[Tweeters] Birding while cycling..

[HAL MICHAEL]

While I don't bike much I do a whole lot of birding while running.  Probably added at least half a dozen lifers. Plus I have "run" into quite a few mammals from shrews up to bison.  I just find keeping m eyes and ears open is rewarding.
 
Hal Michael
Board of Directors, Ecologists Without Borders http://ecowb.org/
Olympia WA
360-459-4005
360-791-7702 (C)
ucd880 at comcast.net
 
 


> On 09/12/2023 6:58 PM PDT Kevin Lucas <vikingcove at gmail.com> wrote:

>  

>  

> Tom,

>  

> Details --

>  

> I am actually birding while I'm pedaling my bicycle. Before the hit-and-run that shut down then greatly reduced my bicycling for years, I'd named areas along the Yakima Greenway Path, where I bicycled, for birds -- 'kestrel field', 'flicker field', 'egret slough',.... I have a nice quiet bicycle that fits me well. Even drivetrain noise is quite low. It's well adjusted, I wax my chain, and I ride on pavement. I whistle back to birds whose calls I can imitate passably. When my wife rides with me, I'm always pointing out birds, most of which I've first heard. I'm typically going 12 to 20 mph, and with my current helmet, wind noise is negligible. A slight turn of my head can help when needed.

> My high pitch hearing is still good. It used to be painfully good. There is a great amount of high frequency noise from electronics in our world that doesn't seem to bother most people. I rarely carry my binoculars with me. I tried carrying small ones, but I'm spoiled on my Canon Image Stabilzer binoculars, and rely on their stabilization even more so when my heartrate is elevated. If I were to stop to view, I'd want them, but they're big and heavy, so I need a knapsack for them. I like to ride without that encumbrance when I don't need to carry food and liquids for all day rides.

>  

> When I lived in Alaska, though I hated the noise, I found that travelling by tremendously noisy air boat, Bald Eagles were unlikely to flush as we passed. When in my canoe or raft on the same rivers, they usually flushed as I passed silently by. I figured they thought I was trying to sneak up on them. It was not a small sample size. Thousands were around.

>  

> Crippled, I wandered on foot clumsily on the Yakima Greenway Path. I was amazed at the close looks afforded me by little brown jobs, started to see their plumage well, and I got into identifying birds. It seemed to me they were pretty sure I had no chance of trying to catch and eat them with my slow and awkward movements. Similarly with my bike, it seems I often am not part of birds' perceived imminent threats. I also have a high vantage point on my bike.

>  

> A couple of years ago while bicycling I heard an Ovenbird singing away. I stopped and tried to spot it without binocs to no avail. It was singing again or still when I pedaled back past the spot. That was my rarest bicycling find, but I also often heard and saw Lesser Goldfinches along my rides long before their "rare" eBird designation was dropped locally. I get joy from all sorts of birds while I ride, and often say to the Turkey Vultures that I'm not ready for them yet, while hoping that the diclofenac I've used for pain reduction wouldn't kill them if they ate me, as it has done to vultures in India and Pakistan.

>  

> In a noisy, echo-y room, I'd have a tremendously hard time picking out bird vocalizations. Echoes and peoples voices wipe out bird sounds to my ears. The loud yammering of a local prominent bird lister always trashed my ability to hear birds at stops on his field trips. When he'd loudly schuss others, I'd laugh with a big smirk. Another lister makes loads of noise, clanking his tripod and talking, flushing birds all around. In addition to his carelessness and selfishness, I attribute his noisiness to his impaired hearing -- not realizing how much noise he is making. Their noise contributes to our desire and efforts to stay far from them. Even the noise of someone walking alongside me can obliterate many bird sounds to my ears. But the noise of my biking doesn't wipe out nearly as much. I don't hear most of the quietest chips and peeps and such, so there's the effective low sound pressure level notch filter that's built in to bicycling, but I hear enough to keep me happy and attentive while I ride.

>  

> Since I bicycle at an aerobic pace, when I stop I can often hear the sound of the blood coursing through my ears if I try to listen intently, so stops aren't the greatest birding opportunities for me, other than the final stop at our home.

>  

> Good Birding,

> https://www.aba.org/aba-code-of-birding-ethics/

> Kevin Lucas

> Yakima County, Washington

> Qui tacet consentire videtur

> 

> On Tue, Sep 12, 2023 at 4:58 PM Tom Benedict <benedict.t at comcast.net mailto:benedict.t at comcast.net> wrote:

> 

> > On Sep 12, 2023, at 16:34, Kevin Lucas <vikingcove at gmail.com mailto:vikingcove at gmail.com> wrote:

> > 

> > > Lately I've finally been able to return to enjoying birds while bicycling, something I thought I'd never be able to do again. It helps me get my fix of hearing and seeing birds with a much smaller turbine/lithium/carbon footprint.

> > > 

> >  

> > I’m interested in details Kevin. I have a hard time birding while walking, much less while bicycling. Or am I jumping to the conclusion that you are birding _while_ cycling rather than cycling between stops where you bird? 

> >  

> > Tom Benedict

> > Seahurst, WA

> > 

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