A Good Time to Look for Birds of Prey

     When is the best time and place to look for birds of prey? Usually, the best place to find birds of prey is at a large field. Here you can find most of the birds of prey that live in your area. Generally, the best time to see birds of prey is when a field of some kind has recently been harvested or mowed. This flushes all the insects and mice out of their hiding places and they have a very long distance to travel before they reach the safety of the woods. This gives all the birds ample opportunity to grab as much food as they can. 
     At some fields, you can find them crowded with many birds at one time. For example, this Swallow Tailed Kite was part of a flock of about six other kites. Together, they ravaged the freshly mown field until all food sources were gone. Kites are very efficient in how they hunt. If you can time it right, get to a field right after its has been cut, and look out for the birds of prey. 


Thanks for reading everybody, and happy birding!


    Swallow-Tailed Kite by John Mark Simmons

GA Youth Birding Competition Full Strategy by the Mockingjays

The team that the Two Birders were on this year (the Mockingjays) won first place overall in the GA Youth Birding Competition. We finished the competition with 143 species after the 24 hour period of intense birding. 


When the competition started at 5 P.M. on Friday evening, the Mockingjays were positioned at the State Botanical Gardens of Georgia. Once the clock struck five, the birding began. We got many inland warblers like Prothonotary and Swainsons Warblers, as well as Northern Waterthrush. 


After two and a half hours of birding there, we birded some other local hot spots to patch up our inland birds list before we went to the coast. Seventy species later, we started our overnight drive to the coast. At around 2 A.M. we finally got our missing Nightjar, Whip Poor Will, putting us at an even seventy species for the first day. We came into our campsite at three A.M. and got a little bit of sleep. 


At 5:30 A.M. we all got up and went to St. Simons Island for out first stop, seeing many specialties there such as:

• Gray Kingbird
• Whimbrel
• American White Pelican 
• Clapper Rail 
• Common Ground Dove
• Painted Bunting 

We then started our drive to Altamaha Wildlife Management Area. There we picked up another thirty or so species including our highlight of the stop, Least Bittern.  After braving the mosquitoes at Altamaha, we began the journey all the way back inland to Charlie Elliot Wildlife Center. 


On the way we picked up a couple raptors as well as Eastern Kingbird and Eastern Meadowlark. We arrived at Charlie Elliot an hour before the deadline (as planned) and birded the surrounding areas and got seven more key species. 


At five o'clock, we stopped birding and submitted our checklist to the judges. We are proud to say no species were taken off our list and we got all of the 143 species that we saw or heard. Partly because we had photographic evidence of many of the birds. 


   Great Egret in the morning sun by John Mark Simmons

 

    Summer Tanager by John Mark Simmons

Diopters (Very Important Binocular Fixing Tip!)

Think your binoculars are ruined? Think again, before you throw them away, try this binocular fixing tip. A diopter is what controls the things that you can focus on in your binoculars. If something is still not in focus even though you try and try to get it in focus by turning the ring, your diopter is probably messed up. The diopter can be accessed by twisting the ring on either the left of right binocular near the eye cup. This is where the diopter is located on most binoculars, but not all of them. To set your diopter:  First, find a stationary subject. Second, turn the focus wheel until you get the subject as in focus as you can. Third, twist the diopter wheel until the subject becomes as clear as possible. Once upon a time, by doing this, I saved a pair of binoculars that I thought were ruined. Make sure you try this before throwing the bins into the junk pile. You could save yourself a good chunk of money. Hope this helped and thanks for reading everyone. Happy Birding!

     Red-Winged Blackbird by John Mark Simmons

Bird Memory (Food Stashing)

Do birds have memory? As a matter of fact, they do. Although some birds have better memory than others, they all have it. The Rufous Hummingbird is a very skilled bird memory wise. It can remember exact spots to come back to where it was able to find food the previous year. Which is amazing since it migrates so far only to come back to the exact same spot. Another example of bird memory is the Tufted Titmouse. Sometimes, when you look at the spot where the branch of a tree connects, you can find bird seed shoved into the tiny holes or crevasses. It does this simply as a precaution and for convenience so it will always have some food on hand. One last example is the Clark's Nutcracker. It has a very good memory among birds. The Clark's Nutcracker can stash food in very specific places on any terrain, fly ten miles away, and then come back to the very same spot. This Gray Catbird below is very good at remembering food sources too, as well as general areas to nest. Some people have had the same pair of Catbirds a few years in a row before. Birds aren't as dumb as some people may think. Thanks for reading, and happy birding!

