do you have any advice for a beginner birder who's just getting started? I want to meet other birders nearby but I feel a little intimidated considering how little experience I have compared to other people 😭
First of all, thank you so much for your patience! I have been Busy lately but really wanted to get you a good answer 🙇 I might be covering some things you Already Know depending on how beginner you are, so apologies for any redundancies - maybe other people can use it :]
Birding can absolutely be a solo activity, but it is a lot of fun in groups and can be a really enriching way to connect with other people. I go out with the local club here when we run walks, and it's a great way to learn and meet people. I met one of my best friends in the bathroom line at a pitstop when I asked if I could come on the birding day-trip she was discussing with the person beside her... LOL... and a year later the two of us went on a week-long trip across the country to go see birds. real shit. But it's nice just to have people in your network whether or not you become besties.
My experience is that you will meet people who are enthusiastic about newcomers and excited to share the hobby with you. It is really exciting to be new to birding, to get to learn and see so many things for the first time, and I think they mostly envy it hahaha. It's exciting to have little experience because you get to have the joy of gaining it! There will be arrogant jerks and clout-chasers and judgmental fools, as in all parts of life and all hobbies that attract intense types, I think, but find the people who support you and stick to them. Don't stop putting yourself out there, don't be afraid to make mistakes, stay humble, but become confident, too. Try to stay out of the nonsense drama, but speak up when it counts! And one day, when you are a cool pro, pay it forward!
I will note my experience is as someone who is usually perceived as a young white man, for what it's worth - unfortunately and unsurprisingly experiences vary. Birding is historically a hobby that attracts older white guys with money to spend. Happily, it is becoming more diverse and widespread in the modern age, and I believe we can keep improving this and forming diverse communities of accepting and welcoming people.
For groups, if you are in a big city there may be a queer birders group or a chapter of the Feminist Bird Club, which will probably skew younger, more diverse, and feel less intimidating. I am not in a big city so I straight up go to the seniors' center and that's how it is hahaha, but I really appreciate getting to make friends from all walks of life, too. Most regions have some form of communication they use - a Discord server, WhatsApp group, email listserv, Facebook chat, etc. They are often a bit more geared to rare bird discussion, but they're worth joining just to get a sense of the goings-on around you.
Social stuff aside. About the actual birds.
Finding birds
Good news about finding birds - birds are everywhere, all times of the year!!!! They are outside your window and they are further afield. You can bird from your kitchen or you can let birds take you miles into the open ocean or up into the mountains or to some sketchy sewage pond.
Which birds are around changes based on the time of year, of course. Learning the rhythm of the seasons through the birds that come and go is really rewarding. eBird hotspots are a good way to see which areas near you have high diversity of species, and to check which birds have been seen at each: https://ebird.org/hotspots
Within an area, different birds use different parts of the habitat. You'll become familiar with this over time. The Common Yellowthroat that's singing is skulking low in the wet brambles. The tight flock of birds trilling together in that fruit-bearing tree are Cedar Waxwings. The Olive-sided Flycatcher you just heard is probably perched on top of the tallest dead tree you can find. etc!
Identifying birds
To get it out of the way - the best way to become good at identifying birds is practice! Nothing can replace raw hours spent in the field looking at birds. Becoming familiar with the most common birds around you, looking at hundreds of each, is the best way to start recognizing which groups of birds act in which ways, and which weird looking bird is actually something different. And don't ever forget to keep appreciating the common ones 🙂↕️
There are a lot of tools for identifying birds, luckily. People are obsessed with it. Find a good field guide for your area - in North America, I like Sibley https://www.sibleyguides.com/product-category/books/ which is available at most bookstores. I have the big one for home and the little one (East) for the field. I also have the app which is what I actually use most while travelling (it has sounds!). It's fun just to flip through your guide and look at everyone!
Merlin is an extremely popular app. It can record the sounds around you and tell you what birds you're hearing, to generally ok success. Some people are judgy about it, but as long as you use it responsibly (verify what you're hearing yourself and don't trust it blindly), it's a useful tool. It also has a little step-by-step questions tool to help you ID a bird based on what it looks like, where it was, and what it was doing.
