burhans@mizar.usc.edu (Mustang Sally) (04/03/91)
Just got back from a trip to Bakersfield. On the two hour drive up I tried "car birding" for the first time. Am looking for tips on how to do this. For me it went like this: Oh, look! a Raven. Oh look, a bunch of Brewer's blackbirds...and OH! a flock of something. Hey..there goes some kind of hawk and a whole bunch of somethings. Oh, hey! a big bird with black on the back and a white underbelly! From my husband, helpfully, "A penguin?" Ooh, ooh, an egret like we see in the L.A. River, kinda! From my husband, more helpfully, "look up any egrets associated with farms" It was fun and frustrating both as you whiz past a bunch of birds and they whiz past you. The egret was a cattle egret doing just what the Peterson's field guide said it would...hanging out by the highway and, although quite common, still a lifer for me. I actually saw a Raven come in for a landing on the side of I5 at eye level and gained an appreciation of how big they really are. I still am bad at guaging size (my friend keeps saying its easy...Ravens are a LOT bigger than crows...but unless they are standing next to one another I can't tell). I also saw a bird perched on a highway sign; the bird was brown, stripey, and had a long tail...female ring-necked pheasant? But anyway who can give me tips on car birding. Should you avoid it if you are the driver? Should you use binocs? Should you point them forward or out the side window? Should you avoid yelling Look! Look! to the person trying to drive and avoid the other crazed maniacs on the road or what? Thanks! Bonus question for movie birders: What kind of analysis has been done regarding the birds in the movie The Birds. -- Jackie Burhans (burhans@usc.edu) Data Stylist, USC Student Affairs
wwf@oz.plymouth.edu (Dr. Wavell Fogleman) (04/03/91)
There are many of us maniacs who risk life and limb birding while driving! In my family both of us are birders and the major problem we have is getting to appointments on time. Frequent shouts of "stop, I want to look in that pond" or "What was that? Back up!" spice up almost all our car trips. There was an hilarious article in Audubon Magazine a couple of years back on the subject. Check your local library for it.
grp@Unify.com (Greg Pasquariello) (04/04/91)
In article <31546@usc>, burhans@mizar.usc.edu (Mustang Sally) writes: > > But anyway who can give me tips on car birding. Should you avoid it if > you are the driver? Should you use binocs? Should you point them > forward or out the side window? Should you avoid yelling Look! Look! > to the person trying to drive and avoid the other crazed maniacs on > the road or what? Ah, car birding! The deadly sport of birders everywhere! I've not yet met a birder that doesn't bird from the car. Some are worse than others however, and I beleive I am one of the worst. My worst experience with car birding involved the Michelin Man. The Michelin Man is this odd white puffy thing. I think he's supposed to be a stack of white tires with a head, but I'm not sure. I was stopped at a traffic light at one of those really strange intersections, where cars are always coming at you from 5 directions. On my left was a tire shop. My goal was to cross the intersection, and make a left on the far side, thus ensuring that I was traveling in the right direction. The light turned green. I began to cross. I peeked left to see if anything was coming, and there, yes right there in the parking lot of the Michelin Tire store, plain as day, perched atop a dazzling yellow Michelin van was... a Snowy Owl!! "Holy smoke!", I thought to myself, as I ran up onto the center island and bumped into the traffic light... My best experience with car birding was on the Garden State Parkway, probably one of the concentration zones for car birders (especially on a Big Day). For those of you unfamiliar with it, the GSP is 10 mile stretches of three lanes that suddenly widen to about 10 lanes with a significant barrier plopped across them. This barrier, called a toll-booth by state officials and various unprintable things by others, is a signal that everyone should immediately zoom across as many lanes as possible. You get