by    28

Birding 101 – starts now.

Jumping!

We are the end of the intros and the beginning of the start. I am about to present the plan of the e-book and the blog series that will build it.  In a way it feels like I imagine parachuting feels like. A great abyss below me and I still jump – hoping the parachute will open. To land this project in a timely manner I rely on the parachute. I will still need to direct the chute to get to the right landing place…and I will still have to land it myself.  Without it? Crash landing!

I have asked many of  my blogging and social media friends to help me out. To be my parachute. I haven’t given them much lee time, so I am still waiting for some replies. I will not compromise anyone by naming them here if they have not yet confirmed.  Check back again and again to see who have confirmed to be part of the project.

I am aware that this is a new approach to birding. It scares me. It probably scare others.  I met resistance from some birders on Facebook. I am not selling anything. I am giving away. Maybe that wasn’t clear?  Furthermore, it is not about me. It is a communal project with lots of other people making it possible.  It is principally about you, who just have become interested in birds.  It is about giving you a tool. A useful tool for you, but not only for you. This tool you can share without limits with everyone you know. Let it go viral.

Maybe I want too much and too fast for my own good.  I had hoped ABA could lead this project. But I understand it would have been difficult. One needs to convince the board and the members, that a Swedish guy who lives in Peru who says one does not need binoculars to start birding, wants the American Birding Association to lead in producing a free downloadable manual to birding in the digital age saying just that.  Yeah, right!

I shall try to land this thing myself with the help of the parachute. Some people I have written will perhaps not have the time to help out. Others are inhibited by the company or organization they work with. That is OK.  We fully support all the organizations mentioned in this project, and hopefully they will also do their share of cross promoting once the product is ready.

As far as I can see, the main thing is to get this done. The rest we shall deal with later. If the product is good and useful, there is nothing that can stop it. Remember it is free.

I am ready to jump. The parachute is this list of content for the forthcoming e-book, here presented as a blog. I hope I can find the people to build it. And if not, by the end of this week, each section which has NOT a name assigned to it, perhaps you, dear reader and supporter of this project, can suggest people willing to fill the still empty slots. Please give suggestions, of great people to work with, in the comment section below.

Blog lay-out – list of content.

The About section gives you a good background of the goals.  Contrary to most manuals about birdwatching, this series will start with online resources and how to pick a point and shoot camera for birding, to eventually make mention of more traditional ways into birding. Binoculars are not discussed until Chapter 10!

This may seem strange. Birders argue that it can’t be proper birding without binoculars and to get binoculars before anything else.  But think for a while more organically. Most people who care about birds are not “birders”. They feed birds. Or they take a snapshot with a point and shoot camera. Or they make casual observations.
It is far too early to say: Buy binoculars!  It builds up to that point eventually. We will take it slow. We want to reach the masses. We don’t want to scare anyone away.

This slow process and this project will gradually convert casual observers into the next level.  A fully fledged birdwatcher.

The schedule – 22 25 chapters

I shall not give exact dates, but considering that the series consists of 22 chapters it shall take about three months, with 2-3 chapters published each week, to finish the series.  If you have not done so already, I suggest you sign up of  for the email updates, so you don’t miss any of the chapters. There is some great stuff ahead. One important central piece to this project  is a content managing system, which shall collect a lot of North American birdwatching resources into one website.  This we shall have to build together as a community. Every reader of this blog, can become a provider of information to the content. More about this below.

Chapter 1.  Birding on the web.
Online resources. (Gunnar Engblom).
A tour to various online resources you can start using today to learn more about birds and to get help in identifying birds you have photographed.

Chapter 2.  Birding with Point and Shoot Cameras.
Steven Ingraham of Zeiss Optics gives you an introduction what to think of when choosing a  suitable megazoom P&S digital camera.

