Morning all,
My wife's cousin has just discovered birds (late 40's), and after visiting us in late July and seeing our backyard habitat, has decided to convert his yard into a wildlife oasis. He called me last week to see if we could come over and advise him, so yesterday afternoon, Nancy and I drove over to Owings Mills(Baltimore County), to his house on Greenbridge Ave. to see him. His yard holds a lot of promise, surrounded by very large and old spruce trees, as well as a mix of overgrown shrubby areas in the backyards of his neighbors. One neighbor has a few old, overgrown apple trees (looked like crabs)and pear trees, and I aimed my bins on them. Almost immedietely started seeing bird activity, calling out what I was seeing (E. Phoebe, E. Bluebirds, oh wait I've got a Red-breasted Nuthatch!). These were all new birds for him (his yard list is like 12), so we got him on as many as he could see with his really bad Bushnell bins. The RBNU flew to a tall spruce then into his yard and we were finally able to get great looks as it fed from the same spruce cone over and over. Great yard bird!!
Then we started looking through some of the books I brought over, discussing his yard while keeping an eye to the feeders. What's that yellow bird?(female goldfinch), what're those drab streaky ones? (female House Finches). Wait, what about that bright yellow one with the olive spots (male goldfinch changing into winter plumage). What? They change colors!! Why?? Arrgghh. Well. I think that's when he got a new understanding and appreciation for the difficulties of birding.
Looking at a nice reddish bird sitting in a spruce tree overlooking the feeders, I found a gorgeous male PURPLE FINCH, just sitting. He got great looks with my bins. 2 really nice yard birds for anyones list. Before we left we had seen some other local birds that he didn't really get good looks at, but is now aware of (Red-bellied WP, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Gray Catbird, Carolina Wren, etc.)So he was excited by his possibilities for his yard, and hopefully more excited by his new found hobby as well.
I gave him some good sources for plant material, told him to look into buying the Birding guide to Baltimore County (is it still available?) and suggested Eagle optics for new binoculars. He's hoping to create a small wildflower meadow and a large water feature, as well as planting some trees and shrubs to enhance his yard.
P.S. his inspiration for his yard habitat makeover was seeing our yard, but his aha moment in birding began with his seeing The Big Year! I suggested he read the book, which was much better than the movie (IMHO).
Rick Sussman
Woodbine,MD
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