Ask us about birding! [not the pet birds thread]

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Pet Island > Ask us about birding! [not the pet birds thread]

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

I'm more of a Wildlife photographer than a birder, but a UK goon checking in. I have to say those of you in the New World have it easy; your birds are way less timid.

Ospreys are mostly likely seen 100m on a reserve, and you're not allowed any closer. Our Golden eagles go out of their way to avoid human activity, so if you are lucky enough to see one it'll be a far away speck soaring high above the most remote parts of Scotland. Plus I'm jealous of your wilderness. Living in the south east of England, I basically have access to urban areas, farmland, or carefully managed natures reserves in which you're under strict orders to stay to well-trodden paths.

Not to mention your wolves, coyotes, bears, beavers,.... Our landed gentry shot all of ours.

# ¿ Sep 6, 2013 20:24

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 17:29

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

800peepee51doodoo posted:

You know, it took moving to Oregon to really appreciate just how much wilderness we have here. I lived in southern California my whole life and just assumed that the entire country was a paved over suburban strip mall hellscape. Turns out the western US has a lot of natural areas that are still pretty well protected. And big!

For comparison, here is a depressing look at the lack of wilderness in Britain/Europe. If you squint there's a bit in Scotland.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21847507

# ¿ Sep 6, 2013 21:25

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

BeastOfExmoor posted:

I wish we had WT Kites here. They expanded north and actually ventured into the Puget Sound area on rare occasions for a few years, but they completely retreated about a decade ago. Amazing birds.

Red Kites are a success story here in Britain. They were doing pretty terrible and were at risk of extinction; by the 1970s they were restricted to a small, undisclosed range in Wales. They've now bounced back, aided by some reintroduction programmes, and have greatly expanded their range. I'm rather fond of them, mainly because they're our largest raptor that has any sort of tolerance to people.

http://www.bto.org/about-birds/bird-of-month/red-kite

# ¿ Sep 6, 2013 23:21

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

The state of birds of prey in the north of England is all rather depressing
http://raptorpolitics.org.uk/2013/09/17/bowland-raptors-the-final-solution/

# ¿ Sep 18, 2013 20:07

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

Only a minority of our population are shooters, but the estates are owned by the landed gentry and shooting is a sport of the ruling class.

Two hen harriers dead, one prince questioned, no charges.

# ¿ Sep 18, 2013 20:51

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

Balaeniceps posted:

stuff

Explained better I could. Our currently environment minster does seem to be the equivalent to Republicans who put creationists in control of the science curriculum.

# ¿ Sep 20, 2013 20:09

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

Earlier this week I went to RSPB Snettisham. It overlooks The Wash estuary and is famous because high tides forces the wintering waders in to massive flocks. Spring tides complete cover the mudflats and forces them all in to the air.

The sound of >30 thousand waders taking off in unison is remarkable. Visually, it also rather cool, with the murmuration* suddenly switching from black to white to black as the waders change direction (a lot of the wader species being dark on top than underwing).

This might not work outside the UK, and the video compression ruins the spectacle, but:
http://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/s/snettisham/video.aspx

The footage of the distance flock as a weaving, amorphous blob are taken looking out over The Wash. The close-up of the shuffling knots are where lots of the birds take refuse in the RSPB maintained gravel-pit, waiting for high-tide to reverse. Unfortunately the day I was there was apparently an appearance of a peregrine which flushed a lot of the birds in the other direction.

Anyone else been, or have something similar in your corner of the world?

* technically Murmuration is the collective noun for flocked starling, but I'm not sure if there is a formal one for a mixed flock of waders.

Pablo Bluth fucked around with this message at 19:37 on Oct 25, 2013

# ¿ Oct 25, 2013 19:34

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

Anyone else received a copy of the BTO's Britain & Ireland Bird Atlas? It's half a dead tree!

# ¿ Nov 21, 2013 20:24

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

BeastOfExmoor posted:

British birding is kind of incredible to me because it's so much more popular there then here. The fact that there's enough demand to create a book like that. Many states in the US have similar titles, but they're way less inclusive and hard to keep in print. We also still have lots of "mystery birds" whose breeding locations and occurrence is not well known. Washington's local guides contain lots of phrases like, "Probably occurs near the cascade crest."

Well, a combination of popularity and overpopulation. It's easier to do a systematic search when you have almost nothing that approaches wilderness any more. I'd trade the bird atlas for a Yellowstone.

# ¿ Nov 28, 2013 09:33

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

So Cyclone Bodil has made a mess of all the coastal nature reserves on the Norfolk coast. Relatively rare habitat is now under sea water.