Chapter 3. Feeding the birds.  The best tricks how to feed the birds, when to start and when to end and what to give them. We will also link to some feeder web-cams on the internet that you can check out (give us your best feeder cam tips).  Eventually, you may want to join the feeder watch program of Cornell Lab of Ornithology. See below.  (Author to be confirmed)

Chapter 4: Feederwatch. Bird populations undergo changes. Modern threats such as climate change, pollution, urban development also influence the populations. It is important to watch these changes. One way to collect massive amount of data, for scientists to use in their analyses, is persuading the public to send their observations to Feederwatch.  (Author to be confirmed)

Chapter 5. Bird Gardening
It is not only about feeding the birds if you have a big back yard. You may also shape the environment to become more bird friendly.  Carole Sevilla Brown show her top easy tips without having to become a full-time gardener.

Chapter 6.  Local suppliers for bird feeding and bird gardening.
We shall list owners of  stores for supplies of bird food and bird-gardening such as owners of Wild Birds Unlimited and Wild Bird Centers stores who are also bloggers and active in social media.
If  bird-feeding and bird-gardening interest you, you will  learn a lot from these. If you own or run a store which sells supplies for bird-feeding and bird gardening, and you also blog or are active in social media let me know and I will include you in the list.

Additionally, this is where the content managing system will begin.  We shall build a store locator for US and Canada. All stores shall be found on a Google map within the system.

This will be labor intense. Maybe someone from Wild birds Unlimited and from Wild Bird Centers could send us an excel file of all their stores. Also other franchises that sell bird food (please suggest names of such franchises) could do the same.
Everyone, shall be able to help to enter their favorite suppliers in the content system.

Visitors to the site will be able to rate stores and leave comments. The owners of each store will be able to manage their information.  Gunnar Engblom is building the content managing system.

Chapter 7.  Blogging – showing your birds to the world
Although, Facebook is great for sharing photos once in a while. You may want to share more and report from your explorations. Some simply delivers a nature diary of their explorations, while others concentrate on providing useful content for others. Robert Mortensen, Gunnar Engblom share some of their secrets.
We also hope to hold a webinar about bird blogging. Would you be interested?

Chapter 8. Social Media for birders.
Gunnar Engblom list various platforms and give ideas how to connect with other birders locally and worldwide.

Chapter 9. Birding with DSLR
What is ideal for bird photographer? How serious do you want to get? How long lenses do you need? What do cropping-sensors and megapixel really mean? Tradeoffs? Budget? A professional bird photographer will go through these items. (Yet do be defined)

Chapter 10.  Choosing binoculars.
In spite of promoting bird photography as entrance point to birding, in the end you really do need a pair of bins. You see so much more details with binoculars and you will find it easier to take a record shot if you located the bird first in the binoculars. Most old-time birders, will tell you that while getting a picture is great, the best experience of behavior and grace about birds you experience live with binoculars.  If you have reached this stage you should really consider getting binoculars.

In this post an expert (to be defined) will guide us through what to think of when choosing binoculars.  And give a range of tips of binoculars for beginners and especially highlighting inexpensive binoculars and binoculars for kids. 

Nothing beats visiting a dealer before buying to test the optics, why below we list all the binoculars outlets in the US and Canada that we know of. Some are even have panorama windows so you can test them in conditions close to the field conditions.  Another good idea is to visit birding festivals and test binoculars there.

We shall start listing all birding optics outlets in the US and Canada in the content managing system. Again, please help us inserting the data and get in touch with the owners to manage their entries.  I shall announce the content managing system within the coming  2 weeks. Keep your eyes open for this.

Chapter 11. Choosing telescope for digiscoping.
While a telescope may feel like a huge investment for someone who got into birding via a point and shoot camera it brings some advantages.  Apart from being able to finally see some details on those pesky sandpipers on the mudflat, it also opens up fantastic opportunities for long-range photography exploring the technique called digiscoping. It is also a cheaper alternative than extremely long lenses for the DSLR.

We hope to get the leading experts from the field to give their tips here.  Stay tuned for announcement of who they are. 

Chapter 12.  Describing a bird – what to look for to identify a bird yourself.
One of the pitfalls that traditional birders often mention about photography verses birding, is that the photographer stops looking at the bird while shooting away. Some information may not make appear in the photo. What was the relative size? How did the bird appear? What was it doing? What did it sound like?  We hope a major field guide author will cover this topic for us.  Stay tuned! Kenn Kaufman has confirmed to write this section.

