[rec.birds] Questions from a novice Birder

burhans@mizar.usc.edu (Mustang Sally) (03/22/91)

I can't believe how long it took me to find this group! What fun!
I've been birding since December 26th (my sister in law got me
the Western field guide to birds for xmas) and am having lots of fun.
At this stage, practically *every* bird is a a life bird. Anyway,k
I have three questions.

1) I'm interested in getting a good pair of compact binoculars.
   I have been advised against compacts but I do a lot of running,
   esp on trails in the San Gabriel mountain range (saw a red tail
   hawk at eye level and a coupla circling ravens (lifer!) this Sunday)
   and would like to carry them in a fanny pack so I can stop and watch.
   Don't want to spend scads of money at this stage $100-150 ish. Light
   weight is what I'm looking for.

2) I've been catlogging birds on campus here at 'SC (house sparrows,
   rock doves, morning doves, scrub jays, one northern flicker and
   lots of mockers) and recently found what looks like a MoDo nest atop
   a light fixture on a balcony by my office. Saw one bird sitting and
   another bringing twigs. So the question is, if its a nest and there
   are little modo eggs, how long before I see little baby modos?

3) My sister-in-law is getting married and going to Spain for her
   honeymoon and I'd like to find a good bird book for her. As she
   is learning Spanish, I'd like be interested in a spanish language
   one.

Thanks a lot!
-- 
Jackie Burhans (burhans@usc.edu)          
Data Stylist, USC Student Affairs

andrewt@cs.su.oz (Andrew Taylor) (03/23/91)

In article <31274@usc> burhans@mizar.usc.edu (Mustang Sally) writes:
> 1) I'm interested in getting a good pair of compact binoculars. ...

I really like my Nikon 9x25CF. Their performance is excellent for
their size and price (~ US$100). Their field-of-view is smaller and 
their optical quality is not quite that of my previous (non-compact)
Nikon 7x35s but when I'm bushwalking, photographing or botanising I
really appreciate their small size and weight. The only time I miss
the 7x35s is looking at birds in the darkness of the rainforest floor.

>    are little modo eggs, how long before I see little baby modos?

Incubation is 13-14 days.

> 3) My sister-in-law is getting married and going to Spain for her
>    honeymoon and I'd like to find a good bird book for her. As she
>    is learning Spanish, I'd like be interested in a spanish language
>    one.

Peterson's Field Guide to the birds of Britain and Europe gives
the bird names in various languages including Spanish. Reading a foreign
language field guide is challenging because the nouns are unusual.

Andrew Taylor

dmark@acsu.buffalo.edu (David Mark) (03/23/91)

In article <2222@cluster.cs.su.oz.au> andrewt@cluster.cs.su.oz (Andrew Taylor) writes:
>
>Peterson's Field Guide to the birds of Britain and Europe gives
>the bird names in various languages including Spanish. Reading a foreign
>language field guide is challenging because the nouns are unusual.
>
>Andrew Taylor

My copy, "Fouth Edition, Revised and Enlarged", 1983, has the names of all 
the birds in British, Dutch, German, Franch, and Swedish, plus "North American"
if different from British, but no Spanish.  Is there a revised edition that
adds Spanish?  I don't think so.  Fortunately, the wardens I met at nature
reserves spoke French, and so the French names in the guide were helpful.

David Mark
dmark@acsu.buffalo.edu