Monday, October 4, 2010

Birdwatching For Beginners - Where to Find the Birds


The fascinating hobby of birdwatching can take you into a variety of beautiful, natural settings. As a longtime birdwatcher, I've often found myself drawn into such a blissful state while scanning the lovely scenery, that I almost forget to look for birds!

Buy yourself a field guide to the birds of your area and decide what kind of birds you wish to see. You'll find that the hobby of birdwatching encourages you to build up a Life List, which is a list of all the birds that you have seen. Various habitats provide different opportunities for birdwatching.

A woodland setting allows you to see sparrows, warblers. Woodpeckers, and songbirds. In spring and fall, visit forested areas for migratory warblers and songbirds. Summer offers a view of nesting birds, though the birds may be harder to see due to the foliage.

Meadows provide an open area for viewing hawks, vultures, larks, and many other birds in flight. The flora and insects in open fields attract a variety of birds. In addition, a meadow offers a wide field of view.

Birdwatching can be exciting when you visit wetlands because many of the birds you'll see in the marshes are large, dramatic creatures that are easy to spot. Go birdwatching in or at the edge of a wetland area if you want to see herons, egrets, rails, ducks, and eagles.

Large stretches of open water not only provide you with beautiful scenery, but a vast array of birding opportunities. Gulls, terns, pelicans, and sandpipers are fun to watch. On ocean beaches, you can often see pelagic birds in the winder. Pelagic birds spend all or most of their lives on or above open water and rarely set foot on land. You can watch the amazing flights of gannets from your beachfront balcony.

And don't forget one of the best places to birdwatch - your own back yard. Provide food and water to attract a wide variety of birds that you can view from your window. Sparrows, cardinals, mockingbirds, robins, finches, chickadees, nuthatches, and smaller woodpeckers are fond of back yard bird feeders.








Learn more about how to attract birds to your yard. This site contains photos, videos, links, and tons of information on how to transform your back yard into a bird sanctuary - http://hubpages.com/hub/BackYardBirdSanctuary---AttractBirds-oYourYard.

If you are thinking about taking up the hobby of birdwatching, this site provides tons of info, links, pictures, and videos to get you started -http://hubpages.com/hub/BirdWatching---ABeginersGuidetoBirdWatching.


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