Posted by John Mark Simmons. Photo Copyright John Mark Simmons

Mimics

     Have you ever had trouble distinguishing a Mockingbird's imitation of a bird with the real one? Here are a few tips to help you sift out the confusion. Mimics can include anything from Jays to Thrashers but the most notorious one is most likely the Northern Mockingbird. The name fits very well. They can usually imitate a good 50% of the bird sounds in your yard. While they cannot imitate Warblers, mimics such as the Mockingbird can cause some confusing situations. The first and most simple tip is this. When you hear the bird sound that you are uncertain of, keep listening, until the song keeps going or it changes to a different song. If it changes to a different song within a few seconds, it is most likely a Mimic. A second tip is, when a Mimic imitates something, it is either louder or softer than the real thing. They are usually not perfectly in tune with the original sound. Although they are very skilled in imitating other sounds, this flaw is one that is easy to recognize sometimes.

Brown Thrasher (Mimics very often)

     Probably the most confusing imitation is that of the Blue Jay which takes on the sound of a Red Shouldered Hawk very often. If Blue Jays are not around where you bird, well, they aren't a problem. But for those who do have them and hear this often, here is some info about that. When the real Red Shouldered Hawk calls, it is very energetic and is constantly calling. Also, usually, when these Hawks are calling, they are flying. This makes it easier to see them. When a Blue Jay imitates it, they are softer, more hoarse, much less powerful, and they only call for a short amount of time. But the real Hawk can calls continuously for a long time.  One you begin to distinguish them on a regular basis, you will get the hang of it soon. Hope this helped with all those confusing imitations! Thanks for reading and happy birding.

Banding Codes

     While birding in the field, banding codes can be a tremendous time saver. If you are trying to write down bird species but need to get it done really fast so you wont miss birds, use banding codes. Here are some examples. The banding code for " Carolina Chickadee" would be "CACH." Why? Codes are rather simple once the basics are established. You take the first two letters of the first word, and the first two letters of the second word to make "CACH." However, that bird has a two word name. Other birds have three or even four word names. If the bird has a three word name like " Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker" the banding code would be "YBSA." Because for three word names, you take the first letter of the first word, the first letter of the second word, and the first two letters from the third word. This makes "YBSA." For a four word name, you simply take one letter from the beginning of each word. "Black and White Warbler" would simply be "BAWW." Thats it! A simple way to speed up your writing while in the field. One last example is this Yellow-Throated Warbler on the left. Its banding code would be "YTWA." We hope this helps you to be more efficient and to get more birds while in the field. Happy birding!

Posted by John Mark Simmons for TB

Eagle Optics Binocular Harness Straps

     Everyone needs some of the stress of their neck for awhile. But if you want to keep birding and your neck hurts cause of that itchy and irritating neck strap, how can you? These Eagle Optics harness straps can help to fix that. These straps put the weight of the binoculars on your back. They have two hooks that are easily attachable to your binocular's rings. As you can see in the photo, the design is specifically made to keep the stress off of your neck. After years of birding with a regular neck strap, the stress can really start to become apparent. Also, these straps are extremely comfortable and much less irritating than a neck strap. The weight is spread around as the the flexible straps mold to your body somewhat for a more custom fit.
     When wearing these straps, it is easy to put a DSLR camera strap over it. This does not impede the harness's flexibility and it allows you to easily access your camera for a quick bird photo without getting tangled up in a regular neck strap. While some companies have come out with neck straps that have a soft cushion integrated in them, these harness straps offer much more freedom of movement, comfort, and flexibility.

Be sure and comment below on what you think about the harness straps. As always, Happy Birding! -TB