Sunday, April 23, 2006

Bird Watching Made Easy"Robin's Adventures In Camping Equipment"



Bird Watching Tip:


Binoculars for bird watching need to be light, so you can carry
them for long periods. Also sturdy enough for many years of use.
Should be easy to hold and very steady. Need to be properly sealed
from dust and moisture.

They should be able to discern the most
delicate subtle colours and detail. Of course they need to be able to
focus on the entire picture if you where eyeglasses. Of course only
you will be able to determine how this works for you.


Bird Watching is a Recreation Anyone
Can Enjoy at Anytime of the Year



By Robert Benjamin

Do you ever have a day when you have nothing to do ?,
You know them times when your on the internet in some
chat room, and you type ' I'm bored ! ', or your
flipping through the TV channels, and you say to
yourself or out loud ' 250 channels, and nothing
good to watch ! ', yes, you know what I am talking
about. Now you have something you can do on them so
called boring days, go bird watching.

No matter where you live you probably have birds
of some kind, even folks in New York have central
park and other places where they can go bird watching.
There are three things you should have when bird
watching, these are a pair of binoculars, a notebook,
and a bird guide.

Binoculars can be purchased for under $60 at most
Kmart or Walmart stores. Binoculars with a magnification
of 10 x 50 are perfect for bird watching. Don't think
that a more powerful pair of binoculars like 20 x 60 or
30 x 80 are better, this is not the case. Stronger
binoculars are fine if you are into star gazing, but
they are horrible for bird watching. The higher powered
binoculars need a tripod to use them without shaking,
and even without a tripod, the powerful binoculars are
larger and can be very heavy to carry around, the 10 x
50 ones are perfect for every occasion.

A small tablet or notebook can be purchased at most
stores, don't get nothing expensive just a small spiral
one will do fine. Now the last thing is the most
important item when it comes to bird watching.
If you are truly going to watch birds, you should
know what type of birds you are looking at when you
spot a new one, so visit your local book store or look
in the birding section of an online bookstore, such as
amazon, at the end of this article I have a website
address that has some of Amazons best bird guides,
videos, binoculars and more.

Ok, so you have your binoculars, notebook and pencil,
and your bird guide, now let's go outside and go bird
watching. I am sure you won't have to walk very far
to spot a bird or two. I am lucky enough to currently
live here in the country, all I have to do is open my
door and I will hear the sounds of birds.

If I step outside my front door, I can often see
sparrows or finches, in the spring time the yard
always has a couple robins hopping around, and
crows flying around the nearby woods, high overhead
I often see turkey buzzards soaring against the
blue sky. One time I opened my front door and across
the road in the top of a large tree a horned owl
was sitting, it stayed there for about 10 minutes,
turning it's head often as it looked around.

If you have any grassy, wooded or open areas with
trees or bushes, you can usually find birds. One
of the best things about bird watching is anyone
can do it, even if your in a wheelchair, you can
sit and watch birds. It's a great recreation for
anyone that is alone, or for the whole family to
do together.

When you go out, remember to take your bird
watching items with you, your binoculars, notebook
and pencil, and bird guide. When you spot a bird
look in your binoculars too see all it's beauty in
close detail, if you do not recognize the species
of bird your seeing, get out your bird guide and
look it up. When you realize the type of bird you
see, write down in your notebook the following
information; ' the name of the bird, the area where
it was spotted, the date, and time '. The
information in your notebook, helps you understand
what types of birds frequent your area, it also is
pretty neet being able to read back and see when
you spotted a new or rare bird.

If you have a yard, tree or even a window you can
attract birds by installing a simple feeder. Bird
feeders are very inexpensive and they have feeders
that can hang on a tree branch, or fence, or even
stick to the outside of a window.

Attracting different species of birds often requires
different types of bird seed and other food.
Hummingbirds are attracted to red, pink and orange
flowers, they especially like trumpet vines or other
tubular-flowered plants, they are also very attracted
to hummingbird feeders filled with sugar water or
red sweetened kool-aid. Robins like mowed lawns, so
in the spring and summer if you want to see robins,
mow your grass, the birds come looking for bugs and
earthworms that are more easily accessible because
you cut the grass length. Goldfinches love thistle
seed, thistle is more expensive then most common
bird seed, but you cannot beat it if you want to
attract goldfinches.

Blue Jays are large and sometimes noisy, but if you
want to bring them, put out a feeder full of black
oil sunflower seeds. Cardinals are very neat looking,
there is nothing nicer than looking out the window
in the winter, and seeing a bright red cardinal
sitting on a nearby tree branch or feeder. Cardinals
are like Blue Jays, in that they both love a diet
of black oil sunflower seeds. If you want to attract
sparrows, a bag of plain mixed bird seed will do
just fine.

There is Computer Software that is made just for
'Bird Watching'. The software is called: 'Bird
Watcher Professional', you can read the details
and download a trial version of it for free at
this website address:

http://www.rb59.com/bwpro

Here is a website address that has some of the
best Bird Guides (Books), Videos, Binoculars and
other birding equipment that Amazon sells:

http://www.rb59.com/bwpro/
bird-watching-information.html

By Robert W. Benjamin

Copyright © 2006

You may publish this article in your ezine,
newsletter or on your web site as long as
it is reprinted in its entirety and without
modification except for formatting needs or
grammar corrections.

Robert W. Benjamin has been in the software
business on the internet for over 5 years,
and has been producing low-cost software for
the past 25+ years. He first released
software on the AMIGA and C64 computer
systems in the late 1970's-80's.

RB59 Softwarehttp://www.rb59.com/software
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/
?expert=Robert_Benjamin


For The Love Of The Outdoors

Robin and Val

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