Week 4: Spring Birding

Week 4
Printable Pocket
Journal (PDF)

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to page. Cut around the grey border before folding.

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Week 4: Spring Birding
Birds come in all colors of the rainbow and all shapes

and sizes. Here are some helpful tips for birding and 3

species you can try to identify this spring.

Tips for birding:

To bird watch, you have to move through the

yard or forest stealthily. How quiet can you be?

Sit spot or make a bird blind*
Observe, Listen and Wonder
Notice colors
Use binoculars if you have them
In your Pocket Guide record the weather,
habitat, and draw a picture of the bird

Use the Cornell's Online Bird Guide or a field guide to
identify what you see

BIRDS WE WILL IDENTIFY:

Tufted Titmouse
Baeolophus bicolor

Traits: Small and stocky, crested head;

big dark eye; gray above, white below,
with peachy sides

Size: 5 inches

Habitat: forest; backyard feeders

Song: Peter, Peter, Peter

Red-winged Blackbird
Agelaius phoeniceus

Traits: male—glossy black with red & yellow
shoulder patch, conical bill; female—streaky brown,
buffy eyebrow, conical bill

Size: 8.5 inches

Habitat: marshes; wet meadows

Song: Conk-la-ree

Barred Owl
Strix varia

Traits: brown above, whitish below, chest barred
and belly streaked with brown; dark brown eyes;
yellow bill; no ear tufts

Size: 21 inches

Habitat: forest

Song: Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all?
or hoo-hoo-hoohoo

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES:

Adapted from Birds, Nests & Eggs by Mel Boring

Bird Shower

Materials:
1. Old pail with small leak or punch a small hole in the bottom
2. Old pan or lid no deeper than 1 - 2 inches

Instructions:
1. Hang pail from tree limb you can reach
2. Place pan or lid below
3. Fill pail with water, making sure it drips into the pan slowly
4. Stand back and watch the birds come to it for a drink or bath

Bird Blind

Materials:
1. Old sheet or blanket, a lawn chair, picnic table, or clothesline to drape it over
2. Rocks to hold sheet or blanket in place
OR
1. Large, empty appliance box

Instructions:
1. Place your blind near where the birds usually eat
2. Cut a hole about 6 inches from the top of the blind;
the hole should be about 2 inches by 6 inches so
you can look through it
3. Set the blind up, but wait a few days to use it so the birds get used to it as they eat
4. When ready, quietly crawl into your blind and wait patiently (Early morning and early afternoon are the best times)
5. Bring your Pocket Nature Guide and set what you see or jot down notes

NATURALIST QUOTE:
Each week we feature a lesser known naturalist in our Pocket Journal Series.
In this space you will find the full quote and more information about the author. Enjoy.

[Early bird migrations] J. Drew Lanham, Ph.D Wildlife Biologist/Ornithologist

I’m here to tell you that skin color still matters in 2011. Birding is among the “whitest”
things a person can do. I just happen to be one of the few that adds a different hue
to the mix. It’s critical that along with biodiversity we think about the human component
as something just as important. Linking humans of all hues to nature–through birds or otherwise, means that more will be engaged in trying to save it. Air, water, birds,
trees–we all need them. That word has to get out.

Changing the homogeneous face of American birding will start with the individual.
For each of us, reaching out to someone of a different hue, mode of thinking or simply different somehow than ourselves will go a long way to making birding look more like America. And that my Dear Kindred Conservationists, matters as much as the birds.

The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature (book)
Birding While Black: Does It Really Matter?, Outdoor Afro
Force of Nature: How Dr. J. Drew Lanham is Changing Birding, Garden and Gun
9 Rules for the Black Birdwatcher, Orion Magazine
About Dr. J. Drew Lanham, Audubon