Chapter 13. Identifying birds – field guides, apps and additional online resources
Sooner or later you will want to learn to identify birds by the means of a field guide or a birding app for your tablet or smartphone. There are also online resources for identifying birds. Grant McCreary and Drew Weber will go through the books and apps and give a fast review of what is available.

Chapter 14. Birding by Ear.
How to learn bird calls. Resources on line for bird calls. An expert on birdcalls, namely Tony Gallucci will write this chapter.

Chapter 15. The economics of birds and birding.
Ted Lee Eubanks has a long history of building resources for birders and building communities which supply services. Ted will show us that birding is not only fun, but it makes for good sustainable business which protects habitat and the birds we love. More birders =>More business=>More conservation.

Chapter 16. The Benefits of birding. 
Dave Magpiong will show how birding can improve your life – health, cognition, social life, development of children, mental acuity for seniors etc.

Chater 17. Birder ethics for digi-birders

Birder have a long tradition of setting up ethics for how to behave as a birder approaching the birds. Drew Weber will summarize a set of good standards for people who photograph birds. These standards have been selected in a survey given to bird photographers.

Chapter 18.  Become a better birder. Join a club.
A prominent birder (to be announced) will make a case why join a bird club.

For the content managing system all birding clubs and Audubon chapters across the US and Canada will be listed.
In reality it will be something of an updated  combined listing of the following resources:

https://find.mapmuse.com/map/birding-clubs

https://www.aba.org/resources/birdclubs.html

https://www.thebinocularsite.com/consumer/birding/bird-clubs-in-north-america.html

This will be labor intense, but again possible cooperating. A current Excel file from Audubon with all the local chapters would be a great start. Who has the contact details to get this?

Once every birdclub is responsible for their own information in the content managing system, they shall also be able to upload all events including talks and field trips to the event calendar which is build into the content managing system.

Chapter 19. Birding Magazines.
We shall list the major birding, birdwatching and bird gardening magazines in North America – and give a short review for each. Please provide contact details to editors/owners of these in the comment section below. (Need someone to be responsible for this section. Suggestions? Volunteers?)

To be listed the magazine must promise to

  1. Mention Birding.com.co in their magazine and website with link.
  2. Put a link to download the ebook on their web-page when it is ready.

Chapter 20. Birding Festivals.
Which are the best birding festivals in North America?  Perhaps we make the users decide in a survey. Hope to get a birding festival organizer to lead this topic.

Again we shall use the content managing system to place the birding festivals on a google map, as well as show the dates for each in the event calendar.

Chapter 21. Listing and ebird.
Many birders keep lists. Now lists can be kept on line. Ebird from Cornell Lab of Ornithology is one of the most important where your records also contributes to research.  Chris Wood from E-bird will write this chapter. A few desktop software and apps for smartphones shall also be discussed here.

Chapter 22.  Bird Conservation
American Birding Conservancy protects birds in the North America and in Central and South America.  ABC president Mike Parr presents ABC.

Chapter 23. Bird Travel
It is becoming more and more popular to look for birds further and further away from home.  Bird Tour Operators – a selected list of bird tour operators.

To be listed the bird tour operator must promise to:

  1. Upload a link to The  blog – to start with,
  2. Upload a link to Download the e-book
  3. Mention the blog and the e-book in their newsletter to their clients.

We need a volunteer to lead this topic. Anyone who has traveled a lot can do this.

Chapter 24. Make someone near you a birder.  Pledge to Fledge.
A wonderful new global movement to get more people involved into birding. It is simple. Just take someone birding. Next event is April 26th-28th 2013. Richard Crossley has agreed to summarize what the movement is and how you can get involved.

Chapter 25. Share this. Spread this.
The more people who get into birding, the more resources there would be for birding itself, for bird conservation and any type of birding business. Do yourself a favor. Do the birds a favor. Share this and spread this as often as you can. Print it entirely! Give it away!

You are not allowed to sell it!

