Staring up at my empty birdhouse I listened to the bluejay and cardinal calls and wondered who the super smart people were that figured how to sound out a bird call in English. I mean did people submit their phoenemic guess and then everyone vote for the best. Do you really think the American Robin says “cherrio.” I think the person that came up with that call was hungry or possibly even staring at their child eating cherrios. Couldn’t it have been any number of things “cheers”, ”sherry”,or “charlie”? Are these people only experts found in Departments of Ornithology or just well-known field guide authors?
It seems that even here in my humble home that there are bird song decipherers waiting to be released. Looking back at my early birding days I know from experience you usually hear a bird before you see a bird. I have successfully learned most of the suburbian bird calls- Bluejay, Cardinal, Sparrow, Grackle, Ravens, and Chickadees. And it seems that this is a great track to be on- learn the common before the exotic. Go me! I loved this article on how to increase your bird call vocabulary.
So it’s not just me that wants to know what that bird is saying. Our 3 year old is a sponge in the knowledge department. We just found this site you can play a bird sound game and then look up the answer. Today she and I played with Bird Songs from Around the World
Aren’t birds awesome! If you haven’t done it already Build a birdhouse…Save a bird =)
This past weekend I went to Eustace, Texas and stayed with my mom at a friend’s lakehouse. It was absolutely beautiful and completly peaceful. I wanted to do only one thing- REST. So for 2 days we watched movies, slept, and my mom and I spent a great amount of time looking through these awesome Nikon Binoculars Action EX Extreme 10×50.
Both of us could use them soooo well. I’m 5′6” and my mom is barely 5′ so that’s saying alot =) The eye distance was easy to set and the diopter was already in focus. They were super comfortable in my hands and could be held for relatively long period of time. The birds we saw were all bright images and the focus was easy to adjust. I looked through them so often I think at the end of the day I looked a bit like a racoon =) We had fun birding without kids running around scaring them away =)
These are the birds we spied with our little eyes(and binoculars =)): Great Egret, Great Blue Heron, Mallard Ducks, Cooper’s Hawk, Forster’s Tern, Killdeer, Turkey Vulture, lots of Bluejays and Ravens, Black-capped Chickadees, Eastern Bluebirds, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Scissor-tailed Flycatchers, Double Crested Cormorants and last but not least on our way home without the aid of binoculars lots and lots of Cattle Egrets. We used the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, Fifth Edition 
