In regards to birding by ear. I to started young listening to birds. My mom said I use to talk to them anyways that's how I identified a Carolina wren. After hearing @ my old place for a while I dragged myself out of bed to find it @ 6 am after working 2nd shift. Lisa. Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry -----Original Message----- From: ctbirds-request@lists.ctbirding.org Date: Sat, 06 Mar 2010 12:00:04 To: <ctbirds@lists.ctbirding.org> Subject: CTBirds Digest, Vol 1105, Issue 1 Send CTBirds mailing list submissions to ctbirds@lists.ctbirding.org To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://lists.ctbirding.org/mailman/listinfo/ctbirds_lists.ctbirding.org or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to ctbirds-request@lists.ctbirding.org You can reach the person managing the list at ctbirds-owner@lists.ctbirding.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of CTBirds digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Want to learn more about eBird? Come to the HAS meeting on Tuesday! (Zagorski, Sara) 2. Coastal Stratford (Chasbarnard@aol.com) 3. Listening (Roy Harvey) 4. On This Date (4/6) (Dennis Varza) 5. Towhee x 3 (Brian Webster) 6. GREAT POND (Jeremy F) 7. Re: Listening (Julie Keefer) 8. Barrow's pair (Nick Bonomo) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Fri, 5 Mar 2010 13:52:45 -0500 From: "Zagorski, Sara" <szagorski@daypitney.com> To: <ctbirds@lists.ctbirding.org> Subject: [CT Birds] Want to learn more about eBird? Come to the HAS meeting on Tuesday! Message-ID: <7499C9123EEFED4B97CA7D037608A23A01E3471C@DPMAIL01.dpllp.law> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" On Tuesday, March 9, the Hartford Audubon Society will be having its monthly meeting with featured speaker Marshall Iliff, former VENT leader and now eBird Project Leader for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Marshall's talk is entitled "Make Your Birds Count or eBird - How and Why to Use It." Have you thought about using eBird but don't know how to start? Or have you been using eBird but want to know how to hide sensitive bird sightings or create life lists for yourself? Then this is your opportunity to ask the expert any questions you might have, and also understand the value of eBird to the world birding community. Social time if from 7:00 - 7:30 pm, and Marshall will start his program at 7:30 pm. A business meeting will follow after his talk. The meeting is held at St. James Episcopal Church, 1018 Farmington Ave, West Hartford. All are welcome to attend. Sara Zagorski Wethersfield This message contains PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION intended solely for the use of the addressee(s) named above. Any disclosure, distribution, copying or use of the information by others is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender by immediate reply and delete the original message. Thank you. . ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Fri, 5 Mar 2010 17:33:53 EST From: Chasbarnard@aol.com To: ctbirds@lists.ctbirding.org Subject: [CT Birds] Coastal Stratford Message-ID: <29a4c.25bfab1d.38c2e0d1@aol.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" I happened upon Buzz Devine at Long Beach in Stratford at about 12:45 this afternoon and we birded along coastal Stratford until about 3 PM. A few of the sightings are as follows: Glaucous Gull at Long Beach - There were a few hundred Herring and Ring-billed Gulls near shore, feeding upon plankton in the water. Common Goldeneye - Buzz estimated at least 2000 off of Stratford Point. It was one of the largest congregations of Common Goldeneye which I have ever seen in Connecticut. They were far out and a scope was definitely needed. Surf Scoter (1) -The huge flock of scoter (sp.), which Twan Leenders recently estimated at 6000 birds, was nowhere to be seen. Things change from day to day now. Canvasback (29) - Frash Pond We saw only 1 Common Loon off of the point and no Horned Grebes at all. Nearby,off of Fairfield, Horned Grebes have been very numerous, with some recent counts in the 40's near Penfield Reef. American Coot (7) - Birdseye Street boat ramp area. Also a Pied-billed Grebe there. Snow Bunting (2) - Stratford Point Charlie Barnard Stratford ------------------------------ Message: 3 Date: Fri, 5 Mar 2010 20:26:09 -0800 (PST) From: Roy Harvey <rmharvey@snet.net> To: ctbirds@lists.ctbirding.org Subject: [CT Birds] Listening Message-ID: <608267.58902.qm@web81505.