# ¿ Dec 6, 2013 22:08

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

A report on how much of a mess our recent storm surge caused. Not quite Hurricane Sandy, and it didn't really hit too much urban development but still a mess.
http://birdguides.com/webzine/article.asp?a=4113

# ¿ Dec 11, 2013 22:05

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

So the RSPB's 2012 Bird Crime report is out. Sounds like it's bad news again. They just tweeted this photo of a pigeon tethered to a rock and covered in poison. There are some terrible, terrible people.

# ¿ Dec 13, 2013 10:27

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

Shooting estates. Massive amounts of our countryside belongs to the landed gentry, who love to pheasant shoot. They release millions of birds each year, then get huffy when a small percentage get eaten. For the first time since 1960, no Hen Harriers managed to breed successfully in England; there's enough suitable habitat for 300 pairs.

Pigeon-fanciers. Their pigeons disappear and they blame Peregrine Falcons. In the report there is a photo of an device they strap to pigeons that would cause any peregrine to get tangled to the pigeon and die.

Egg collectors.

Shepherds blaming Golden/White-tailed for loses.

# ¿ Dec 13, 2013 21:09

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

Not really*. I can only speak for the UK, but garden bird feeders is a national pastime. Just keep them clean to avoid spreading Trichomonosis and what not.

* There is an argument to be had that the land, fuel and water required to grow and transport the millions of tons of bird food around the world is ultimately counterproductive and it'd be better to give the land over to wilderness.

# ¿ Jan 6, 2014 00:20

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

InternetJunky posted:

The only thing I've heard is that if you're going to offer a feeder during the winter in Canada you pretty much have to commit to keeping it full for them for the entire winter since there just isn't enough food naturally to support them otherwise. I'm not sure I buy that completely, but on days like today when it's below -40 with wind chill my feeders are completely full of birds the entire day. I'm sure a lot of them would simply die if I didn't keep the feeders full.

There is research that shows that when feeders become empty the birds don't always disperse quickly in search of new food sources, but hang around for a while. Repeated yoyo-ing between plenty and empty feeders is unlikely to be good for the population.

# ¿ Jan 6, 2014 10:37

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

As I Brit/European, I can confirm that is the gold standard for European bird guides. The book section of Birdforum.net can be a useful place to find out which are the best guides for different regions.

Pablo Bluth fucked around with this message at 10:21 on Jan 22, 2014

# ¿ Jan 22, 2014 09:49

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

I get a GSW visiting my garden too. If it has both a red bum and back of the head, it's a male, but just a red bum and it's a female.

# ¿ Feb 1, 2014 18:19

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

On the subject of game birds, long lost footage of the extinct Heath Hen.

# ¿ Mar 11, 2014 21:56

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

I've never been to Austin but: This map of Bird hotspots near Austin lead me to the site for Hornby Bend Bird Observatory which seems to suggest that now is good migration time.

# ¿ Mar 18, 2014 21:50

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

It's been revealed that a pair of European Bee-eaters have breed on the south coast of England. They're only known to have successfully done so twice before (1955, 2002). I'm not sure I could come up with a 'edge of range' species I'd more like to see expand permanently in to the UK.

http://markavery.info/2014/07/28/beeeaters-iow/

# ¿ Jul 29, 2014 19:48

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

The real psycho of the bird world sounds like the Steamer Ducks.

# ¿ Oct 29, 2014 00:37

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

Kenshin posted:

I need a bit of advice here, though it might be just as appropriate for the birding photography thread.

I'm trying to find a (legal and ethical) way of getting close enough to Tufted Puffins (on land) to get good photos of them. So far my best idea is volunteering to help do some of the grunt work inherent in research in exchange for getting close to them during nesting season. There is a professor who works out of the University of Puget Sound who is one of the few people allowed to go to Protection Island and Tatoosh Island, two of the very few places near Seattle where the puffins nest.

Alternative ideas? My next best idea is flying up to Sitka, AK, and hiring a local with a boat, but that seems like something that would need substantially more research to be anything more than a total crapshoot.

Does anyone else have any experience with something like this?

Obviously I could go on a peliagic tour and hope for the best but that isn't really what I'm going for here as I'd like to get non-flying, non-swimming pictures.

Chris Dodds runs a workshop to place called Saint Paul Island in Alaska that includes Tufted Puffins, although it's not exactly cheap. There's a small town on the island so you could try arranging your own trip.

