Bird watching is a great hobby as it is easy to do anywhere. In theory it’s free, unless you get addicted and begin bribing birds to your yard with numerous feeders like I do! It encourages us to take in nature more generally and often motivates us to walk in parks or on trails, getting much needed exercise and fresh air. However, the thing I like most about bird watching as a hobby is that you can dedicate as much or as little time as you have. There are whole days I have sat in my yard with a camera and a book. But I can also come home and sit outside for a few hours, unwinding after work and allowing myself to relax.

I have always liked nature, camping, hiking etc., but I didn’t really get into bird watching until we moved from the city into the suburbs…a heavily treed suburb. Sitting by the window with my warm drink, I would often see flashes of color fly past. Sometimes I knew it was a blue jay or a cardinal, but I wanted to know more about the other flashes I was seeing. I was given a bird identification book for Christmas 2015, along with my first feeder pole and feeder. Before I knew it, I was hooked! And bird watching turns out to be contagious. After seeing my photos, my parents purchased some bird feeders, their own field guide and we have all been bird watching ever since.

This blog is a way for me to share some of my bird photographs, but I also want to provide some facts and figures along the way, as well as some of my own observations. I want to be clear that I have no background or formal training in any science field, so most of the information I will share comes from field guides.