It’s not too late to submit your bird counts to the GBBC. If you participated in this great birding activity on President’s Day weekend you have until March 1 to submit your counts. I confess to having put off submitting one of mine and plan to do that today!
When I first wrote about the Great Backyard Bird Count a few weeks ago I invited those of you who participated to send us pictures and maybe a few words about your experience. Well, I am glad to report that a family took me up on my offer. Michelle and Arielle Trovato are new birders and they not only participated in the GBBC but they made some wonderful pictures. In addition Michelle is a blogger and she shares a link to her blog which you may enjoy. I asked Michelle to share some of what brought her to the world of birding. Here’s what she said.
“Did I tell you how we became enchanted with bird watching? Last summer we happened upon the HBO documentary, Birders: The Central Park Effect. To say the least, it had a huge effect on us. So we put up a few feeders in a tree just outside our living room window and borrowed bird books and bird song CD’s from the Davidson Public Library. Slowly we started to recognize birds beyond the cardinals and robins. Then we attended a few of the Davidson Lands Conservancy Events (the camp out at Fisher Farm in October and the birdwalk in November). It took a village – without the library and support from DLC, our hobby wouldn’t be where it is today.
I’d love to mention I’m a library advocate – when there was talk a few years ago about shuttering local branches I showed my support by volunteering until I had to take a full time job, but I blog about the beauty of the library here: www.thegreatread.blogspot.com – any suggestions or recommendations are warmly welcomed.”
I love Michelle’s suggestion about borrowing bird books from the library. There are a number of great field guides and it might be wise to try some out before you buy one of your own. Also, DLC has published a guide to local birds which is available at Main Street Books. And if you want to share with us your birding experience please feel free to add a comment here or send us an email at dlc.wow@gmail.com.
Happy Birding!