bonus points for cutting off other drivers. Anyway, I was headed toward Brigantine, when the zoom single/tool booth loomed on the horizon. I was in the far left lane. As I glanced across the highway to see who was going to hit me, I noticed a largish gray bird perched rather horizontally in the trees on the side of the highway. Yelling BANZAI! (which, of coures, is Japanese for Northern Shrike), I cut the wheel hard to the right. Immediately, bird books, lunch bags, and various sundry peices of birding flotsam became weightless and floated through the car. I think I saw white knuckles on one of my passengers. We shot across umpteen lanes of traffic, amidst flying gravel and shreiking tires, and came to rest on the shoulder. A hundred yards behind us, perched in the same spot, sat the Northern Shrike. No one died, but then again we were lucky. Otherwise we wouldn't have seen the shrike! > > Thanks! > > Bonus question for movie birders: What kind of analysis has been done > regarding the birds in the movie The Birds. > -- > Jackie Burhans (burhans@usc.edu) > Data Stylist, USC Student Affairs -- --- Greg Pasquariello grp@unify.com Unify Corporation Be good and never poison people
misan@ra.abo.fi (Annika Forsten DC) (04/04/91)
In article <31546@usc> burhans@mizar.usc.edu (Mustang Sally) writes: > But anyway who can give me tips on car birding. Should you avoid it if > you are the driver? Should you use binocs? Should you point them > forward or out the side window? Should you avoid yelling Look! Look! > to the person trying to drive and avoid the other crazed maniacs on Don't use binocs if you are the driver. If you aren't they can be a help if you are driving a good car on a good road. Otherwise, forget it. On African roads, for instance, it isn't really possible. Mostly you end up loosing time trying to get a sharp image. You'll just have to rely on your eyes only. If you are the driver you need to learn to have several pairs of eyes and not to move the wheel while you watch. It just requires a bit of practice, if you live that long. But I supposed that being a birdwatcher you will be birding whatever you do. The trick is to really see a lot of birds while driving, i.e. not have to concentrate on the road nor the traffic. Some birders are really good at this, others (like me), not so good. My boyfriend finds a lot more birds while driving than I do when sitting beside him in the car. annika forsten
cwilliamson@pimacc.pima.edu (04/05/91)
There a certain birds you can only hope to find by car birding. For example, trips to the Salton Sea come to mind. If you cover enough miles through the agricultural fields in the winter and spring, you are bound to find a flock of MOUNTAIN PLOVERS. The search image for involves finding a certain type of freshly plowed field, and then noticing, "JESUS! Some of those dirt clods are moving!" Last year we found a flock that was in a field that had tractors working. I always feel lucky when we find Mountain Plovers. I feel lucky at the Salton Sea, and I really feel lucky to find them in the Sulfur Springs Valley in Arizona. Another fun bird to scan for from the car in the agricultural fields is BURROWING OWL. THe search image here is the rounded head, again easily mistaken for a dirt clod. Scan holes along irrigation ditches. It is always great fun to find one to show to a group of beginning birders. Chuck Williamson Tucson Az CWilliamson@Pimacc.Pima.Edu
andrewt@cs.su.oz (Andrew Taylor) (04/05/91)
In article <31546@usc> burhans@mizar.usc.edu (Mustang Sally) writes: > But anyway who can give me tips on car birding. Should you avoid it if > you are the driver? Should you use binocs? Should you point them > forward or out the side window? Should you avoid yelling Look! Look! > to the person trying to drive and avoid the other crazed maniacs on > the road or what? From experience I'd suggest shouting "Bird!" rather than "Stop!" so the driver knows its not an emergency and there is time to signal etc. before pulling off the road. Car birding is the best way to find raptors here. You can also get good photos from a (stopped) car. I'd also recommend stopping to look at interesting roadkills. A couple for a years ago I found a freshly killed (rare) Sooty Owl. Even in death a beautiful bird and a new record for the area. Andrew Taylor
