Wildlife Enthusiast?

Hi quinn! Love the question and am interested, like to you, to see what folks here have to say. I am a birdwatcher (have several feeders in my yard plus some birdhouses and a little pond) and try to identify each new type as they visit. I also enjoy photographing my flowers now that we have a digital camera (where one can magically erase one's mistakes and no one need ever know what an awful photo you took).

What are you interested in?

p.s. I don't like hunting at all -- still fixated on the Bambi thing.

glad you like the question!

And the poll seems like it might be interesting so far, glad I figured out how to get it there.

I have enjoyed all of the above but have settled in for the moment to birdwatching and photography myself. I very much enjoy the identification of birds as well, it keeps you on your toes some days.

Oh the joy of digital photography, fixing your mistakes!

I dont mind the Bambi thing, its good food. I do have problems with sport hunting though, if its not being used for food or for thinning out a herd against starvation and disease, etc.

I do pretty much all of the above and then some. I'd spend my entire life outdoors if I could get away with it. I'm fortunate in that I have a good sized stream that runs along my back yard. I can fish any time I want plus there are Canadian geese that arrive every spring and build their nests on top of some beaver lodges. I can just go and sit and watch the geese swim with their young or watch the beavers swimming back and forth or building up their damns and lodges. Quite a few turtle living down there too and I get a few herons that come by now and then.

I used to do quite a bit of photography in the woods but my camera outfit was stolen and I've yet to replace it all.

For those that might not want to wander to far off the beaten path GeoCaching can be great fun and it's "Family Friendly" too!

I love to birdwatch. I especially like the water birds, since they are large, and usually will sit still for awhile.

Since I live in Florida, the opportunities for birdwatching are endless. In the culvert that runs along the main street in my town, I see Wood Storks, Great Blue Herons, Little Blue Herons, Great Egrets. There usually are a pair or two of Sand Hill Cranes on the golf course. Cattle Egrets prance across our lawn.

One I was driving on my main street, and spied a small flock of Roseate Spoonbills. I nearly went off the road. If I drive a bit to Tampa Bay, I can see Brown Pelicans and Common Terns. All this, and right near my house!

I wouldn't go so far as to claim entheusiast, but I enjoy what pops up on my walks. Today, I saw a grey fox, and last month, I either ran across a pair of the, or saw the same one twice - it was hard to tell. Around the same time, I had a great blue heron pointed out to me. Now, this is odd because I'm in nw New Mexico, on the Colorado Plateau.

Thanks to a handful of civic minded donors, we have a park paralleling the Animas River for about two miles. Even though it's only a few hundred yards wide in places, wildllife is common, especially in our recent dry spell.

Okay, looks like we have some interest here, welcome!

Heres the link to the 2001 US Fish and Wildlife Survey
http://federalaid.fws.gov/surveys/surveys.html

Highlights:
Over 82 million U.S. residents 16 years old and older fished, hunted, or wildlife watched in 2001. During that year, 34.1 million people fished, 13.0 million hunted, and 66.1 million participated in at least one type of wildlife-watching activity including observing, feeding, or photographing wildlife.

Wildlife recreationists' avidity was reflected in their spending which totaled $108 billion in 2001. This amounted to 1.1% of the GDP. Of the total amount spent, $28 billion was for trips, $64 billion for equipment, and $16 billion for other items.

Sportspersons spent a total of $70 billion in 2001—$36 billion on fishing, $21 billion on hunting, and $14 billion on items used for both hunting and fishing (the sum of expenditures totals $71 billion due to rounding). Wildlife watchers spent $38 billion on trips, equipment, and other items.

fishin thanks for the link to GeoCaching it looks like a great idea for young and old alike, in fact I think Ill go get a GPS

You can get GPS Units pretty cheap nowadays. I bought a pretty good unit from Walmart for under $130.00. Check that URL for locations in your area where Cache's are stashed. There are thousands of them all over. I found quite a few nice little parks/wildlife sanctuaries that I never would have visited if it hadn't been for that site.

If you do go with it bring Binocs and/or a camera when you go out!

Good idea for seeing the surroundings, thanks.



