was my prime spot, a short bus ride was often good for 30-40 species in a few hours.

Like Amazona above field work is my favorite thing to do. I try to travel at least once a year. The Apalachicola, southern Arizona & the Neotropics are my destinations. I haven't put together my lifelist in years, I really need to assemble all of those motley notebooks and pads.

For all of that my primary interest is in reptiles and amphibians, thus you will not see me going to Canada or Alaska. Of course, the argument could be made that birds are reptiles!

[semillama]

4. yeah, keep it to numerics and highlights

otherwise this thread will be huge!

I've seen 200+ so far. I try to opportunistically bird when I travel, but there's a limit to what you can do when you are the only bird watcher in your group. Budget's limited too, so I have to plan carefully. For example, I'm going to St. Louis Missouri for a family reunion this July, and have started tenatively scouting out parks for a possible side trip to birdwatch. I also take advantage of as many Audubon field trips as I can, and I just started going along with the Avid Birders group (they take trips around the state/region and meet at 5:30 in the morning). These people know their birds and these types of trips are great for adding to your life list.

[primavera]

6. Got started as a way to spend time with my father

My father is one of these intensely opinionated, overbearing sorts who rarely does anything half-assed: he either becomes the world's premier expert on a subject, or he doesn't bother to acquaint himself with it at all. It consequently makes him very difficult to spend time with, as either you discuss something he knows, in which case he buries you within minutes, or you discuss something he doesn't know, in which case he nods politely and yawns while you talk.

At one rather stressed period in our relationship, I was looking for some way the two of us could spend time together. I was a biology student taking field bio classes and recalled that my father had had a roommate in college who was a grad student in ornithology and had introduced him to the noble art of birdwatching. He'd gotten into it for a while, but had dropped it when he went off to law school and so for once hadn't had the chance to cultivate his typical intimidating level of expertise on the subject yet. So I suggested we go birding together and it's worked pretty well, it's given us something to chat about and trips to make together and Christmas and birthday gifts to give one another for over 20 years now.

As for my lifelist, it's somewhere around 400 species within the US, plus maybe 100 or so European birds.

[OnionPatch]

7. My grandmother watched birds

and when I was a kid, I thought it was so terribly boring and meaningless!

When she died and I was an adult, I found an old pair of binoculars of hers and kept them for sentimental reasons. At the time I was broke and the only recreation I could afford was playing around in the woods, camping, etc. I brought those old binoculars on a camping trip and realized only one side worked. But I looked at a few birds through that one side and I was actually pretty stunned. All the little, boring, grey blobs I always saw on the power lines were not just sparrows! There were so many different kinds! And they were so many different colors, etc. On that first trip I saw a yellowthroat, a yellow-breasted chat, a rufous-sided towhee and an indigo bunting. I was hooked.

I've upgraded my equipment considerably now, and decades later I'm still hooked on birds. I take binoculars everywhere I might see a new bird. I have not really made special vacations to far away places just to see them, though. My husband would veto that unless there was also good fishing nearby and often there is! So I have a mediocre life list. Too many to post here but not as impressive as the person who said they had 1000. I want to save a few to find during retirement. ;)

[amazona]

10. suggestion for good birds and good fishing

I would suggest Panama. The fishing is catch and release, though. But they have some big guys. The birding is fantastic -- lots of variety in a nice compact area. They have a resort called Gamboa Resort near Pipeline Road (very famous for birding) and on the Chagres River (so you can arrange for a charter fishing trip). Might be worth considering. We lucked into a package that was really cheap one year. THe price can vary considerably so it's worth checking back.

Well, I'm about to flit out of town, be back later to talk more birds!

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

[LuLu550]

8. I always liked looking at birds

but became a "birder" after I married my now ex husband. He parents were avid birders who started the local bird club with some friends. I have now been actively birding for more than 20 years. I always tell people I thank my ex-husband for three things: two beautiful children and the love of birding.

My list is far short of 900, but still way too many to put down. I don't go on "birding" trips, but carry my binocs and bird book whenever I travel, so have seen European birds, southern and western US birds. (I live in upstate New York.)

[livetohike]

11. Hal H. Harrison

When I was in elementary school, Hal H. Harrison came once a year and we had an assembly. His shows were about wildlife. I remember always looking forward to his visit. I think that is when I became interested in bird watching.

In college, I had a class in Environmental Biology and one of our field trips was to a nearby woods. The professor was identifying birds purely by their song. I thought that was so cool!

I didn't start watching birds until about 1974. This is when I began my life list. Sorry I can't post my list, I don't have it typed up anywhere just in my old field guide.

In 1978 when I was teaching in South Carolina, I met another teacher who was a personal friend of Hal H. Harrison. Here's a toast to Hal H. Harrison for opening my eyes and those of many others as well! :toast: