A resident of Long Hill Twp., Jim, his wife and daughter started doing a Bird-A-Day at the beginning of 2012. Places they photograph birds include The Great Swamp. Day one, New Year’s Day, they got a Cooper’s hawk.
The Bird-A-Day challenge: See how many days in a row you can see/hear a different species. The Bird-A-Day Challenge website is managed by Trey Mitchell. Go to Internet address http://www.awm3.com/birdaday2012/ and you can find sightings (including Jim’s) describe there. You can also register and join the Challenge at the website. At some point during the year "you will be unable to see or hear a new bird" to add to your list. When this happens you have completed the race and have established for yourself a mark to try and better next year. Rules are included on the website, where individuals can log every daily bird, record where it was observed and give it a rank.
Jim recommended the following guides to bird-watching: The SIBLEY Guide to Birds by David Allen Sibley and The Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America by Roger Tory Peterson. Also, he recommends The Cornell Lab of Ornithology website: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/ to learn more about birds.
Jim described birds found very local, local, around the state, the country and the Worldwide Web. Another category was “Saw them once, didn’t see them again”. He gave a detailed account of a Snowy Owl (rarely seen in New Jersey) which he photographed at Merrill Creek Reservoir.
He encouraged everyone to visit http://ebird.org to learn more about birding. Other useful websites are http://birdingonthe.net/ and http://mocosocobirds.com/ .
The audience applauded Jim’s entertaining and informative presentation on birding.
Northern Cardinal
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