Minnesota Birds: Birding - Cheep Trills

I was reading the newspaper. Let's see, the date of the paper is July 29, 2015. The article was written by Jim Williams. He's a writer for the Star Tribune. The article, of course, was interesting and the picture showed a picture of a bird.

"Birds superpower is UV Vision" the title read. I chuckle to myself. Picturing a bird, wearing a superman suit with a big S on its chest flying around, the little cape flitting in the breeze. It's pretty realistic and believable. Everything fits... birds can fly, so that fits into my thoughts exactly...

Oh, yes. Sorry. Before I got distracted by my randomness.

What is birding? My first thought is that birding is just a term they use to separate topics. Birding is about birds, gardening would be about gardening.

So. Am I right? According to Google, birding is.... drum roll:

How to attract birds. How to identify what birds you are attracting. How to keep birds around. How to feed birds. What types of feeders to use. Bird houses. What type of food to offer. When to expect birds. Seasonal birds. Using birds to forecast the weather.

I live in southern Minnesota and have a ten acre plot of land that I call home. I have many varieties of trees and lots of undergrowth. I do not put out bird feeders with seeds, but I have a hummingbird feeder that I keep filled with nectar.

I have a birch tree next to the house that seems to get hundreds of hummingbirds on it. I never see a nest but that's where they fly to when they pull nectar from the feeder.

I noticed a large hawk on a maple tree the other day. It was interesting to see. It's stately form was very obvious among the crusty branches of the dying maple. I was trying to take a photo of it and as I got too close, it screeched and flew away. I got a chuckle out of three smaller birds who immediately replaced him on the branch.

There are birds that change periodically. There's the Robin that shows up in the Spring. There are the Bluejays that are around through the winter. Cardinals are a winter bird. Woodpeckers of various sizes and colors. Hummingbirds, like I previously mentioned.

There was even a Bald Eagle in the tree one year. Those birds are huge. I'm used to seeing owls and smaller birds. The smaller birds are Orioles, Bluebirds, Finches and sparrows. Some chickadees in the winter.

I have pigeons and barn swallows in the shed. Nothing more disheartening than having a mud nest in the shed and having their toilet directly below. Usually falls on something that I don't want bird poop on.

I'm going to look through my photographs and post as many pictures of birds as I can find that I have taken in the past.

They will be as follows. I'm not sure what the names are, so, for fun, you can comment below and identify them for me.

I just looked up birding on Google and found that there are some birding publications that you can get involved with and further your involvement with the birding obsession.

The Birding Magazine offers a membership. Check them out. Their page is the Aba dot Org.

You can even go on Bird Treks. Or should I say go to Bird Treks to go on a Bird Trek. I should do that. It says that you can go on a trip and they show you birds. How fun is that?

Their next adventure in September takes you to Monhegan Island, Maine.