For the birders

May 30, 2008 11:14 PM

Stephen Burch's Birding Website is full of fine photos of feathered friends.
posted by owhydididoit (13 comments total)

Great pictures although I would not have recognized the UK robin as the same bird that visits our feeders.
posted by Cranberry at 12:10 AM on May 31, 2008

Please choose one from the following:
A) ... and several feathered enemies
B) These look delicious
C) Wow. Nice tits!
posted by hal9k at 2:27 AM on May 31, 2008

(C).
posted by ZenMasterThis at 3:17 AM on May 31, 2008

Hoopoes! As a child, I liked to draw hoopoes from the rarities section of bird guides. This red kite is one cool creature.
posted by Free word order! at 4:52 AM on May 31, 2008

And check out Bird Cinema. It's a YouTube for birders.
posted by (parenthetic me) at 5:06 AM on May 31, 2008 [2 favorites]

Thanks for this. I am an amateur birdwatcher myself. OK, maybe "birdwatcher" is taking things too far. I sit on my deck and drink beer and shout angrily at the blue jays.

[Oh! And thanks as well to (parenthetic me) for the Bird Cinema link. Neat!]
posted by lysistrata at 6:42 AM on May 31, 2008

I have cats and birds in my backyard. I like looking out the window and pretending I am Marlon Perkins. If anyone points out that I am luring birds to their deaths with my feeders I would punch them just like Marlon.
posted by srboisvert at 9:21 AM on May 31, 2008

And they really are friendly. A couple years ago, out on a bike ride in the country on a bright sunny day, I had my head down against a stiff headwind. I see a winged shadow cross my own from behind my field of view...slowly, precisely. The hair goes up on the back of my neck and I look over. There, not six feet away, is a hawk gliding beside me. I guess that's how a hawk says hi. I swear that bird was grinning. It flew beside me for the better part of a minute before peeling off to get back to hunting. The bird didn't have to come down, it took some time, and would take at least some energy to get back to height. I like to think it was friendly anyway, certainly playful. Or maybe the boid was having a laugh...
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 11:19 AM on May 31, 2008 [3 favorites]

Cranberry - the European Robin is not at all closely related to the American Robin; the former is just named after the later because of the red breast connection.

Great post! Hmm, this is inspiring me to get a hummingbird feeder...
posted by bettafish at 2:00 PM on May 31, 2008

Thanks very much for the link, (parenthetic me)!
posted by owhydididoit at 7:52 PM on May 31, 2008

I've seen this a few times recently, and I've been wondering: when did "birdwatching" become "birding"?
posted by Eideteker at 8:06 PM on May 31, 2008

He has noticed our crushing gaze:

Since May 30, the number of hits on my website has rocketed by at least a factor of ten! Thanks to various people who have pointed out that this is because my site is now featured on Metafilter - a popular site in the USA and Canada it seems.

However, this is putting a tremendous strain on my available bandwidth with the company hosting this site, and I fear there will be a "black-out" in a few days before I can sort out some alternative.
posted by CKmtl at 1:06 PM on June 1, 2008

I've seen this a few times recently, and I've been wondering: when did "birdwatching" become "birding"?
posted by Eideteker at 11:06 PM on May 31 [+] [!]

When the newfangled internets discovered this strange land called "England". It appears they talk differently there. Weird!
posted by IAmBroom at 8:12 PM on June 1, 2008