Nearby Nature: Looking for neighborhood birds

Looking through binoculars at a bird in the distance.

Staying close to home during the COVID-19 pandemic makes any neighborhood feel small. My young daughter and I like to get out for daily adventures looking for new things to discover close to home, and it helps to have something new to focus on with each adventure, to refresh the experience even when we are visiting the same places each time. 

These spring days are perfect for bird watching walks. Bird watching is exciting this time of year because all the migratory birds are returning to Vermont. Every day we see and hear a new arrival in our neighborhood. It is fun to keep track and watch for the arriving birds who spent their winter in the south. 

I like making a big deal about this adventure by packing small backpacks with items we might need while birdwatching. I have a couple small bird field guides we like to carry, and we usually bring water bottles, snacks, and a notebook and pencil so we can document the birds we see. I bought my daughter an inexpensive pair of binoculars a few years ago, and she loves carrying them and using them. You do not need any fancy equipment to watch birds, however. You can go on a bird watching adventure with just water and snacks. 

We are lucky to have lots of good bird habitat around our home, there are ornamental crab apple trees, and smaller shrubs that are great hiding places for birds. This morning we saw a Song Sparrow singing loudly at the top of one of the crab apple trees. There are lots of American Goldfinches lately, and we heard a Barred Owl and a Winter Wren when we were sitting and listening. Some of our favorite birds to see are Black-Capped Chickadees, Blue Jays, and American Robins. 

We have two methods we use for birdwatching. The first is finding a spot in our yard or neighborhood where we see or hear birds. They usually like brushy places with lots of cover so they can hide. When we find a nice spot like this we sit down and watch and listen for the birds. We observe what they are doing, where they are flying and what they are eating. The other method we use is walking around our neighborhood watching and listening for birds while moving. This method feels like a scavenger hunt and transforms the walk into a fun game. No matter what time we head out, or where we walk, we always see and hear birds.

You do not need to know the names of birds to go bird watching. The real enjoyment of bird watching adventures is waiting and watching birds, observing them, viewing their behavior and where they like to land. If you note down a description of what you see, such as size and color markings on the bird, you can return home and look online with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s All About Birds online bird identification tool. Cornell also has a bird identification app you can download on your phone. However, you do not need to identify birds to have a rich experience enjoying nearby nature. You can write down what you observe, and you can make sketches of birds if you enjoy drawing. The greatest joy my daughter and I get from this experience is time together observing bird behavior. We love watching Robins pull up worms, and then fly into trees to eat them. Last week we watched two American Crows doing barrel rolls in flight together. 

Looking back on your nature notebook or nature journal in a few years would you rather read a list of bird names, or an entry describing a huge black bird you saw soaring very high in the bright blue spring sky? Write down what you observe as spring unfolds and I guarantee you will enjoy revisiting your descriptions and sketches later in life. What birds are you seeing in your neighborhood right now? 

Rebecca Roy, Conservation Education Coordinator