This morning, I am heading over to The Nature Conservancy office to interview Dave Ewert, one of the specialists in the Kirtland’s Warbler recovery team who initiated the Bahama’s research and education effort. More about that at a later date. The Kirtland’s Warbler keeps on giving…

By the way, are you the same Peter Burke bird artist from “National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America”?

I just got that guide for my 2yr old son and he loves looking at all the bird pictures.

Tony

Peter

Ps. Many thanks for all the wonderful compliments!

Maybe my last question is: “So what if you’re in a hurry (to bag an ID?)?” Ha ha.

I hear the proverbial Soup Nazi ( a reference to an American situational comedy called Seinfeld) saying “No ID For you!”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ3AOmZ2fps

A reversed way to Jeff’s is to try to ID the bird first without bins. And then get closer to see details to confirm.

Had a nice experience with my 2.5 year old daughter today. She is still not using binoculars.
I asked twice: What bird is that?
At some distance she correctly id:ed Blue-black Grassquit and black morph of Vermilion Flycatcher in the park. I am quite impressed. She must have been using jizz as they are both small and black, but do have different posture.
It does definitely not hurt to start early.

is *absolutely*! Happily, this is something we all control for ourselves, right?

An exercise I found really instructive is something I picked up from Jeff “Ol’ Coot” Wilson from Memphis, TN. While birding with him one cool November afternoon he talked about his method to learn about each bird: get as close as possible, watch for as long as you can stand it (or the bird lets you), study all of the details you can see: colors of feathered and bare areas, the way the feathers lay, and so on. Then back up 50 feet (we were watching Horned Larks in an open, muddy field) and watch again. Back up again, watch again, and keep doing this well past the last time you could make out a field mark. You’re left with the gestalt of the bird, how it holds itself, how it moves, not to mention the habitat and interactions with other individuals. Methods should probably vary with species.

That takes a lot of patience and discipline, but watching Jeff pick out the single Western Meadowlark as a dozen Eastern Meadowlarks flew by the windshield was impressive, to say the least. And we did stop and verify it!

Regarding mental tricks for using both parts of the brain, waaay back a friend turned me on to “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain” by Betty Edwards. I believe she wasn’t an artist per se, but a psychologist studying right vs. left brain functionality. Or something. If she wasn’t a practicing psychologist she sure came across as one.

As I remember it, her premise was that to draw accurately, comfortably, realistically (and so on) you needed to engage the right hemisphere – not an easy task since some huge proportion of us are “left-brained.” Drawing with that hemisphere engaged doesn’t work very well. The master’s were/are all adept at shifting from left- to right-dominance, something that I venture Peter did/does. Check out Betty’s website: http://www.drawright.com/

And definitely find a copy of the book, it really teaches you how to “see” differently, not just draw.

Enough rambling, but I can’t help it – interesting topic!
-Mike

http://www.amazon.com/Shorebird-Guide-Michael-OBrien/dp/0618432949

I’m interested in this at the brain level, whether or not this is a matter of right brain, left brain dominance.

We know that time in the field is the best training, but when later-in-life adults come to birding, are there mental tricks for using both parts of their brain–switching from parts to whole to parts again–to capture an ID? Is it as easy as it sounds or are we limited by previous experience and tendency, and therefore must build that brain muscle? You know, some sort of Richard Simmons “Build Your Brain Fantastic!!” sort of thing!

[pause for visual: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_aazos8dmW9Q/RxeXjGP9mTI/AAAAAAAAAdY/f9_L7N5NyU8/s320/simmons.jpg

People often recommend sketching in order to become intimately familiar with a bird, and I know that works.

But can there also be something said for the more organic approach of simply admiring a bird in its surroundings (to see the bird, the whole bird, and everything about the bird) with no pressure to ID? The answers will come when they are ready to…

As teachers say, a student cannot learn something until they “have a hanger to hang it on.”

This past spring I spent a tremendous amount of time birding in unfamiliar areas and learning new sounds of new birds. I needed/wanted the IDs, so I approached the practice in a very studious manner. I studied sounds, I wrote sounds, I sketched birds, I made notes, I filled my head with info on plumage, ranges, and sounds like never before. By the end of the season, I felt I had overdone it, and didn’t make the gains that my study warranted. So, even though I used all the recommended methods and spent loads of time in the field, I found that muscling it to that degree didn’t make anything stick (unless it is completely buried). So, a more “chill” experience is definitely in order for spring 2010…