sid@jato.jpl.nasa.gov (Sid Johnson WB6VWH) (04/05/91)
In article <1991Apr4.231840.5995@pimacc.pima.edu> cwilliamson@pimacc.pima.edu writes: >There a certain birds you can only hope to find by car birding. > >For example, trips to the Salton Sea come to mind. If you >cover enough miles through the agricultural fields in the >winter and spring, you are bound to find a flock of MOUNTAIN >PLOVERS. > >Chuck Williamson >Tucson Az >CWilliamson@Pimacc.Pima.Edu I never thought about car birding in this vein but Chuck is absolutely right. That is the way we found the Mountain Plovers at the Salton Sea in Febuary of this year, and the Burrowing Owls too. That we were looking for the Sand Hill Cranes and never found them is a different subject. All three are car birding oriented. Besides the Plovers and owls this technique netted several fields with Long- billed Curlews which we would not have seen had we stuck to the typical sea edge habitat. This is the same technique used when birding the Oxnard Plains in Ventura county for Plovers, Pipits, etc. Bout 10 miles per hour is about right when scouting the plowed and sod fields. -Sid Johnson Jet Propulsion Laboratory sid@jato.jpl.nasa.gov
burhans@mizar.usc.edu (Mustang Sally) (04/06/91)
In article <1991Apr4.231840.5995@pimacc.pima.edu> cwilliamson@pimacc.pima.edu writes: >There a certain birds you can only hope to find by car birding. > >PLOVERS. The search image for involves finding a certain >type of freshly plowed field, and then noticing, "JESUS! Some >of those dirt clods are moving!" Last year we found a flock that >fields is BURROWING OWL. THe search image here is the rounded head, again >easily mistaken for a dirt clod. Scan holes along irrigation ditches. It is Thanks for all the replys. This "search image" technique is especially useful. I found myself able to see a bird out of the corner of my eye flying above the L.A. River (the bird, not me) and I "knew" it was a heron cuz I saw the search image of a kinked neck. I followed it with the binocs and by gosh, so it was. Kindof impressed myself, but then, for me, that's ez. Anyway this has been most helpful! Now if only I could find a nearby bookstore that carries Birding magazine, I'd be a happy camper, er, birder. -- Jackie Burhans (burhans@usc.edu) Data Stylist, USC Student Affairs
deby@cs.utwente.nl (Rolf de By) (04/07/91)
On car birding: I was recently told that there is a new kind of bins that will allow you to view through while driving. I think the guy who mentioned it to me said it was a new model of Bausch & Lomb, but I am not sure. By some new (to me unimaginable) technique the bins sort of absorb the shocks of your hands, the car et cetera, and this creates a fairly steady image. The only other thing I remember is that the new model would be at least $1500,- and possibly more. Anyone who can confirm that it is a model of Bausch & Lomb? -- Rolf A. de By Vakgroep Informatiesystemen Tel : (0)53--893753 Faculteit der Informatica b.g.g.: (0)53--893690 Universiteit Twente Fax : (0)53--339605 Postbus 217, 7500 AE Enschede Email : deby@cs.utwente.nl The Netherlands deby@henut5.bitnet
bob@delphi.uchicago.edu (Robert S. Lewis, Jr.) (04/09/91)
In article <1991Apr7.135742@cs.utwente.nl> deby@cs.utwente.nl (Rolf de By) writes: > >On car birding: I was recently told that there is a new kind of bins that >will allow you to view through while driving. I think the guy who mentioned >it to me said it was a new model of Bausch & Lomb, but I am not sure. > >By some new (to me unimaginable) technique the bins sort of absorb the shocks >of your hands, the car et cetera, and this creates a fairly steady image. >The only other thing I remember is that the new model would be at least >$1500,- and possibly more. > >Anyone who can confirm that it is a model of Bausch & Lomb? I can't confirm the model, but I'm pretty sure I read about these in a sailing magazine. Apparently the binocs are mounted on a gyroscope. They were originally designed for use on board ships. I'll try to relocate that article and report back. Rob Lewis