I’m semi retired now and like to spend time at the family room slider in my recliner sipping coffee in the morning watching the birds at the feeding stations we have set up in the back courtyard. Very relaxing and entertaining. The cat is entertained too.
Lots of small finches of various varieties, hummingbirds, blue jays, starlings, crows… a real menagerie. Interesting to see the pecking orders and squabbling over position even though I have set up a dozen feeding stations. Not unlike humans - but they are still dinosaurs.
I think Bird Watching was probably my first hobby. I got a readers digest book of british birds when I was about 6. I still have it.
There is something very calming about walking outside just listening and looking for birds. I know have a young family so do not get the chance much now. Hopefully when my son is older.
I have never really managed to crack identification by their song though. I am amazed by people like Bill Oddie who seem to know all the bird songs.
And bird watching is a good excuse to get some cool binoculars. I am currently rocking with a pair of Zeiss Conquest HD 8x42’s. An impressive pair of bins.
No, no, you’ve got it all wrong. Mike was talking about watching girls. In the UK doesn’t birds = girls, in your slang? Now that he’s partly retired, he just doesn’t know what to do with himself. His wife doesn’t want him around the house all the time, so he tells her he is bird watching when he goes out.
I find the most useful tool in birdwatching to be a 12 ga. shotgun. You can do a much better job of identifying birds when they aren’t flapping around so much. And you can have a tasty meal afterwards.
