Birders are like This

A few days ago, I joined the Yahoo! listserv run by the Chicago Ornithological Society. As I've blogged elsewhere, we put a birdfeeder up just after Christmas, and we've become mildly addicted to identifying the birds who stop by. I had a few questions, so I thought I'd listen in on the Yahoo! conversations.

The listserv is an amazing window into the community of birders. These folks are knowledgable, friendly and intense. They share the names of birds they've sighted from forest preserves to backyards to roadsides all over Illinois with very specific details about where the birds were sighted. Some include long lists of "species counts" of their trips that have the name and number of birds they've spotted.

Here's a favorite representative post, so you can see what I'm talking about:

Date: Tue May 3, 2005 7:52 am
Subject: Montrose Point, Tuesday, 3 May 2005

Montrose Point was again chilly this morning (Tuesday, 3 May 2005), with 41 F temperatures and winds WNW at 10mph under cloudy skies.

I had three species of terns between 5:45 and 7:10 am:
69 CASPIAN TERN
1 COMMON TERN
2 FORSTER'S TERN

There were still few passerines, however. One PALM WARBLER was the only warbler.

Montrose Point is in Chicago's Lincoln Park (Cook County).

Good birding,
Geoff

Good birding, indeed. Good people watching, too.