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Birding by ear is probably the most important skill that separates the beginner from the more experienced birder. For those who have not taken this step yet, I encourage you to start. You can not imagine how much it expands your birding horizons until you experience it. March is a great time to get started. The variety of birds is still pretty limited, and they all seem to be singing their hearts out. In a month or two there will be many times more species to sort out, but right now it is not as complicated. It is not a skill most of us pick up quickly. I spent years learning the easier and common birds, in many cases re-learning the same ones the each year. Eventually, season by season, even I found I was recognizing a lot though I am far from expert at this. It is also something you never finish mastering, there is always more to learn. It becomes especially interesting when I encounter a song I do not recognize! Today I followed an unfamiliar three-note song and found a mixed flock of titmice, chickadees, nutchatches, Golden-crowned Kinglets and Brown Creepers. That song stopped so I never did identify the singer. Then another unfamiliar song started, a short rising trill, but I never managed to sort out who it was coming from. (Playing recordings later shed no more light on the question.) So a little attention to songs turned a quite morning of birding with "just the usual birds" into an intriguing (though unsolved) puzzle. Roy Harvey Beacon Falls, CT ------------------------------ Message: 4 Date: Sat, 06 Mar 2010 06:42:36 -0500 From: Dennis Varza <dennisvz@optonline.net> To: Posting Bird List <ctbirds@lists.ctbirding.org>, Susan Hochgraf <susan.hochgraf@uconn.edu>, Jorge de Leon <ornithology.library@yale.edu> Subject: [CT Birds] On This Date (4/6) Message-ID: <AD536847-2B95-4A1A-90A9-E2D306D643FC@optonline.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed 1876 Hooded Merganser Portland 1890 Evening Grosbeak Portland/Middletown/East Hampton 1935 Orange-crowned Warbler Greeneich, Todd's Neck 1951 40 Field Sparrow New Haven 1954 50 Fox Sparrow Hartford 1989 Northern Lapwing Mansfield 1995 3600 Red-winged Blackbird Westport, Sherwood Is. St. Pk. ------------------------------ Message: 5 Date: Sat, 6 Mar 2010 06:54:54 -0500 From: Brian Webster <b.webster@hotmail.com> To: CT Birding <ctbirds@lists.ctbirding.org> Subject: [CT Birds] Towhee x 3 Message-ID: <SNT136-w7DDC342483A65528EB969E3370@phx.gbl> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" 3/6, Stratford yard/woods @ (6:35a)- (3) Eastern Towhees scratching around the wood edges behind my dumpsters in the condos. I pulled in after getting smokes and brew, and heard the complete Towhee song! For the lasdt week or so (posted about it a whlie ago) I've been hearing the 'EAST-ern' .... or 'DRINK-your' parts, but until this morning I didn't get the whole phrase... 'EAST-ern, tow-HEEHEEEEEEEE'.... or 'DRINK-your-TEEEAAAA'. Two of the Towhees were male, one female. I wonder if its the breeding pair, or one of them or offspring, I watched last summer. Do they always pick such impossible and impassible sections of woods?? These did last year. It was in a crotch of a tree, filled with hangy moss and leaves and sticks, inside a thorn bush, inside a thicket, inside the woods. Great real-estate! Brian Webster Stratford, CT B.webster@hotmail.com http://thebirdmojo.blogspot.com/ _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail: Free, trusted and rich email service. http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/201469228/direct/01/ ------------------------------ Message: 6 Date: Sat, 6 Mar 2010 05:53:41 -0800 (PST) From: Jeremy F <ecobirding@yahoo.com> To: CTBirds@lists.ctbirding.org Subject: [CT Birds] GREAT POND Message-ID: <406033.68187.qm@web63602.mail.re1.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Hi everyone I was wondering if anyone knows if great pond in Simsbury is snow free? Also, if the gate is unlocked during day light hours yet? thanks for your help jeremy faucher enfield ------------------------------ Message: 7 Date: Sat, 6 Mar 2010 10:01:19 -0500 From: "Julie Keefer" <julie.keefer@gmail.com> To: <ctbirds@lists.ctbirding.org> Subject: Re: [CT Birds] Listening Message-ID: <4b926e4c.02c3f10a.1b12.ffffe5bb@mx.google.