The end

So what do you think? Will this work? Looking forward to your feed back in the comment section.
In the end it depends on how many people share the message. Share this and earlier posts with your friends on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Make a blogpost about this project. Send some links to friends via email.

If you liked this post, you may want to subscribe to this blog.  The first post is due in a couple of days. And Stephen Ingraham has prepared a monster post for Chapter 2 about digital point and shoot cameras. You really don’t want to miss any posts.

Gunnar  Engblom
Connect with Gunnar on Facebook or Twitter or kolibriexp@gmail.com

PS: I added this author box below. Does this work?   Too big?  Too much advertising or relevant info?

Top photo: Before the jump by Gerard on Flickr. Creative Commons.

 

by    13

The rewards of birding

9000 birds on his list!Tom Gullick hits 9000 species with Wallece's Fruit-Dove

How do you measure your success as a birder?  How do you get recognition of other birders and non-birders? Is there some sort of measurement to quantify the experience?

The easiest way, is to keep track of how many birds you had seen. The number allows you to compare yourself with other birders. This is known as competitive birding.

Even if there is no competition and you only compete with yourself, the listing game is the most prominent way how birding is practiced today. The number, of course, reveals nothing of the birder’s actual skills in identifying birds.

Tom Gullick (above) recently hit a landmark of 9000 species seen when he saw Wallace’s Fruit-Dove (top photo). This is truly amazing! 9000 species of the around 10,000 species that exist in the world.

But such numbers do  not impress non-birders, nor do they attract more people to the hobby. What is the point with putting a mark in front of the name of the bird in the field guide or on a birdlist indicating that you have seen it? What is it good for? Why would anyone else care? Why would a non-birder even pretend to listen or pay attention when the birder brags about his new life-birds?

Having said this, there are of course birders, who are well recognized for their birding skills. They are bird guides and authors of bird books. But most people who throw themselves into the hobby need some sort of measurement – and that is when the listing game starts

The digi-birders

Maybe we need a new term. I have been bashed for labeling those who start taking photos of birds birders. Let’s introduce a new word. Digi-birders – who get hooked by taking digital photos of birds.
The new digi-birding boom has put things in a new perspective. Just as mentioned in an earlier post of with a kid getting into birding via a digital point and shoot camera, the same is true if we talk about recruiting new birders among adults.  Taking interesting photographs of birds becomes far more interesting than counting numbers of birds seen. Sharing the photos on the internet where everyone can see them even your non-birding friends. You gain recognition by sharing your bird photos. The more shares and likes you get for a photo on Facebook, the greater your satisfaction and the recognition of your peers.

Frankly, which of the two models do you think works better for recruiting your non-birding friends to take interest? Are you sure they want to hear about your last lifebird you added to your list? Or do you think they’d be more interested in seeing the great photo of a bird you took yesterday. They certainly would not share your Facebook update of a new birder milestone of species seen, but they may just share your great bird photo – of say a Wallece’s Fruit-Dove.

Internet and especially Facebook has made it easier for bird photos to gain recognition and it is this mechanism which will make interest in birds massive.

Digi-birders could adopt birding ethics.

Can you see how powerful this change is? Don’t you agree in this light there could be millions of new birders in the coming years – if including also bird photographers into the birder label? At least labeling the bird photographer as potential birder – or at least digi-birder.

What is important is that there will be a lot of people who will care about birds. That will be more people interested in conservation. It is up to us, the traditional birders to be there for the new digi-birders to teach them birding and identification skills and to introduce them to the ethics of birding. The impact on the birds and the environment by our presence needs to be looked after. Birders in general have good ethics and practice a code of conduct and can/should transmit this to other users of the natural areas.

Top photo: Wallece’s Fruit-Dove by Mehd Halaouate. Swedish readers will find Mehd’s wife’s blog about living in Indonesia interesting.