# ¿ Dec 3, 2014 09:29

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

BetterLekNextTime posted:

I posted this in the other thread- St. Paul is pretty remote but has some nice birding and photography opportunities. Besides seabirds (including Red-legged Kittiwakes and Thick-billed Murres that can be hard to find elsewhere), there's blue-morph Arctic Foxes and a big fur-seal colony. If you are really into listing, it's a good place to try for vagrant species from Asia.

So you did. It's not exactly the right side of the world for me but it's on the already too long list of places I need to visit. Living in the south of England, I'm fortunately to have a colony of Atlantic Puffins in an affordable location. They really are great birds to watch and brilliant photography subjects.

Now we're in pets, presumably this would be the ideal time to muse that pet cats are an ecological disaster...

# ¿ Dec 3, 2014 23:06

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/ourwork/b/martinharper/archive/2015/05/06/bad-news-from-bowland.aspx

Bastard(s).

# ¿ May 6, 2015 19:53

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

waffy posted:

Anyone want to offer their opinion on cameras to document birds? The OP does mention this, but since it's over 3 years old, it seems worth asking again.

My aim is to do as well as I can under $500. I've been primarily looking at superzoom cameras, since I would really like something that's fairly easy to use, not massive/heavy, and has plenty of reach to have a shot at capturing birds in the distance. I understand a DSLR will always provide the best image quality, but I'm willing to sacrifice some of that for these other factors. I'm mainly looking for quality that's good enough to identify a bird after the fact, and tag on my eBird checklists with reasonable clarity (not looking to blow them up and frame them on my walls or anything).

I've been looking at the Canon Powershot SX60 HS (the OP recommended the SX50 at the time), but am waiting to see if the price drops lower than where it's at. Does anyone else use this camera, or a perhaps a similar alternative that I should be considering for birding? I'd be interested in hearing any perspectives on these.

Side note: My wife actually has a Canon DSLR, but not with any lens with enough zoom, so another option would be for me to just invest in a new lens to accomplish this. I'm sure this would be the preferred approach of any true photographer; however, I'm not convinced I could easily do this within my budget, especially if I want something portable enough to carry alongside binoculars. But if anyone disagrees, feel free to educate me!

Normally on internet photography forums, bridge cameras are generally given a hard time; neither offering the best quality nor the smallest and lightest package but a slight awkward middle ground. However over in the camera subforums of Birdforum.net, there's a definite crowd of happy superzoom bridge camera users. If your after record shots of what you've seen, often at some distance, they do make sense. To get the same amount of reach with a DSLR as the superzoom bridge models you need to spend a lot more and live with a much bulkier solution. Plus a DSLR can't solve the problem that for birds in the distance, atmospherics is often a major limit of quality. The Canon SX50, Nikon P900 and Panasonic FZ1000 all have long threads on Birdforum, I'd read them both to get an idea of their strengths.

The two areas where a DSLR will have an advantage is responsiveness (autofocus speed, writing photos to the card, response to commands) and high ISO/low light conditions.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2017 09:42

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

Birdwatch from ther sofa...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHX9l2cvw-E

# ¿ Jan 26, 2018 19:01

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

https://www.audubon.org/gear/binocular-guide
Suggests some of the best options in each price tier.

The other usual advice is not to go overboard on the magnification...

Pablo Bluth fucked around with this message at 22:41 on Jun 14, 2018

# ¿ Jun 14, 2018 22:35

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

eBird by Cornell has become the dominant player.

# ¿ Jan 26, 2019 13:11

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

It's definitely a Ruddy Turnstone. Their range is incredibly global so they can show up anywhere.

# ¿ Jul 15, 2020 12:30

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

What exactly does she have at the moment?

# ¿ Nov 14, 2020 19:40

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

I've ended up in a Swarovski family. My dad's full size ones are amazing but also insanely expensive. I carry some 10x25 CL pockets whose tiny size goes well with my heavy camera gear. Those are below $1k but while the quality is great you are inherently giving up a lot for their small size so you really need to value the bulk reduction ("the best binoculars are the ones you have on you"). In-between they do have CL 8x30 Companions, which my sister has. They're much less of a compromise size-wise and the quality is great. That said, they're still outside your budget but they seem to be $1200 at the moment so maybe stretchable?

Unfortunately I don't have experience with other brands...

# ¿ Nov 14, 2020 20:59

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

It'd be useful to know what "a pair of regular binoculars" translates to and what the recommendation needs to improve upon. The friend's "good pair" brand would help too.

# ¿ Nov 14, 2020 21:27

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

Claeaus posted:

Thanks a lot everyone! Currently she's using some 8x $20 binoculars from the local hardware store so anything would be an improvement really.