Take only pictures ~ Leave only footprints

Great site, fishin. Now, if i could ever be persuaded to graduate from using a compass ... (kind of like making the switch from paper and pencil math to a calculator - i still like to write the numbers out and do the math).

My academic, and early professional, background is in environmental science. This is an area of ongoing interest and concern to me.

Tonight, I did my 'clicks' for the Rainforest, while thinking of Anon Voter, who is a great member of our team of WildClickers.

Today I had 400 pounds of meat outside my window--a flock of 15-20 (they kept moving) wild turkey hens and teenagers.

I'm not a hunter, but having seen overgrazed forests (and had my landscaping snacked on), I'm not going to get sentimental about Bambi.

As I've said frequently over the last seven months, I'm looking forward to the end of November when I can hang my bird feeders up again. Bird feeders are also bear feeders and bears are prone to both practical and ceremonial destruction.

I wish we had a good window for a feeder! In the front, the porch overhangs. In the back, we hardly ever sit (except for the computer room, but then you're not looking out the window too often).

But we do have birds, and in the most unlikely place! There is, outside the downstairs bathroom, a small ventilator pipe. It's maybe two or three inches across and made of what I guess is cast iron. And, below that, on the back deck flooring, we've found bird droppings. This was a mystery until we saw birds flying in and out of the pipe! They are either really quiet or we can't hear them inside, and I don't think - eek - they can get in from there, but we have tenants!

We also have pigeons who roost in the third floor eaves. If you go up there and open a window (too cold to do that right now), you'll hear cooing. They used to live next door until that house put up new siding. I'm not sure if the pigeons are tenants. Let's just say they're temporary lodgers or hangers-on.

I photograph and bird-watch. I haven't fished in years, but I do enjoy it.

Your pipe-living birds remind me, jespah, of the year when I had to call the dryer repair man cause my dryer wouldn't dry. Felt pretty dumb when he discovered the problem was a nest in the vent opening.

Sadly, my rear new neighbor has had two huge evergreens cut down and my side neighbor lost two huge trees in a wind storm we had a month or so ago. The poor birds are losing their hangouts. It will be interesting to see if we have as many varieties next spring as we have had in the past.

I realize that the neighbor may have had a good reason, but this REALLY bothers me. I've gotten neighbors really irritated at me when I ask why they cut down their tree and they say they just wanted to. When I lived in L.A., we had a giant California Live Oak that needed annual trimming, and I was on pins and needles as the crew went at it ruthlessly. I actually went out there and demanded justification for HOW extensive the "trim" was turning out to be. They convinced me that my Midwestern view of trees did not apply in California -- with a year-round growing season, it would grow back in no time. And it did.

But it just makes me sick when people cut down fine old trees for no reason. (Just happened down the block. Argh.)

I agree wholeheartedly, sozobe. One of the reasons I've always loved my neighborhood is because it is filled with lots of big old trees. But lately, they've been coming down -- and mostly via chainsaws, not by Mother Nature. I can actually call the town and tell them their tree (between the sidewalk and the street) is cracking my sidewalk and they'll come chop the tree down rather than cut back the offending roots.

Makes me sad.

Ouch! An aunt of mine had a tree cut down. It attracted birds which left droppings on the sidewalk. What could I do?

Sozobe - I agree as well. I just helped my boss pull out a little (really little) blue fir in her yard and I apologized to the thing the whole time. I keep telling my landlady to keep the huge zelkova(?) on our lot - she wants to cut it down. In Cambridge, MA, you need to get permission to cut down trees.

On the poll, I voted "More than one of the above". I can't really say that I am any kind of specific naturalist, but I watch all of it all the time.

Growing up with fruit trees and and rose garden and the appreciation of flora and all I think has a positive effect on your feelings towards trees and the like.
I suppose the same goes for hunting and fishing when you think about it.
A recent trip had me looking at many things, of which I really enjoyed seeing how although road widening is a good thing, the really great things is that the older trees area actually being kept. Interesting side thought for the engineers Im sure.

I love to watch birds, when I have the time !

I'm a member of the Audoubon Society. b