Saturday, May 16, 2009

Learning About Birdies

Some of you have commented that mum knows a lot about birdies. Well yeah, but she knows because she looks stuff up in books and on line.
Since we live in Whiskerconsin mum has a book that specialized in birdies that we are most likely to see here.
It has actual flashy box pictures and words that tell you about the birdie. Here you can see Mr Hawk!
Plus she has another book that shows all of North America birdies. Mum uses that sometimes to help her too.
This book has drawings of the birdies, lots of related birdies all on one page.
Then on the other page it tells all about the birdies too. It has maps of where you can normally or usually see these birdies.

Now there are also free online places too that can help like All About Birds. Mum started feeding birdies when she moved out here, and a few years ago particpated in The Great Backyard Bird Count. Now she counts birdies all the time during the winter with Project Feeder Watch. Anyone who likes birdies is encouraged to join and help out with either or both of the Backyard Bird Count or Project Feeder Watch.

Now mum is not an expert, she keeps her fancy flashy box handy to take pictures, then she has time to figure out exactly what birdie we are seeing. Sometimes she is convinced it is a certain birdie by the picture, then she checks where it normally lives and it doesn't live around here! So then she has to start over and figure it out.
Me, I just hang out by the windows and enjoy the birdies, bright colored ones or the brown colored ones, I love them all.

15 comments:

  1. Love your post! My mom and dad live out in the country in N. Louisiana and have a big bird feeding operation there -- they feed in the winter when they have all the migratory birds there. It is great fun to watch from the breakfast room! I have been inspired by some exchanges with Cat with a Garden and Tom and Tama-Chan to get a hummingbird feeder this year. There are no hummingbirds in Europe! (you may already know this, but it was news to me!) We have loads here -- they love the trumpet vine in our yard. Tiger and GK think bird watching is big fun too.

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  2. Wow, the birdies of Whiskercousin are wonderful! I think there are none of those birdies here. The bookstores of here are filled with books of "Birds of Costa Rica", I hope mom buys one soon, and I hope a Whiskercousin one too!

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  3. That's how we are--we love to look a birdies of different colors!

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  4. Bird books come in very handy. I always thought that the little brown birds that hang around our house were sparrows, but I found out that they are actually house wrens and house finches. I think you have a good idea to just sit and watch them, Derby.

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  5. You are going to be the smartest cat around when it comes to the birdies!

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  6. They all look very tasty, er, lovely!

    Huffle Mawson

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  7. Now that explains why your mum is so up on the birds. You do have some lovely ones come though. I can see you love them all lol. Dont we all...


    Hugs GJ xx

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  8. That's so cool! Our mom has the same book...'cept it's for Michigan cuz we live there! Our dad gave her the book and a pair of binnoculars so she could watch the birdies and tell us what kind they are....

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  9. We like to watch the fev-vers too. We didn't know they all had different names. We thought they were all called yummy.

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  10. Well that's all well and good we guess. Our humans has lots of books too. But does they know how the birdies taste like? No! Silly humans.

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  11. Our grammie is a birdwatcher too! She keeps her bird book handy by her window and her binoculars too!

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  12. Your mum is still very clever and we love learning about the bidrs you see. We don't see birdies like that in New Zealand, and you have so many bright ones that we have never seen before.

    My mum feeds the local birds too, bread and apples and this week they will be getting fruit muffins!! Lucky birds!

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  13. That's wonderful that your human pet has developed such a handful of resources for bird watching. It's awesome to explore topics on your own!

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  14. We especially like it when our mom lets us out on the balcony just before dawn to listen to the birdies waking up.

    I like your mom's bird books! Our mom has one on North American Birds too.

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Don't be shy, we loves to hear your meows and mews.