21 replies to this topic

[Clip]

I am wondering how many others have branched out that started just bird watching to now watching insects or butterflies or snakes or reptiles in general. I seen to have branched out into all of the above. Birds of course remain my first true love.

[spookyjimjams]

One addiction is enough! Although I do pay attention to my local endemic mammals, we have a lot of special ones in Central CA.

[dklucius]

it was the other way around for me. i was born on a farm and grew up around small towns and can not remember not wanting to get outside daily. it started with bugs and horney toads and lizards and chipmonks and turtles and canarys and parakeets and haveing ducks and geese and chickens and rabbitts and chuckars pheasants and guinias and frogs and raiseing cows and pigs and goats and horses. and spending weeks at a time hunting or fishing or hiking the canyons and mountains works 40 years in the woods and sawmills and lumber yards and paper mills watching the deer and antelope and foxes and bobcats and even mountain lions and bears. after i retired several different times and had put out bird feeders and hummingbird feeders because i was taking care of my invalid mother and she was the bird watcher and i identified them and tooks pictures for her to look at. And we took rides thru the county and down to the river and lakes ect. After she died i put out even more feeders and built feeders and bird houses and planted bird friendly plants and trees and shrubs. now i have some container garden and flowers and plants in the back yard and check out the kitchen window often to see whats out there

[fisherman1313]

I used to fish a lot and would always watch all the wildlife around me. If I didn't see any birds I would watch dragonflies or ground squirrels or whatever. The only thing that's changed since I started birding is that I look closer at things now than I did before.

[Melissa :)]

I enjoy photographing and looking at various insects and other animals, but I only keep a list for the birds, cause of course, they are awesome.

[GreatHorn]

For me..... fishing and herps -> birds -> everything else. I was always curious about other animals, but I never really learned anything about butterflies and such until I started birding (my gateway drug, I guess)

[JimBob]

Other then birding, the only "life list" I have is fish I've caught. . . always trying to catch another species when I go out.

I'm taking more interest in Dragonflies, and Butterflies. . . might make life lists of them too. . . First I need a guide.

[Zillie]

Before I started birding, I would always be on the look out for spiders and ants - they are fascinating! Now, however, I am always looking for birds, too.

[Clip]

I have been seeing some cool dragonflies. I never realised there was so much variation in the insect. Same with grasshoppers. Not as much variation in butterflies but they are so beautiful. They also don't like to hold still to be photographed I notice. I have a few. I purchased some books on reptiles and insects but wow they seem really incomplete. I would like to identify some of the ones that did hold still for a photo. If any one has suggestions on a good book for these in Colorado I would appreciate it.

[canon eos]

.........I 'branched out' to bird photography!
After about 3 decades in photography, it has only been in the past couple of years that I have taken on this challenge. And mostly because of the fine, talented and sharing folks here at Whatbird it has made it possible to learn so much (for me!).

thanks

[SPiercePhotography]

insects here love them. i use bugguide to id any i don't know. i'm sorry to the mods if i'm not allowed to link it, but...

http://bugguide.net/node/view/15740

[cwj2323]

In a way, we have branched out. We haven't started any lists, but are more interested in bugs in general. Hey, it's food for the birds. But I feel we have definitely started caring more for their habitat where as we didn't before. The little we do makes us wish we could do more. This we can say is a direct result of the birds.

I know not really the direction Clip was going, but just coming from another forum I'm a little aggravated right now. When we first started feeding the birds, we cared about feeder birds- that was it, really. We'd go out and chase off the Cooper's hawk that wanted our feeder birds. We'd find piles of Junco feathers showing its successes during times we were not aware it was here.

The hawks wanted food- they don't have anything against feeder birds. That's just what they're made to eat. It took me a little while to work through that. I can honestly say I appreciate the Cooper's now as much as any other bird. If they catch prey in our yard, I just don't look too close at what it might be. It really bothers me when people have such hatred for them, but yet won't take down the feeders and allow the birds to disperse if they do not want a hawk as a feeder bird.