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This was the seventh pre intro-post in the birdwatching from the beginning series. There are one more intro chapter to go.  In the next post, I will make an outline of the coming posts. I hope to get a lot of guest bloggers to treat different topics. Please make sure you tell your friends of this series so they can be with us from the start.  You are allowed to share the posts via email, or on Facebook, Google plus and Twitter. Check the sharing options below.
If you liked this post, you may want to  subscribe to this blog.  The launch is on January 1, 2013.  A good way to start the new year.

Gunnar  Engblom
Connect with Gunnar on Facebook or Twitter or kolibriexp@gmail.com

by    2

Digital photography – nature watching revolution.

More and more people get interested in nature.

It is easy to see that it is digital photography which is the engine of the new trend. It is likely that people who get into birds via digital photography, also start getting into plants and bugs, because it is easy to take photos and no one need to spend money on film anymore.  The nature watchers of the future should  become much broader and more knowledgeable than traditional birders.  Similar photographic challenges with dragonflies or butterflies, are getting very popular. It is the digital photography which has made this possible.

It is also interesting to see that in countries which lack a traditional birdwatching  movement,  such as Brazil, Thailand, China, Costa Rica,  nature watching through digital photography has become massive in recent years. The national parks and nature reserves of these countries are full of local people with massive cameras and blinds – all intending to take superb pictures of birds.

How do we get new and young members to our bird club?

Meanwhile, in the traditional stronghold countries such as US, UK, Netherlands and Scandinavia, there are often complaints that there is little regeneration of young birders. In fact every so often one hears the birders saying that the hobby is dying, as membership figures of bird clubs dwindle and the average age among the members is way over 60.

But if the birdclubs instead concentrated on recruiting new birders with a focus on bird photography and sharing photos on social media there is enormous potential for growth.  As the potential is so large, it will also save the “old school” birding which considers good birding is about nurturing field identification skills.  There will always be people who shine if enough people get into the “game”, but if we – the birders – close the doors and continue to promote birding the old way, the risk is that we shall not be competitive enough in the digital age. The kids will continue to play video games and be stuck behind the computers and the TV sets instead of discovering nature.
Bird photography in contrast is cool!

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This was the sixth pre intro-post in the birdwatching from the beginning series. There are two more intro chapters to go.  Please make sure you tell your friends of this series so they can be with us from the start.  Share the posts via email, or on Facebook, Google plus and Twitter. Check the sharing options below.
If you liked this post, you may want to  subscribe to this blog.  Soon the real chapters will begin.

Gunnar  Engblom
Connect with Gunnar on Facebook or Twitter or kolibriexp@gmail.com

by    15

How to start birding. Intro 3.

How to inspire a kid to get interested in birds and nature.

Say you have kids and you really would like them to become more interested in nature, but they are more into to TV and computer games.  You are tearing your hair with the potato couch kid. You read some manuals about birding, which all invariably recommend getting a pair of binoculars first of all.  You got $350 to spend. (You are a rich parent just for this argument).

Scenario 1. Binoculars.

You spend 350 dollars on a pair of binoculars and then drag the kid outdoors and show him some birds. Maybe he says “wow”… maybe he says “drag”….but when summer camp comes, he has invariably most likely already forgotten to pack his binoculars.

Scenario 2. Point and Shoot Camera

You picked up THIS EBOOK (forthcoming) and decided to spend 350 dollars instead on a point and shoot mega zoom camera. You drag the kid outdoors, let him take photos of plants and bugs using the macro, and dragonflies, butterflies and birds using the 35x optic zoom.  Then you post some of the photos on Facebook or he posts them on his blog. Maybe you will find a local Facebook groups for birds or dragonflies which can tell you what the species they are. You are met with respect, in spite of having no experience of either birds, nor dragonflies – and you don’t own a field guide (yet). The experts on the group tell you the field marks you should look for to clinch the ID.
The kid says wow! How can they know all this? Another question to the Facebook group and you are recommended some field guides applicable to your area.

Comes summer camp and the camera is the first thing to be packed. In fact he’d have it in his hand the entire trip, documenting every detail. Sure, he probably won’t be thinking of shooting birds at all….but because he can,  he clicks off some shots of a bird sitting on top of a tree, and when he zooms in, he can see it is a raptor. He shows his friends and they share it on his blog. Hey, it would be kind of cool to know what kind of raptor it is. Mom asks the Facebook group again. Red-tailed Hawk. Other kids, see his pics and also want a point and shoot camera. They also want to learn about the nature around them.

