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Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal

Birds For Beginners: They gotta stay still and be big enough to shoot

by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal February 22, 2019

written by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal

The Great Blue is the largest heron in North America.

We loved this comment and question from Candy Krewer of Montana:

“I am a beginner birder and love to try to photograph birds. The Great Blue Heron is a current favorite since it’s a large target, often standing still! I also have a LBB (little brown bird) as a regular on my list. Please tell me more about what birds you are following.”

If you’re learning to take pictures of birds, you can’t go wrong with a Great Blue Heron. Big shorebirds were also among our favorites when Anders and I got hooked on birding five years ago, and we love them still. The herons and egrets often fish in the same spot for long stretches, and when they take to the sky, it’s a sight to behold.

A nesting pair of Roseate Spoonbills.

We’re currently in Florida for a few weeks, and so we’re surrounded by shorebirds. As to Candy’s query about what we’re following right now, the Roseate Spoonbill is my hands-down favorite. It’s pink and fluffy, funny and frilly — and it just makes me gasp every time we see one.

Spoonbill or a photographer’s sitting duck?

Did I mention photogenic? Anders heard about the Stick Marsh Critical Wildlife Area near Melbourne, Fla., where there are two protected islands stuffed with nesting Spoonbills. So last week we set out to find them. Even shooting in the “wrong” afternoon light, I think the photos Anders got were stunning. We’ll definitely go back at dawn. (The Stick Marsh site is adjacent to the T.M. Goodwin Waterfowl Management Area. Click here for more information.)

As for other “Beginner Birds” that keep still and are big enough to shoot, woodpeckers are tough to beat. It’s hard to know if we’re following them or they’re following us. Woodpeckers make a lot of noise (so you can find them), and some species, like the Red-bellied, are common. Once alight on a suitable tree, they tend to stay put and peck away.

February 22, 2019 0 comment

Birding and the Airstream

Can you still be Valentines living in an Airstream? Love is on the line

by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal February 12, 2019

written by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal

Reading and playing music are daily routines.

Anders and I chased the birds for 15 weeks last summer in a 23-foot Airstream trailer. If you don’t count the bed and bathroom, that’s two adults negotiating roughly 50 square feet of living space for 105 days.

Many of our friends think we’ve lost our minds. “You really have to like each other,” is the typical reaction. And of course they’re right.

How does this actually work, is the first thing my girlfriends want to know. Do they mean where do we put our stuff, or how do we stay married under these conditions? The answers to both can be a bit tricky.

Valentine’s Day is upon us, we’re back in the Airstream for the next 2½ months, and I cannot remember where I put Anders’ Valentine card. Love is on the line but I’m not about to unpack this entire trailer to find it.

February 12, 2019 9 comments

Birding Birding guidance

A dedicated birder makes a rare find and the nation’s capital is buzzing

by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal January 31, 2019

written by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal

When a Dickcissel turned up in the wrong place at the wrong time last week, Scott Stafford, one of Washington’s top birders, just happened to be in the right place at the right time to find it.

D.C.’s Dickcissel rummaging in the brush.

Less than an hour later, a small swath along the banks of the Potomac was buzzing with birders pointing their cameras into what amounts to an oversized ditch. There among the mix of mud and twigs hopped a small sparrowlike bird carefully concealing its brilliant yellow breast.

“At first I thought it was just another White-throated Sparrow,” Scott said. “But then he popped up, and there was so much yellow. I’m like, Holy Crap!”

What Scott did next made him late for work. It also made him the hero of the moment in Washington’s very active birding community. Nabbing a rare sighting like the out-of-range Dickcissel comes along maybe once in a season – and being the person to claim it is rarer still.

Scott Stafford with a Florida Scrub-Jay.

“I took a photo and immediately posted it out on the D.C. Rare Bird Alert,” Scott said. “Then I stayed on the bird to help direct birders who said they were on their way to find it, so if it flew off, they’d know what direction.”

Flying Lessons clearly states that our website is about “What We’re Learning From the Birds.” But in talking with Scott the other day about his experiences, I realized that what we’re learning from other birders can’t be stressed enough.

While Anders and I are usually plotting our next birding adventure away from the big city, Scott is patiently stalking everything within a few miles of home. He’s seen 226 species in the D.C. area alone – more than my entire Life List from around the country and beyond.

January 31, 2019 1 comment

Birding Birding research Featured

Anxious for the spring migration? Try Armchair Birding on Facebook

by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal January 24, 2019

written by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal

House Sparrows hop along the sidewalks of downtown Washington, even on a 20-degree day. There are starlings galore and the occasional mockingbird. But my warblers, buntings and finches flew south months ago.

I find myself craving a forest silence shattered by birdsong and the endorphin rush of spotting a male in full breeding colors. It’s a glorious state of oblivion I can’t seem to get any other way.

How did this “birding thing” become so addictive?

My gardening friends tell me it’s much the same for them, only with dirt, blooms and weeds. To get through the Massachusetts offseason, my sister-in-law studies seed catalogs and salivates.