Which is a good segue into how to actually identify birds... A few keys:
Size/shape: These are the first line! Size can actually be very deceptive, particularly seeing a bird with no point of reference, so if you are relying on it, frame it against something nearby with a known size. Shape will tell you a lot about a bird immediately - a heron has a radically different shape than a gull than a goose than a sparrow. This applies at the broad scale I just described, as well as at finer scales - those little birds are all about the same size and colour, but the one with a needly little beak is a warbler, the slightly hooked, slightly thicker beak is a vireo, the chunky blunt one is a sparrow, and chunky pointed one is a finch.
Habitat: Birds are very choosy and use habitat in particular ways. When I step into a saltmarsh the list of birds I'm considering in my mind is immediately entirely different than what I'd be looking for in a montane forest. Many species prefer specific types of forest and even use specific areas within the tree (canopy vs midrange etc). Some species skulk low in reeds. Some perch conspicuously on fence lines. Some prefer forest edges. Some are high in the air column and never land. This can vary across the time of year (passing migrants are less picky than nesting birds). This also applies to range overall - learn what birds are expected in your region and it will immediately narrow down which species you should be considering for your ID.
Colour: A lot of people want to go here first, but it's usually one of the last lines of ID, for me. Once you figure out that a bird is a sparrow, and narrowed it down to a few based on where you are, then you can look at the colour and pattern to make the final identification. Is the streaking on its breast blotchy like a Song Sparrow, or pencil-neat and buffy like a Lincoln's Sparrow? Of course, if you see a largeish flash of vibrant orange blast between two trees, you can start from colour and get to thinking about orioles...
Behaviour: Birds can have very distinct behaviours - flycatchers love to pick an often-conspicuous perch from which they repeatedly fly out, catch insects, and return. A little dark bird with a light belly doing this in Maine is an Eastern Phoebe... but the little dark bird with a light belly eating seeds on the ground is a Dark-eyed Junco.
Sound: This one can be hard, but it's really worthwhile. It just comes with practice. Make an effort to identify the sounds you're hearing, even just one per outing - you can use Merlin to help you start. Most of the birds I record, I only hear. Most of the birds I see, I heard first. Start with the songs for the first year or two... you'll eventually naturally start to think about the call notes later if you decide that is your path. Even when I'm not birding, it's comforting to go on a walk and know who is around me, singing and calling from the trees and in the distance.
The more time you spend birding, the more intuitive this will become to you. A brief glimpse of a fat, brownish thing flying from one low bush to another immediately screams "sparrow". That other fat little brown thing has a bit more colour, is more social and musical, with a slightly pointier bill, and it's perched a bit higher - doesn't it seem more "finchy"? Step into a dry, grassy area and your brain immediately thinks "sparrows would love this". You're at a rocky coast in the winter in the northeast... maybe scanning the rocks will reward you with a Purple sandpiper? So on.
My gift to you who is reading this post: A coupon for free access to one of Cornell's little bird ID courses, that apparently just has infinite uses and never has expired lol. https://academy.allaboutbirds.org/better-birder/
Learning the parts of birds is infinitely helpful to describe and understand what you're seeing! Don't worry about it all at once. Apply a little bit each time you need it and soon you won't even think about the fact you just said "supercilium".
My final point on identifying birds: you don't have to identify every bird you see. Sometimes it's beyond your ability, and sometimes it's just not possible. That's okay! Identify as specifically as you can: that large white gull overhead can just be a "Larus species" (colloquially this kind of ID is called a sp. or "spuh"), and if you can't tell if that distant duck is a Lesser or Greater Scaup, "Lesser Scaup/Greater Scaup" (a "slash") is fine.
You don't even have to make it a goal to identify the birds you see. Enjoy them however it suits you!
Recording birds
A brief comment on a part of birding I love.... Listing..... LOL. But you don't need to be a "Lister" to record birds! You should do it in whatever way you enjoy - it's nice to keep a little diary of what you've seen, to remember the adventures you've had and see how things change from year to year. Most people I know at least keep a "life list", a record of the first time they've seen each new species.
