Birding for Beginners

I started my Birding for Beginners class today. It's three consecutive Sundays and I'm very psyched. I have always liked birds and when my boys were small, we did a lot of nature activities, including trying to identify some birds. But I never really got good at it. In late December, I saw a notice for free bird walks hosted by the Bergen County Audubon Society and signed up for their New Year Walk.

It was a frozen and foggy morning, but I saw a ton of waterfowl. Had I not been walking with experienced birders, I would have looked at the birds and said, "Oh. Ducks." Well there were at least five different varieties in one bunch alone. So cool.

The Meadowlands Environmental Center is amazing as well. This was another place that I always meant to check out but never did. The NJ Turnpike runs right along the border, but I was surprisingly unaware of it. I couldn't hear the highway roar. Amtrak runs right by it as well. The eyesore that is Xanadu is hidden by a hill that is probably comprised of garbage.

The Bergen County Audubon Society runs free walks nearly every weekend and every Tuesday. I have not been free to go on another, but I did sign up for their email alerts and when I heard about the Birding for Beginners class, decided to carve out the time.

So. I'm going to be more aware of the birds. My husband, Mark and I fed them all this snowy winter. But I'm going to watch the feeder more. I'm going to keep bird lists. I may even consider going on a birding vacation.

I also learned about a web site that you can sign up for to keep your bird counts. When I rooted around the book shelves looking for my old birding books, I found The Birdwatcher's Book of Lists. I might take to carrying it around. I wonder whatever happened to the list of birds I made from January?

Today, I saw:
a pair of Mute Swans
3 Great Egrets - not snowy. I learned the differents
1 cormorant, but I don't know what kind
a bunch of bufflehead ducks - I got to see those through a high powered scope - so pretty!
a bunch of ruddy ducks - very cute
a red tailed hawk - but I see them all the time in my neighborhood
8 pairs of mallards
3 of this brown bird that was skinny, had a white band around its neck and a flash of orange on its back?

Anyway, birding is my new mania.