ACES Birding Field Class, How to Know the Birds with Ted Floyd | July 25-26, 2019

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Thursday, July 25 – Friday, July 26, 2019
Weather: Mostly sunny

Species Identified

Mallard Ring-necked Duck Broad-tailed Hummingbird Black-chinned Hummingbird American Coot Cooper’s Hawk Osprey Red-naped Sapsucker Northern Flicker Western Wood-Pewee Cordilleran Flycatcher Dusky Flycatcher Warbling Vireo Plumbeous Vireo Steller’s Jay Black-billed Magpie American Crow Black-capped Chickadee Mountain Chickadee Tree Swallow Violet-green Swallow Ruby-crowned Kinglet House Wren Blue-gray Gnatcatcher European Starling Swainson’s Thrush American Robin Cedar Waxwing House Finch Pine Siskin Song Sparrow Green-tailed Towhee Red-winged Blackbird Brown-headed Cowbird MacGillivray’s Warbler Yellow Warbler Yellow-rumped Warbler Black-headed Grosbeak Lazuli Bunting

 

Comments:

Ted Floyd, Editor of Birding Magazine, author, and renowned birding expert, taught a comprehensive two-day birding field course for ACES Naturalist Field School. Ted’s classroom content included an overview of digital resources many birders use, including Song Sleuth, Xenocanto, iNaturalist, eBird, and Merlin. Ted taught participants how to use spectrograms (graphs providing visual representations of bird vocalizations) to learn about bird sounds and how scientists are using them to dive more deeply into understanding bird communication. He also gave a brief talk about evolutionary relationships among birds and our growing understanding of the avian family tree, as well as new research and findings behind the connection between birds and dinosaurs. In the field, we visited a variety of sites including Hallam Lake, Sunnyside Trail, Difficult Trail, a private property in Snowmass Village off Divide Road, and the Aspen Community Garden. In the field, Ted covered identification tips, field craft tips, and natural history information, with birding highlights being a pair of newly fledged blue-gray gnatcatchers being fed by parents and western tanagers in excellent light. We spent time practicing birding without binoculars or other gear, as well as birding with all of our gear including phones and cameras. Participants practiced making photographs and recordings of bird vocalizations and learned how to edit and upload them to ebird and other online sites. Ted followed up with slideshows of photos taken during the class experience (birds and much more!) as well as resources and tutorials to help participants continue to learn and practice new skills. Thank you, Ted, for a rich class experience!

~ Rebecca Weiss, ACES Bird Guide 

 

Photo by Mark Fuller