Birding - an adjustable/accessible activity!

[LunaCinder]

Hi all! I hope you're well, and that this summer is treating you kindly.
I have been trying for a long time now to find hobbies and interests that are accessible to an array of disabilities. This year, I have found something I think is a good runner-up - Birding!
Birding, as you all probably know, is where one goes and observes birds. You can observe them, catalogue them for citizen science like on ebird, paint them, photograph them, etc. There is a lot you can do with it. For the younger audiences, it's just like Pokemon Go!

Here are some ways that I have found it to be adjustable/accessible:

• it can be done sitting down/without walking. - this has been good for my high pain days, and for those like me with mobility issues in general.
• birding can be done from inside your car or house. It can really be done anywhere.
• it can be done by sound! - this is great for vision impaired/blind folk, and it's helpful for those in forested areas who might not actually be able to see the birds. hearing birdsong is calming, meditative even. Very pretty.
• birding can be done just by vision - which is great for hearing impaired/deaf folk
• it can be done outside - this helps me find motivation to be out in nature on bad days even when I can't garden
• it can be done alone, or it can be done in groups!
• it's an easy hobby to get into. You can download the Merlin app by Cornell Labs to help you get started eventually you start to recognize the birds around you. It's really cool to watch yourself and others make progress!
• anyone can do it! - city folk I know you may be skeptical but there are secretly many birds in your area. Check out any area with trees or greenery
• and finally, there have been efforts made to try and make birding more accessible in general. The Audubon Society has created a map (called "Birdability" to mark accessible trails/for people to leave reviews about their experiences with them.

There's more ways it's adjustable I'm sure, but it's hard to recall all of the mental notes I've made along the way when I've misplaced my notes. I recently moved and my life is still in bags/boxes.
But if anyone here likes birding, wants to get into birding, or just likes birds in general feel free to chat or drop a favorite bird! One of my favorites is the Yellow Warbler

 

[sunkacola]

@LunaCinder your post was edited to remove the link. Please read the forum rules....outside links are not permitted on this forum.
Thank you.

 

[JayCS]

Hiya - great to see you drop this thread!

Our birds in Europe'll be different to yours, we have no Yellow Warbler, but...

Last week I noticed our blackbirds are building a nest in our garden, now they're hatching, I'm so pleased they know we're friendly. I knew where they were building the nest and thought I could see it. But then nothing, I thought they'd decided differently. But I kept looking there from behind our hazel and today saw a head moving.

After weeks of encouraging them that we're OK. And helping them chase any "tigers" away. I lover "tigers" too, but not in our little bird paradise, esp. not when they're breeding. Our 2 squirrels apparently aren't dangerous in our garden, maybe cos they get enough to eat from us, but our "sky tiger" is a sparrowhawk. Jays are usually not considered too dangerous, but at breeding time they are, as I saw last week when a blackbird darted after one, and then another, like two poisoned darts with alarms.

The song of blackbirds are probably my fave, such astounding motifs. An evening isn't complete without him as main act before the cute cheerful friendly robins deliver the showdown right into dusk, only to start first at 3. Robins as also brilliant singers impress me that they sing all year round, first to start, last to finish, incredible.

I think I've now identified all our birds even without an app - pigeons - one has his home here, 2 blackbird families - rivalry at the moment, robins, dunnocks, great tits & blue tits (I can now usually distinguish their song and them, took a while)... chaffinch and chiffchaff we can hear nearby, but seldom visits, jays as said and a goldfinch come round occasionally, as does a blackcap, quickly moving from tree to tree (occasionally visible), a song thrush (such beautiful song) and a green woodpecker. Overhead all summer the swifts (wall gliders we call them), now increased to 30. The local church tower kestrel pair flirting. And jacks hone in to their nesting places (a carrion crow too), also on the increase, those back from Southern Europe are joining our home ones. And the occasional grey heron, sometimes very low over our garden, like recently. And 1000s of migrating geese and cranes up above. In the winter a disabled magpie was in our backyard, and often on our balcony, sometimes for hours, loving chipping away at the bird fat balls, to the delight of other birds. Sadly, one day he was gone, either a tiger or probably a sky tiger, skyger... That's nature, that's life... Oh, a sparrow pair are coming often recently, that's something new, there are gangs of them down the street, but none here, usually.

But I don't have a favourite bird, they are all my favourites, all friends. But jacks used to be, cos I once cared for one for a year or so, till it hopefully was able to survive alone - great sweet character and playmate.

I do have difficulty identifying some birds, like my wife thinks she recognizes the call of the sparrowhawk, but it doesn't fit to the audios I find on the web. But we haven't got modern smartphones, so it'd have to be online.... For flowers the rhs.co.uk tool for identifying works fine online...

 

[LunaCinder]

Apologies, i thought we could post links from .edu or .gov sites.
"You may put in your post a link to a known educational site (edu.) or government sites (.gov) or to very well known sites such as Wikipedia."
but if I misinterpreted that is on me. In the future I will not link

 

[LunaCinder]

But I don't have a favourite bird, they are all my favourites, all friends. But jacks used to be, cos I once cared for one for a year or so, till it hopefully was able to survive alone - great sweet character and playmate.

Thank you for sharing! They're so lovely, it's hard to choose just one to favorite. I love hearing about other's experiences with birds. I love your descriptions, they're so vivid! Hearing about your birdscape is wonderful. I bird a lot at school, which is in the northern US. Home is the south, and I've gotten into birding here. We have this lovely group of house finches, they're so vibrant. We also have a wood thrush, whom in my opinion has a most beautiful song!

 

[JayCS]

I bird a lot at school, which is in the northern US. Home is the south, and I've gotten into birding here. We have this lovely group of house finches, they're so vibrant. We also have a wood thrush, whom in my opinion has a most beautiful song!

It must be interesting to see the differences! Is that very far away? "Far" being relative I spose. Yeah, that red colouring is great, I found a youtube short with a small bunch. Your wood thrush is then like our song thrush, very nice.
I forgot the occasional nuthatch above.
Don't mind the green woodpecker, cos vegetarian as opposed to the "great" woodpecker (smaller than the green one).
Not sure, but pigeons may have chosen our cornel cherry to build a nest.

 

[JanetlovesJesus]

So glad to be talking and reading about birds! I live in East Texas in the heart of the Piney Woods. My mom’s absolute favorite was the red cardinal and is mine also. I love to watch the gorgeous, crimson red male bring tidbits of food to his female, who is a grayish red.

I also really enjoy the awesome blue and white blue jay, who is making a comeback after the big freeze we had here a few years ago.

The chuck’s-wills-widow is another beloved East Texas bird whose unusual call I’ve heard on an occasional summer evening but have never seen, as it is extremely well camouflaged (various shades of brown) and makes its nest on the ground.

Birding is so much fun and can really help take my mind off the pain and fatigue.

 

[JayCS]

Wow, all 3, including chuck's wills willows are just beeeautiful!