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Fwd: [IBLE] On Finding "Good Birds"

 
 
Bill Fenimore
(801) 525-8400 Store
(801) 699-9330 Cellular
 
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Harry, well said.
 
Just this morning, I watched a Ring-necked Pheasant at one of my backyard platform feeders.  How many hundred pheasants have I watched that way over the last 19 years?  Yet, I noticed something different about this bird, as opposed to just thinking, Ring-necked Pheasant.  Picking up my binoculars, I looked closer.  The red facial skin was not there.  A morph, perhaps an intermediate or a hybrid.  Nonetheless, I was pleased that I had noted the difference from the Ring-necked Pheasant that I am used to seeing.
 
Two years ago, I was leading a birding trip to Antelope Island.  Walking around Fielding-Garr Ranch, we watched several birds coming into water.  One of the birders called a Mourning Dove, as a bird landed in a nearby Russian Olive.  Looking closer, I suggested the group take note of the white wing-patch this Dove exhibited.  White-winged Doves are fairly north of their range even in southern Utah.  Northern Utah is not where one would expect so see a White-winged Dove.  Yet there it was.
 
The same experience occurred in Morgan last year.  This time the group over looked a black stripe on the back of the neck of a Eurasian Collared-Dove.  When I suggested they look again, they were amazed how their eyes and mind had quickly and wrongly registered the likely suspect, as a Mourning Dove. 
 
Once again, while leading a group of beginning birders around Beus Pond, I started explaining to the group to acclimate their ears to listening for birds, as well as looking for them.  As I explained how you can often identify a bird by sound, even when you cannot see it, a bird began to call.  One of the group said that it was "just" a Robin.  I then told the group to be sure to look at Robin's closely in winter, since we occasionally will see Varied Thrush.  Just before leaving at the conclusion of the bird walk, a group of Robins flew into a nearby tree.  Looking at them, I saw a Varied Thrush prominently sitting on a branch among the Robins.  Everyone was glad that I took the time to look them over, especially those recording a life bird.
 
And who can forget the European Goldfinch showing up at my backyard Nyger feeder, several years ago.  I e-mailed and thanked my friend, Kenn Kaufman whose newly published field guide listed and illustrated this exotic.  It was with a group of American Gold Finch and Lesser Goldfinch.  I wasn't sure what I was seeing.  Although, I immediately knew I had never seen one before.  Not wanting to take my eyes off it, I called my non-birder wife to the kitchen.  Dictating notes to her, I watched the bird until it flew off.  I quickly made a sketch and listed the plumage characteristics it exhibited.  Arnold Smith, Keith Evans and Jack Rensel visited later, photographing it.  Kenn gave me more background information on its occurrence in the ABA area. 
 
So you just never know, don't take anything for granted and as Harry and Kenn aptly point out note the details.  
 
Regards,
 
Bill Fenimore
(801) 525-8400 Store
(801) 699-9330 Cellular

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