In that case, the full $1000 is probably overkill. Unless her friend has $1000+ bins and she's set her heart on something in the diminishing return territory.

# ¿ Nov 16, 2020 00:50

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

There's definitely clique in birdwatching of old guys who like to show off, look down on newbies and mansplain. Sooner or later you'll come across some in bird hides. There's also a large cross over with people who see it more as a competitive collecting ticks game; there' not there for a nice chill in the countryside.

That said, I'd go with somewhere like Birdforum over facebook.

# ¿ Feb 3, 2021 23:31

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/dec/31/twitching-british-birdwatching-wild-side

This '96 documentary is about some of the same guys.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9K_KLueFR0&t=1s

It's fair to say that the Evans guy is a somewhat divisive character...

# ¿ Feb 4, 2021 00:08

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

Owlkill posted:

Is it possible to get a camera that would be decent enough for zoom shots of garden birds for less than around £200 (roughly $275)?

I don't mind buying secondhand and I know that for that sort of money I won't be getting anything near professional results, but I was wondering if it's possible to get a step up from phone camera shots at that sort of price point.

I think it'll have to be second-hand. I'm not aware of anything going at that new that has the telephoto nature in the price-range.

Option one would be a user DSLR and lens setup. However you will be hitting the limit of what is possible; mainly because of the lens. You can get an early DSLR body for not very much (a 2008 Canon EOS 40D is now �89. It's only 10 megapixels and it's features don't compare to modern offerings but people used them to take great photos back then and you can still use them to take great photos now). However longer telephoto lenses haven't fallen so far. A Canon EF 75-300 which is the very entry level telephoto option is still �275. However they do have a Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 DG OS, Canon EF Fit for �149. So You could do a 40D + Sigma 70-300 for �238. There would be absolutely nothing fancy about that setup but you'd be on the journey of becoming a bird photographer.

Superzoom bridge cameras have come a long way and I think they actually make more sense for birders who want record shots of distant birds. People tend to think that 'big cameras' like DSLRS are better for 'zooming in on distant objects' but they're actually more about better quality at near or middle distances. It's easier for small-sensor cameras like bridge-cameras to provide high levels of magnification in a camera that doesn't weight so much you leave it at home. One of the problems with bridge cameras ten years ago was a tendency to offer headline specs but provide an underwhelming user experience (slow CPUs etc) and weak quality (lenses that had a lot of magnification but poor quality, and poor low-light sensor performance). If you go that route I'd definitely research user reviews on the specific model you're looking at.

There's not such a big second hand market but you could try to track down something like a Fujifilm HS50EXR
https://www.flickr.com/groups/2155651@N24/pool/

# ¿ Feb 4, 2021 19:44

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

Tears In A Vial posted:

My second hand sigma 500mm was just �300 and I love it. It's not going to win me any photography awards, but I get some nice stuff out of it.

Which sigma 500 goes for �300?

# ¿ Feb 4, 2021 20:14

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

Tears In A Vial posted:

I got a second hand Sigma 170-500mm f/5-6.3 APO DG, Canon EF Fit for �310 in January 2018.

Is that unusual? I'm not hugely knowledgeable.

Edit: It was from MPB.

No idea, my knowledge of sigma lenses and their resale value is limited.

# ¿ Feb 4, 2021 20:40

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

What sort of habitat terrain where you at? Even though vagrants are always a possibility, range and habitant is an important part of narrowing down to likely candidates. Marsh harriers are primarily a wetland species whereas buzzards are more widely distributed.

ebird, BTO's BirdTrack and the BTO's Mapstore (eg Marsh Harrier maps, I find relative abundance the most useful) are all useful resources for understanding range, moreso than the maps typically found in fieldguides.

# ¿ Feb 6, 2021 18:51

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 17:29

Pablo Bluth: Sep 7, 2007; I've made a huge mistake.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rC43bc8jZ98

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0dzu_6sfSg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sB_-cBAUZ8

In flight, a marsh harrier probably reminds me more of a red kite than a buzzard.

The real challenge is trying to differentiate Common Buzzard and Rough Legged Buzzard. The latter are a rare winter visitor so for the most part it's not something to worry about; if I've seen one I've been blissfully unaware of it! However living in Kent, Tears In A Vial has more chance than me...

https://www.birdguides.com/articles/species-profiles/focus-on-rough-legged-buzzard/

# ¿ Feb 7, 2021 11:27

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Pet Island > Ask us about birding! [not the pet birds thread]

«‹›2 »