Birding magazines are a bit like seed catalogs, but they just weren’t doing the trick. Then, on Facebook, I discovered an extremely entertaining way to help fill the void.

It’s a Facebook Group called “What’s This Bird?” where folks post photos of birds they can’t identify. Other birders tell you what it is. (This is a Public Group from the American Birding Association. Sign in to Facebook, and then click here to check it out.)

For starters, you’ll notice that most of the photos are same-day, and all of them say exactly where and when the bird was found. This gives me a sense of “being there” — Armchair Birding in a revved up way.

This Group is also like a quiz to test your own identification skills. Some of these folks are crackerjack birders who take the time to point out subtle details that can be surprisingly enlightening.

January 24, 2019 1 comment

Birding Birds stories Featured

Talk like birding royalty: A squabble of Gulls and a bowl of Spoonbills

by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal January 11, 2019

written by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal

What could be more delightful than a herd of cowbirds, a flotilla of frigatebirds or a pandemonium of parrots?

A bowl of spoonbills, perhaps.

A Spoonbill about to join a bowl

One of my favorite of Anders’ photos is of a gangly Roseate Spoonbill coming in for a landing to join six others. So when I came across the fact that a group of spoonbills is called a bowl, the image was just so striking it made me laugh.

And of course it made me curious.

Turns out that our medieval ancestors dreamed up tons of terms for flocks of specific birds. There’s a “wisdom” of owls, a “mewing” of catbirds and a “slurp” of sapsuckers.

Is it a 1) squabble, 2) wedge or 3) a scoop of Skimmers? See the list below.

The lucky ducks get several monikers: a “safe,” a “raft” or a “paddling” while on land — or a “team” in flight.

Hummingbirds can be collectively called a charm, a glittering, a shimmer, a tune, a bouquet or a hover.

In 1486 Dame Juliana Barnes of England listed these “proper terms” in “The Book of St Alban.” They were included in handbooks to educate the English nobility — a way to distinguish the aristocracy from the less well bred.

Is it a 1) pod, 2) a party, or a 3) posse of Pelicans. Keep reading for answers.

Fast forward to 2001 and “An Unkindness of Ravens: A Book of Collective Nouns” by Chloe Rhodes. She says flocks tended to be named for peculiar habits, physical characteristics or a personality trait that people believed the birds to possess: A flamboyance of flamingos, a coronation of kingbirds, a constellation of starlings, a murder of crows.

January 11, 2019 2 comments

Birding Birding guidance

Perfect gift for a favorite birder is a click away.

by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal December 9, 2018

written by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal

What should you get for the birder in your life? What about a waterproof birding journal for those rainy days, a Universal Binocular Tripod Mount to stifle the shakes, or maybe a bluebird nest necklace?

This is the Snapzoom Universal Binocular Tripod Mount, listed on the Audubon link below and priced on Amazon at $25.

Exactly what will appear under the tree for my birding husband is a surprise, but it won’t be a witty t-shirt or a bird-tourist mug. He got those last year.

This year I expanded my online search and hit the jackpot.

The big surprise has been how fun and educational “birder shopping” can be. I’m still trying to choose between items stashed in virtual shopping carts spread across three websites.

So Yes, Virginia, there’s something for everyone in a vast range of prices and varying degrees of sophistication. (Don’t spread this around, but most of the stuff I’ve picked out, I really want for myself.)

December 9, 2018 0 comment

Birding Birding guidance Featured

How the birds are teaching us humility, persistence — and joy

by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal December 6, 2018

written by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal

These Roseate Spoonbills gather year after year on a small pond hidden deep inside Georgia’s Jekyll Island. It’s where they like it.

Over the past few years, the birds have been leading me to a new lexicon of personal slogans. One of my favorites is, “They Like It Where They Like It.”

This phrase captures a lot I’ve been contemplating about birding. What it means, more or less, is this:

No matter where I hope a bird might be found, and even if I am absolutely convinced I’ve glimpsed a particular species, there’s a pretty good chance I’m wrong. This is because, as any birding guidebook will tell you, birds are creatures of habit. Or more accurately, they are creatures of habitat — as in, “They like it where they like it.”

For the first time in anyone’s recollection, this Vermillion Flycatcher turned up in a preserve near Tallahassee, Florida — far from where it was supposed to be.

Every now and then a lucky birder discovers a “vagrant,” official lingo for a bird that’s somehow veered off course and outside its preferred territory. One made national news this fall — the Mandarin Duck that turned up in New York’s Central Park.

But for the most part, birds are unfailingly consistent.

Even so, when I’m deep in the woods — oblivious to time or temperature or when I last ate a meal – magical thinking can be the result. It’s like I’m convinced that a Rose-breasted Grosbeak, (or whatever bird I’m determined to find), will magically appear if I just keep hoping hard enough. Or maybe I just dreamed I saw one — 19 weeks of nonstop birding is enough to cause hallucinations.

December 6, 2018 2 comments