mjm@oliven.olivetti.com (Michael Mammoser) (08/04/89)
In article <1769@uceng.UC.EDU>, lbechtle@uceng.UC.EDU (laurie bechtler) writes: > I have > a question for the birders out there: how did you get started? > Did you go out with more experienced birders or just go out > alone? I have field guides and records and binoculars, but > no fellow birders. I confess I haven't tried hard lately, > since there is an Audubon society here in town that I never > joined. When I first started birding seriously, I joined the local chapter of the Audubon Society. The chapter offers many field trips that are led by experienced birders. I went on as many fields trips as I could where I not only met many fellow birders, but also learned about most of the local hotspots. I recommend this avenue for any new birders, or birders new to a locale. > I passed through a large meadow and saw several > hummingbirds. How do you identify them? Here in the east we only > have one variety. I bought a western region guide and the females > look a lot alike to me, and the darn things are hard to follow! The two local breeding species are the Anna's and Allen's Hummingbird, with the Anna's being the more common. The best way to identify them is by finding males. The male Anna's has a rose colored gorget which completely covers the head, face, and throat (sort of like a helmet). The rest of the upperparts are green and the underparts are a dirty gray. The male Allen's has an orange gorget which covers only the throat. The head and back are green with extensive rufous color on the rump, sides and face. the underparts are white. The male Allen's can be confused with the Rufous Hummingbird (which migrates through the area), which has a completely rufous colored back (maybe a fleck of green here and there). The female Anna's is a pretty drab bird, being green above and dirty gray below. She may have a small spot of iridescent rose on the throat. The only other species she might be confused with would be the female Black Chinned or Costa's. The female Costa's is smaller, whiter underneath, shorter billed, and should definitely not occur in the area that you saw the hummers (they favor hot, arid areas). The female Black Chinned can be very difficult to tell from the Anna's in the field, although they also should not occur in the area that you saw the hummers (I can't be absolutely positive about this though). The best thing to do is to learn the vocalizations of the Anna's Hummingbird. Once you do this, you should be able to identify any vocalizing Anna's, male or female. The female Allen's is green above, white below, with rufous color in the tail, sides, and face. She may have spots of orange on the throat. Unfortunately, she is impossible to tell from the female Rufous in the field. > Question for Bay Area birders: I read in a Sierra Club trail book > that the Muir headlands are good for the hawk migrations in the fall. > When would this be, as I will probably go back out to SF again? The month of October would be a good time. You can expect lots of Red Tailed, Cooper's, and Sharp Shinned with fair to small numbers of Red Shouldered, Broad Winged, Swainson's, and Northern Goshawk. Mike
JAHAYES@MIAMIU.BITNET (Josh Hayes) (12/02/90)
My wife and I will be in the SF Bay area for December 18-January 4, and would like to do some birding while out there. We'll be at Stinson Beach a good portion of the time, and probably up the coast to Point Reyes, so we'll probably get lots of shorebirds there (though if there are good alternative shorebird spots, I'd like to know about them). We'll have some mobility, my wife is from the area and knows her way around, so fairly tricky-to-locate spots are still welcome. Any and all suggestions for good spots/birds to look for are welcome! E-mail or post, whichever....Thanks! ---------------------- Josh Hayes, Zoology Department, Miami University, Oxford OH 45056 voice: 513-529-1679 fax: 513-529-6900 jahayes@miamiu.bitnet, or jahayes@miamiu.acs.muohio.edu "I am the Supreme Being, you know; I'm not completely dim."