Beyond that, you can do as much or as little as you'd like. Some people only include birds they've identified by sight. I include "heard-only" birds that I have confidently identified, as well. People keep county lists, state lists, year lists, winter lists, lists of birds they've seen in dreams, lists of birds they've been pooped on by (Bald Eagle is my crowning member of that one), anything you can imagine, really...
If you use a site like eBird or iNaturalist, your bird sightings contribute to a massive citizen science dataset, which is nice, too. Speaking of citizen science, if you are in North America, consider joining a Christmas Bird Count, the longest running citizen science project in the world! I do a few every year, and they almost always need volunteers. They can usually pair you up with someone more experienced if you're just getting started. It's a nice way to get involved locally.
Binoculars
This is a really intimidating topic that seems complicated at first (there are so many binoculars on the market and most worth buying are not a negligible price), but it can actually be pretty simple! You might already have a pair, but here is my binoculars information regardless.
The general advice birders love to give people on binoculars is "buy the best pair you can afford"... and while it's true binoculars are an investment, they're also more expensive than most people realize! Good brands that people really like here are Nikon and Vortex (which have some more affordable models, like Nikon's Prostaff line and Vortex's Diamondback), and as you get up in price you might see Zeiss or Swarovski. Bushnell and Celestron are popular budget brands. I've named some of the big ones, but I've seen all sorts of birders use all sorts of brands; some of the best birders I know use some random 20 year old bins from some brand I've never heard of lol. I've been using the Nikon Monarch M5 myself which I have really enjoyed.
My advice is to buy the pair of binoculars you will actually use. They should be comfortable to carry and provide a satisfying view. If you get neck pain, I really recommend swapping out the neck strap that comes with your binoculars for a harness, which distributes the weight much more kindly. My first bins were Not Good and I didn't really get into birding until I bit the bullet and bought a better pair. But any pair you enjoy is good! Birding only has to be as expensive as you make it. You technically don't even need binoculars, but it sure it nice to see the birds 8 times as large.
Most people use 8x42 binoculars for birding. The first number is the magnification, and the second number is the diameter of the lens; a higher ratio between these numbers means a brighter image, so for example 10x42s magnify the birds more (10x instead of 8x) at the tradeoff of being slightly dimmer, heavier, and with a narrower field of view. 8x42s are generally well-balanced for most birding contexts, such as scanning trees and bushes, but some people who do a lot of birding in open environments (like on mudflats or coastlines) prefer 10x42s.
Note that most modern binoculars have a "diopter" (usually on the right barrel, by the eyepiece) that allow you to calibrate your binoculars for the difference between your two eyes. You just have to set it once, then you can use the main focus as normal. Make sure to set it so you don't miss out on the best image!
If you wear glasses, you do NOT have to take them off to use binoculars (if you try to live this way, you're probably not gonna stick with binoculars very long...). Just roll/fold down the eyecups, and make sure to pick a model with an "eye relief" of at least 17mm or so, which describes the distance binoculars should be held from the eyes for the best image.
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And certainly not least of all, check out the ABA (American Birding Association)'s code of ethics! Whether or not you're in North America, they're a simple set of general guidelines that keep birding safe, fun, and respectful for birds and people both :]
I wish you tons of luck and fun in your endeavours! Becoming a relatively "serious" birder has totally transformed and enriched the way I exist in the world, it is so so worthwhile, whichever way you choose to do it. It's imperative more than ever that we pay attention to the nature around us and the fellow lifeforms we share this earth with!!! Feel free to ask anything else! 🙂↕️🙂↕️
Most importantly of all: just go out and see some birds! Have fun!
Imma be so real, I'm so BloodyMary pilled that these are based on Grace and Simon. Unironically. They're very similar to them. And their backstory even takes a lot of inspiration from them lmfao-
Lore dump incoming
They're both born on a space station, in a cult.