It is easier
It is cooler
A photo is tangible – and observation is not.
It possible to share it
It is viral.

But is it really birding?

I have gotten a lot of comments from birders, that this is not really birding. And maybe they are right. By sending off the picture to Facebook or an online forum and get the ID this way is a bit lazy.

Per definition by American Birding Association:  A birder is a person who is actively pursuing the hobby or sport of birding. Birding  is a sport and/or hobby in which individuals enjoy the challenge of bird study, listing, or other general activities involving bird life. Critics say that people  photographing birds are not really observing.

But taking photographs of birds is a general activity involving bird life, isn’t it? With the new digital photography technique  it is far easier to get interested in birds via photography than with binoculars as demonstrated above. This is where I am going with this series.  Eventually, the kid will also want a pair of binoculars. Why? Because he likes  birds. And he would like to watch them when the photography conditions are not the best. Birding grows on you.

Maybe the definition of a birder will be change soon: Someone who is actively pursuing the hobby or sport of observing or photographing birds. The old school birders will protest. So be it!  Digital bird photography at all levels is here to stay. Some people will never become experts. But that is OK.

Jeff Gordon, president of the American Birding Association, said on my Facebook wall:

“Birders have often as a group been insular, though to be fair, they’ve often been marginalized. But part of my whole thesis about how I approach my job at the ABA is that we have to let go of the past, suck it up, and let our lights shine. Become less focused on ourselves and our own successes and failures and more concerned about building a bigger, more fun tent.”

Should pursuing birds by photography be included in the word birding? Comments below please. And don’t forget to subscribe to email updates so you don’t miss any posts. Have a wonderful week full of birds.

Top Photo:  Canon SX40 HS (affiliate link): a highly recommended Point and Shoot Camera for $350 dollars. See Stephen Ingraham’s review. Stephen will be blogging about birding with Point and Shoot Cameras later in this series.

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Gunnar  Engblom
Connect with Gunnar on Facebook or Twitter or kolibriexp@gmail.com.

 

by    27

How to start birding? Intro1.

Old school birding vs birding in the digital age.

Don’t listen to the old school to in for of birding! You don’t need a field guide, you don’t need a mentor to guide you and you don’t even need binoculars to start birding. You just need a point and shoot camera and an internet connection to get started.  Everything else is secondary and comes later. Chances are that you already have a digital camera and access to internet, so you can get started right away.  What are you waiting for? Just do it.
Everything is right there at your fingertips, but it is not yet organized for the 21st century.  Pick up any book, read any blog post, check out any video on Youtube about birdwatching for beginners, and they all repeat the same mantra from yesterdays.

YOU NEED Binoculars, Field guide and notebook. And join a birdwatching club!

We are here to show you, that to get started you don’t need any of all that. That is why we are doing this blog. We want you to understand that it is easy to start birdwatching. This blog leads you into a wonderful and rewarding hobby, which has never been easier to get started with, than today.  The blog presents the new resources on the internet where you can share your photos of birds and learn as you go along. You’ll become a member of the birding community from the start, without membership fees and without physical access to birdwatching clubs or leaders who mentor you.

Birding has never been cooler than it is today. It is certainly not a hobby for nerds, but one for active people who enjoy nature and outdoors and want to share their passion with others. Birding today compares less with trainspotting and stamp collecting, but more like the fine subtleties of wine-tasting and photo-hunting.

This blog will give you a multitude of tips from the best birders in the world. It will teach you to become a birder.  Eventually, we shall also talk about the same mantra, but then you are already a birder and you probably want to step up a pinhole.  You will find joining a bird club, subscribing to a birding magazine or visit a birdwatching festival will be a natural outcome and very awarding.

Follow us from the beginning by subscribing to this blog.

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Gunnar  Engblom
Connect with Gunnar on Facebook or Twitter or kolibriexp@gmail.com