It’s your local schizo-ornithologist, TED_SIMP, and i’m here to tell you why you should all try BIRDWATCHING.
“what the frick?” you might ask, clacking away on r/loveforlandlords and r/antihatecommunities, “that sounds fricking r-slurred. i hate TED_SIMP!” that’s fair. but Hear Me Out.
did your doctor tell you you need to lose that extra 300 lbs? birding will get you some exercise!
want to spy on your hot stacy neighbor without actually being a creep? just say you’re birdwatching!
want to be the biggest nerd in your friend group, AND the biggest neurodivergent? check!
birding is one of the cheapest hobbies out there. if you want equipment, all you need is binoculars and a camera. maybe some audio recording if you’re REALLY into it. bug spray might help. all these bitches complain about being bored. you dumb frick, there’s birds RIGHT outside your window. there’s a lot of good apps for it too. ebird shows you hotspots where all the cool birds are found, so it does all the work for you. merlin bird ID gives you a quiz to id what you saw, and birdNET analyzes all those random screeches you hear at three am and you just want some goddarn sleep.
i took ornithology last spring. i thought the bird walks were going to be r-slurred. we ALL did. but minutes into our first walk, even the most bored of us all were really getting into it. i love getting high, im an idiot who needs instant dopamine. finding a new species is a weirdly good dopamine booster. the community is super wholesome too, newbies welcome.
and once you get into it, you can see some pretty cool things. ravens play fetch with each other. killdeer fake broken wings when you get too close to their nest. some birds mimic each other, and some like to come out and investigate people. they have cool ways of interacting with each other too. tufted titmice will take turns at a feeder, while sparrows will fight to the death. for such stupid seeming little animals, theyre actually incredibly smart and interesting to watch once you get the hang of it.
gonna page my fellow rdrama user and elite birdwatcher @CRUSTY for more insight. he’s better than I am
Seriousposting Over, go find some birds!!!
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Birds are cool. I took up squirrel-watching during my Covid-related downtime last summer. They’re pretty smart and if you feed them they’ll remember you. They always harass me now because I’m “the peanut guy”. It was fun to watch a whole generation of those buggers grow up.
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squirrels are fun to watch too, especially when they’re hiding caches. there was a really cool study done on Scrub Jays, who also cache food for the winter. The jays were sorted into two groups: theiving (stole from other caches) and honest (did not steal). The jays would watch a random jay at its cache. After watching, the theiving jays would relocate their OWN cache (NOT the jay’s being watched) because they knew that if they would steal from the bird’s cache, that bird might steal from them. The honest birds left their own cache alone because they knew that since they didn’t steal, other birds wouldn’t steal from them (not true obviously). So it shows that the jays displayed self awareness, they knew that they were being bad by stealing, and knew that other birds might also be bad too.
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Goes to show what a cursed planet we live on where even the woodland creatures are not safe from betrayal
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That is really cool. There are some mockingbirds nesting in the small trees along the sidewalk in my neighborhood and they always attack me when I walk by. I wish they would develop a moral compass. My early morning dog walks involve too much panicked running.
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there’s probably nest nearby that they’re defending! mockingbirds are pretty smart, they won’t attack for no reason
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I’m sure that’s why. The trees are only about 14’ tall, so I get pretty close to the nests just by walking by. I try to avoid eye contact and walk faster, but it doesn’t help 😭
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yeah, they can be pretty ruthless
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I’ve been walking under a mud nest in the parking garage every day for a while and I always admire it, so I thought I’d take a picture and share it. I think swallows made it. It’s the first mud nest I’ve ever seen and I think it’s the coolest
https://i.ibb.co/cTLScjF/43dde3b959de.webp
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that’s so cool, I love that!
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I unironically enjoy birdwatching. I've got a family of owls in my backyard and they're pretty awesome
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oh thats awesome man!!! what species? i saw a family of barred owls up in New Hampshire the other week. the babies were NONE too happy with me
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I'm not 100% sure but I believe they're Barred Owls
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I do a lot of my late nite drama posting in a gazebo (yes I own a gazebo) and one nite this spring at about 1am a great horned owl landed on the railing of it across from me. It scared the shit out of me at 1st.
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owls are (mostly) WAY bigger than I always expect
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They're huge
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Is it a gazebo or a pergola? What is the difference?
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When I had it constructed I told them I wanted a gazebo. They built what I would label a gazebo.
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my favorites!
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I'm seething with jealousy.
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The only point you'll ever have is that you represent the sad, fedora-wearing, bloated face of capitalism in the 21st century.