¨´*•.★¸´•. Abigail .•´¸★.•*´¨
Abigail is a troublemaker. She has boiling rage inside of her that never dies down. She ends up in prison and gets punished a lot. The main thing that the cult has found that affects her a lot is isolation and blood drownings. It breaks her and tears her down for a while, but she always finds her strength back.
Her dads were hard working men. They were cautious and always in line. But they weren't out to the cult. No one knew that two men had fallen in love and started raising an abandoned child. It was inevitable that they would be found out at some point. And their punishment was death.
One day, in one of these punishments, Abigail unlocks her powers. Her blood collects energy from light and turns explosive. Let's just say, there was a massacre that day.
Her powers also create mutations all over her body. during strong emotional deaths, they take over and it's like she becomes a completely different person.
She almost escapes. But the cult catches her. Now she's stuck playing the role of the Demon, the killer. She's put on display as an example of what the people from the cult should avoid.
¨´* ⋇⋆✦⋆⋇ Evelyn ⋇⋆✦⋆⋇ *´¨
Evelyn falls short in her duties. She's weak, fragile. She was born with low functioning eyes, she has a weak immune system, she was born too early and was deemed to die. But all she wanted to do was live. and she fought for it.
Her parents rejected her. Everyone did in fact. but that never deterred her. She tries her best to be kind. But she has difficulty controlling outbursts of anger or passion or sadness.
But she can only do so much. When she hits 21 and the cult find out that she's also infertile on top of everything else, she's deemed completely useless. Her punishment is death by fall. The earth will take her back.
So she's thrown out of the space station and plummets down to earth. in a once in a life time occurance, Evelyn was the fastest person to come into contact with the trigger for her powers and then activate those powers.
(for context, this usually takes months at a minimum)
While in free fall, she hit a flock of birds and grew wings.
She flew back to the space station. She was scared of the planet bellow. But on the station, they finally found a use for her. Fair skinned, and blind, and pure, survived a death fall and came back with wings of an angel. You can guess how a religious cult would look at her.
On the Station
For a while on the station, Abigail and Evelyn are pitted against each other as Demon and Angel. They're made to fight fake battles and act like they hate each other.
One day, while no one is watching, they have a conversation. They're both confused about what their lives have become. Abigail wanted to become a botanist for the plants on board the space station. Evelyn wanted to become a teacher.
Abigail promises Evelyn that they'll get out of here someday. Even tho they're strangers to each other, they feel a connection being in the same situation.
Abigail finds a way out. And they're about to escape when Evelyn backs out. She's terrified of being out in space again and she terrified of the planet bellow.
Abigail leaves without her but promisses to come back for her.
In regards of the Trump government scraping all trans inclusion in its queer information portion of its websites I have made this thing. Spread the word. Don't let them pretend we never existed.
P.S: Don't like! Reblog! <3
EDIT: Well this got a lot of attention! I got a few users asking to print or repost my art and I am unimaginably grateful to everyone's interest, especially since it's a really simple drawing I made on a whim haha! Anyone who is looking to print these out to hang or hand out or repost on another platform is free to do so, although I ask you to credit me and let people know it's from my Tumblr profile! If anyone wishes to do anything else with my art or post and wants to clarify what I consent to then they can message me privately and I'll explain! <333 all my love to my queer siblings
EDIT: I made an LGBTQIA+ version with a focus on trans and intersex folks, it's on my pinned if you prefer this version of the acronym.
Love that art fight starts and already I'm constantly checking to see if I've been attacked. And when I say constantly, I mean CONSTANTLY. I keep going back to check, again and again and again. Within a few minutes of checking.
I just wanna see people draw my goobers. The little sillies.
Love that art fight starts and already I'm constantly checking to see if I've been attacked. And when I say constantly, I mean CONSTANTLY. I keep going back to check, again and again and again. Within a few minutes of checking.
I just wanna see people draw my goobers. The little sillies.
nothing sexier than that picture with the italian players on top of eachother after the win and the english ones going through the 5 stages of grief in the back
BLM is still a thing. If you don’t reblog this, but would’ve in June/July you were only in support of black lives when it was a trend. They still need justice
vaporwave
turnnoffyourmind
izzy806
baratheonpilled