[muliphein]

I started out as a plant person. I'd try to ID all the wildflowers seen, and keep track of when they bloomed. I also took tons of photos of moss, lichen, liverworts, fungi, etc. While I loved watching birds at the feeders since young, I only started actively searching for birds since last fall. The spark bird (or birds) were Hawaii's Honeycreepers which I was doing a short school report on. Ended up reading everything I could find about those guys for a few months and began carrying binoculars everywhere. I do love finding bugs like beatles, mantises, and moths; birds and plants are the most interesting for me though. Anyone else a moss, lichen, fungi person?

[cwj2323]

Anyone else a moss, lichen, fungi person?

I cannot say that I really am, but you might find this interesting. I've learned a little about this fungus growing in my garden. Yikes!
Corn Smut (Ustilago maydis)

AKA huitlacoche (for those who eat this stuff)

[folkeye]

Interested in looking at/observing other things, but not interested enough to know what they all are.

Birds are where my 'what is that!' passion lays.

[muliphein]

I cannot say that I really am, but you might find this interesting. I've learned a little about this fungus growing in my garden. Yikes!
Corn Smut (Ustilago maydis)

AKA huitlacoche (for those who eat this stuff)

Yikes indeed. Hope you were able to recover atleast some of your harvest! Can't say I find corn smut appetizing myself, though I do find it neat that people can actually eat the stuff.

[hbvol]

I take photos of other things when I'm birding; other animals including insects, and interesting plants. (I just found a common persimmon loaded with fruit; my first thought was "oranges?".) But I don't go looking for other stuff or keep lists of them. Though I do really enjoy seeing the big mammals; elk, bison, bear, moose, whales!

[DianeD]

Does 'branching in' count? I think I branched in to birds. I have tried to be a gardener but it kust hasn't taken. The other day I was SO happy to watch the goldfinch family enjoying the basil I let go to seed. Instead of thinking "hmmmm, I should be a better gardener", I thought "wow, those little goldfinches are great, and I even know what they are!".

[Clip]

DianeD- welcome to birding! Yes, it counts even better to brach into birding. I'm not a very good gardner either

[LauraC]

I have "periods." All of my photos are in folders labeled with the date they were taken so I know to look for what when every year by checking the previous years' dates.

The seagulls show up to the lake down the road early in December and are gone by the first week in March. Those are my flying photos months. Seagulls are the easiest birds to photograph in flight, in my opinion and I enjoy it. They have "personality" too.

This is also the best time for me to feed, see and photograph songbirds (because no leaves on the trees and because they'll come for food due to no bugs). Unfortunately, the ugliness of the scenery, lack of leaves on the trees and dead brown leaves on the ground during this time means a lot of cropped close-ups.

The pink and white flowered trees come in late March, early April. That's when I pray grackles (love them) and starlings would just go sit in one for a photo. The iridescence with the pink flowers looks great. Alas, boring grey mockingbirds and cedars waxwings (yellow and pink - UGH combo) usually do.



April is scenery photo month. Everything is green and flowering. It is also outdoor sports like rowing, boating, fishing photo month. Still pleasant enough for me to be outdoors most of the day.

May is birds are everywhere month. If I go on vacation (I live in a landlocked state), it's shorebird month, too. Plus, the scenery is nice so the bird photos don't have to be cropped so close. This is also flower photography month. I go to gardens for flower shots. It is also farm photo month because of how the ground is plowed (looks good and you can still see the farm houses and barns). I usually take a lot of photos in May.

June, July and August are macro photo (butterflies and other bugs, flowers) months. I spend my least anount of time outdoors in the summer because of the heat so I go out a lot for the bug shots but just for short spells.

September is hawk photo month and butterfly photo month (still in upper 80s, low 90s here). If I had a lousy butterfly season (like this one) more likely to go to a butterfly house for photos in Sept. out of desperation.

October is festivals (people photos) and fall foliage month. I chase the colors from the higher elevation at the beginning of the month to the lower elevations at the end of the month and into the first 5 days of November.

November is my annual camera club salon and is more about reviewing, editing, selecting, printing and mounting photos for competition than actual photography.

So, while I do branch out, it's usually dictated rather than deliberately chosen.