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god ur so right….owned by snappy once again….. 😔✌️
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Unironically wholesome.
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woo hoo! hope I convinced you to give it a shot!
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I watch them all the time. I put a feeder outside a window this past winter just so we could watch the Cardinals.
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that’s fantastic! we have a mating pair of cardinals that come to my yard every year. not sure if you’ve heard, but recently, a bilateral gynandromorph cardinal was found in Pennsylvania, meaning it is split down the middle half male half female. Super rare, and very cool!
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We had about 20 or so pairs on our property (I'm a ruralcel) last winter. We have owls, hawks, and a great blue heron that fishes the big stream that goes through it.
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that’s amazing!!
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I had a blue Jay get into our basement. Let me find the pic I took of it.
Update: found it. It was very friendly and didn't want to leave
https://i.ibb.co/J5DkLfG/c9527453b260.webp
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wow that’s the biggest blue jay I’ve ever seen, did you report it to the Audubon Society?
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No I think it had some parrot in it because it eventually talked and said it wanted to leave now.
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Can it mate with itself? Is this humanity's future?
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most likely no, unfortunately
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Do NOT accuse me of being a birdcel.
Jk birding is fun and I'm better than you at it.
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Too late you already posted your little black peepee. Speaking of which is that a black Australorp you posted?
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I wasn't completely sure bc of the large white patch but I think he probably is indeed a black astralorp
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The only birds I be watching r tits 👈😎👈
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what about boobies?
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Birdwatching is the lamest subset of dinosaur fanboying.
@Cdace
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I do my part to cull the bird population by eating as much chick fil a as possible
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have you heard of induced demand, my digga
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My girlfriend is unironically an avid birdwatcher. Member of the club and whatnot and has gone on many pre-morning outings. I looked at their list of attendees on zoom once and she was the only person under 60.
Also their binoculars are easily hundreds of dollars that hobby is not cheap. Although if you're just doing it casually like you say it can be pretty cool. I went out into the Mojave for an off-roading trip last month and ended up seeing an unkindness of 3, so that was pretty cool. Didn't even recognize them as ravens at first. Didn't know they would congregate in groups that big.
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oh yeah the binoculars can be super expensive. i just use the pair laying around at home, but they don’t necessarily NEED to be super fancy to work well
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I like birds. Sometimes I drive to upper state new york and just sit alone in a forest. It's nice. I don't have to think.
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ah that’s where I live actually!! lots of good birding spots around here. whereabouts in upstate?
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I live in Albany and just go north.
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oh shit im right near there! go to christman sanctuary, its a good spot for birding imo. its out near schoharie
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I'll check it out.
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Most bird we have around here are little buttholes like pigeons pooping all over the place, but I do like the Ovenbirds, I can always respect a fellow individual who owns property.
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I LOVE Ovenbirds! I associate their songs with summer. It’s funny that they’re warblers even though they look just like thrushes
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No.
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ok thanks anyways
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I once saw an indigo bunting near a hedge in my yard and I literally came.
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i ain't reading all that i'm happy for u tho or sorry that happened
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ur so right thank you for humbling me
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My city is full of skyrats. I can't even walk 5m on the sidewalk without stepping into pigeon shit because they sit on every single streetlight. I fricking hate pigeons.
Though I've wanted to buy an older mirrorless/dslr for a while, and shooting birds or other wildlife has been something I thought about.
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Check out this elegant trogon. Its my favorite bird. They are pretty rare but can be found in AZ
https://i.ibb.co/52J7kLX/a23e1368c604.webp
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i love those guys! they’re so cool!
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Texas grackles are fricking weirdos. I am endlessly fascinated by their r-slurred antics.
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For audio download BirdNET on your phone, will record and analyse any birdsong it hears.
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yes I love birdNET. absolute lifesaver
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Happy birthday my man
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THANK YOUU
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There's no cool birds in my state maybe when i pick up a fent habit and get scooped up from under a bridge and get a one way trip to modesto.
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I bet there are! What state, if you don’t mind sharing?
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Indiana
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there are totally some cool species! you have nightjars and whip-poor-wills, 6 different species of hummingbird, 4 species of crane, lots of plovers and sandpipers (including the rare Red Knot!!), 4 species of loon, the wood stork, cormorants and pelicans, osprey, golden eagles, kingfishers, shrikes (which are super cool), the list goes on and on!
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Had no clue about cranes and pelicans. I might get a guide and look around one of these days.
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ebird can tell you where there are birding hotspots around you, with what species there are as well!
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