Underappreciated sites: Neighborhoods

Neighborhoods are absolutely hopping with birds, but many people are hesitant to look for birds in neighborhoods for fear of looking creepy. Admittedly, describing someone driving slowly through a neighborhood peering into backyards with a pair of binoculars or camera, might be hard to make sound innocent.

However, neighborhoods often contain orchard pockets, garden plots, bird feeders, hedgerows, and are sometimes in sheltered ravines. Plus, unlike with roadside birding (see https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/rock-cut-christmas-bird-count/journal/56205-tips-roadside-birding) where you might have whole square miles that are not accessible due to lack of roads, neighborhoods are intersected and crisscrossed with so many side streets you'd be amazed at how much time you can spend exploring them. This is also handy if you have a creek running through; check every street that crosses the the creek. So they are definitely worth checking, but how do you make it less creepy?

First thing that helps, is get out and walk. Driving slowly through a neighborhood might look odd, but walking through doesn't look or feel near as creepy, plus you have better hearing.

Second thing: Bicycle. I think bikes are not used nearly enough on these counts anyway, but one of my best counts that had neighborhoods was one where I brought my bike and covered a large chunk of the territory. You move faster than on foot, which is good because you can cover a lot more area with all of the side streets, but you have better hearing and visibility than in a car.

Talk to people. I don't really like talking to people on count day (I've run into some real conversationalists when I'm trying to use as much of the day as possible counting birds,) but I have knocked on doors before to ask if I could stare into their backyard for a few minutes if they had a lot of birds. I prefer to do that when scouting for a count rather then the actual count though.

Publicado el octubre 16, 2021 04:38 TARDE por neylon neylon

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