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I totally agree that learning the skill greatly expands your birding horizons and it definitely makes a good birder better. My dad has over 1300 birds on his life list and is a very good birder but his birding by ear skills are horrible! :) He just doesn't have the ear for it and I think he is proud of me for learning it since he was the one who taught me to bird and got me interested when I was younger. I think he is a bit jealous too when we go birding together and I rattle off what we are hearing! I have a long way to go though before I've seen as many birds as he has! On another note, my brother's daughter loves birds so I sent her a CD for her 2nd birthday last year and now even she can identify about 10 of the common birds they have in their yard by sound! It amazes me someone so young can identify birds as well as she can. My brother never really got into birding like I have but now he is becoming much more interested in it as he birds with his daughter. I decided to learn to bird by ear several years ago because it always frustrated me to hear a bird singing and never be able to find it to identify it. I bought some CDs and listened to them over and over. I was amazed at how many birds I was missing just in my own backyard!! The Ovenbird was the first lifer I identified by sound. I had no idea we had Ovenbirds breeding in the woods around our house (this was in Raleigh, NC). I think I must have always mistaken them for Carolina Wrens because I wasn't listening carefully enough. I even discovered we had Yellow-billed Cuckoos in those woods though I never saw one in the yard (though I saw plenty nearby at the lake). It was amazing and I still look forward to spring and listening for the birds to arrive! Anyway, it is a great skill to try to learn and simply listening in your backyard is a great way to start! Roy, my guess is that 3-noted song you heard may have been a titmouse. They continue to amaze me with the variety of songs they have! Not sure what was making that trill! Pine Siskins have a rising trill and Juncos trill but I would not describe it as rising. And I doubt there are any warblers around yet! Good luck with your mystery. It is one of the things that makes birding so much fun!! Julie Keefer Lyme -----Original Message----- From: ctbirds-bounces@lists.ctbirding.org [mailto:ctbirds-bounces@lists.ctbirding.org] On Behalf Of Roy Harvey Sent: Friday, March 05, 2010 11:26 PM To: ctbirds@lists.ctbirding.org Subject: [CT Birds] Listening Birding by ear is probably the most important skill that separates the beginner from the more experienced birder. For those who have not taken this step yet, I encourage you to start. You can not imagine how much it expands your birding horizons until you experience it. March is a great time to get started. The variety of birds is still pretty limited, and they all seem to be singing their hearts out. In a month or two there will be many times more species to sort out, but right now it is not as complicated. It is not a skill most of us pick up quickly. I spent years learning the easier and common birds, in many cases re-learning the same ones the each year. Eventually, season by season, even I found I was recognizing a lot though I am far from expert at this. It is also something you never finish mastering, there is always more to learn. It becomes especially interesting when I encounter a song I do not recognize! Today I followed an unfamiliar three-note song and found a mixed flock of titmice, chickadees, nutchatches, Golden-crowned Kinglets and Brown Creepers. That song stopped so I never did identify the singer. Then another unfamiliar song started, a short rising trill, but I never managed to sort out who it was coming from. (Playing recordings later shed no more light on the question.) So a little attention to songs turned a quite morning of birding with "just the usual birds" into an intriguing (though unsolved) puzzle. Roy Harvey Beacon Falls, CT _______________________________________________ This list is provided by the Connecticut Ornithological Association (COA) for the discussion of birds and birding in Connecticut. For subscription information visit http://lists.ctbirding.org/mailman/listinfo/ctbirds_lists.ctbirding.org ------------------------------ Message: 8 Date: Sat, 6 Mar 2010 11:08:55 -0500 From: Nick Bonomo <nbonomo@gmail.com> To: CTBirds <ctbirds@lists.ctbirding.org> Subject: [CT Birds] Barrow's pair Message-ID: <CAFBBA69-DFF9-4977-A0B2-34CB417498EB@gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed; delsp=yes Luke Tiller reports a pair of Barrow's Goldeneye, male and female, off the east side of Penfield Reef. Nick Bonomo Sent from my iPhone ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ This list is provided by the Connecticut Ornithological Association (COA) for the discussion of birds and birding in Connecticut. For subscription information visit http://lists.ctbirding.org/mailman/listinfo/ctbirds_lists.ctbirding.org End of CTBirds Digest, Vol 1105, Issue 1 ****************************************