Spark Birds Video
JeffGyr along with the talents of Bill Schmoker and Jim Rapp has put together a video asking birders at Cape May Autumn Weekend what their "spark birds" were. For the non birders, a spark bird is the bird that got you hooked into birding. You may hear some familiar voices in there, including Mike from 10,000 Birds.
So, what's your spark bird?
So, what's your spark bird?
posted by birdchick at 6:33 PM
13 Comments:
I love the part of the video with the albatross.
The wingspan is amazing and to just watch how they soar with minimal flapping is beautiful.
It's funny how we both have strong feelings towards the woodpecker.
All birds are great, but my favorites are the waterbirds and at the top of the list is the loon.
I love the black and white colours and listening to the cries they make that echo over water.
Haunting.
.
I saw a pileated woodpecker in the wild for the very first time only this year, back in May-- that was a big thrill. I didn't realize just how big they are-- they're like pterodactyls. That was fun to see.
All my life I've loved birds; ever since the time when i was in kindergarten and I colored every duck as a different species right down to the speculum! My teacher didn't know what to think.
I don't have a "spark bird" though. I suppose one that I always enjoy watching is the Prothonotary Warbler. They're very curious creatures on the lake.
That was a really cool idea!
My spark bird is the Eastern Screech Owl. I inadvertently spotted one hiding in a bamboo thicket in my backyard when I was 11 or 12. I was immobilized by the coolness, and the owl and I had a staring contest until he finally flew away. I didn't get into birds right then, but it was an experience I never forgot, and then one summer when I was 18 I volunteered at a wildlife rehab clinic, where I was reunited with the screech owls and finally succumbed to fate.
It's also really cool that someone had an albatross as their spark bird, because I got to see them in Hawaii a couple of years ago, and I've been reading about them ever since and waiting until the next moment I can see one again.
Great Horned Owl - one adopted my grandmother when I was a little girl. She used to feed it bacon & peanut butter on her patio and it would prech on her hand. It lived in the woods behind her house for 15 years.
I actually don't bird. I have a few bird books and I recgonise calls and some birds. It's something I have thought about getting into but really don't know where to look or start in my area.
London Ontario.
My spark bird was also a pileated woodpecker. Saw it out the window at a weekend place in Rhinebeck, NY last year on Mother's Day. None of us had seen a woodpecker before and this was the coolest bird I'd ever seen. There was no turning back - I was hooked!
The Pileated Woodpecker. I saw one for the first time about two years ago after we moved to Washington Township in Indianapolis.
I taught bird classes to school kids for 3 years and I lived on the ocean for most of my life, you would think I would be a natural birder. But I couldn't find it in me to be really excited about birds until I met the wood warblers. Something about their quick movements and little field marks made it thrilling to positively ID one. And now I'm hooked!
my spark bird is the snowy owl. i was about 8 or 9, and it was heavy winter. i was outside at my aunt's house in the country, and it was so still and quiet outside. that's when i saw him on a tree. i was mesmerized--it was like seeing a ghost.
I too was sparked by the pileated woodpecker. I was living in DC, and there was this short trail that I would sometimes walk from Tunlaw Dr. down to the C&O Canal. One day I looked up and saw this fascinating bird (that reminded me of Woody Woodpecker - the only other woodpecker I was familiar with) doing its thing on the tree. Next thing I know, I'm browsing field guides in Olsson's books in Georgetown trying to identify this woodpecker with the bright red brush on its head.
I have been birding about as long as I remember so I can't really remember what my spark bird was. (btw, I had never heard that term) I do remember my first nemesis bird though, and that was a Swallow-tailed Kite that appeared close to my house that stayed around for a few days but was nowhere to be found when my dad took me to see it. I've seen it in Costa Rica now, but its still a nemesis in the US.
drew @ Nemesis Bird
My mother started birding in the SF Bay area when we three kids were too little to leave at home, so she'd take us along. One favorite spot for her was the McDonald's parking lot by an estuary of the SF Bay. We'd get an ice crem coen, and she'd sit there with her binoculars. I was thrilled when I saw the egrets and the herons. I remember being very proud that I could recognize the egrets whenever we drove across the bridge to Berkeley, and saw them in the mudflats by the freeway.
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