A Love for Birds
Birds live around us in every vacuum of space available. Birds are so often present that I think I take them for granted. When you consider their varied colors, habits and personalities, birds are a real treat, something to truly appreciate. I considered our bird feeder to be largely invulnerable to all creatures other than birds. We place food for land-bound animals in other locations but they prefer bird food. Earlier this summer, something began raiding our bird feeder so I placed a game camera on the feeder to identify the culprit. It was a raccoon, it’s always a raccoon. Lisa and I would occasionally review the pictures from the game camera and really enjoyed the candid pictures of birds having lunch, in addition to the pictures of the raccoon destroying the feeder..
We recently became aware of “Project FeederWatch.” This is a bird count sponsored by Cornell University which collects bird counts from people all across the country. You simply count the types of birds that visit your feeder and report the data. My thoughts are that the camera would be a very good way to gather the data and then review it at our leisure. If you are interested, check out feederwatch. org.
We discovered FeederWatch through my use of the “Merlin bird ID” app from Cornell. This app allows you to record bird calls using your smart phone. The app then identifies each bird based upon the call then gives you a picture of the bird along with background information. It works really well and you don’t have to be near the bird to use the app. You simply stand in the middle of your yard or clearing and begin recording using the app. The first time I used this bird call identifier, the types of bird just flooded in, it amazed me. You can get this little computer program wherever you normally find your apps.
There are several water impoundments around the area, many have some sort of access for bird watchers. The lagoon just west of Thief River Falls draws bird watchers locally and even internationally. When I was a board member of the Pennington Soil and Water Conservation District, a group of bird watchers from Winnipeg presented us with a list of birds recently viewed at the lagoon. As I recall it was a list typed double-space on legal paper, which means there were lot of birds.
Online, my favorite source of local birds is the Agassiz Audubon Society Facebook page. This social media page presents many highquality, close-up pictures of birds along with a description of the bird taken from all across northwest Minnesota. It’s a nice supplement to outdoor bird watching and a simple education tool.
Birds are like people, some fly south for the winter while some are here year-round. We keep a feeder and waterer available year-round but for different reasons. We know the birds who fly south are here for only a short while so we feed them so we can see them. Kind of like parents do with children in their 20s. We feed birds in the winter partially from a sense of duty but more out of a kinship for another non-hibernating being who is just trying to get through the quiet season. Maybe it is the fact that birds are one creature that adds color and sound to a season that absorbs so much of both, that makes them seem so precious to me.
