[Tweeters] Birding while cycling..

[Steve Hampton]

I love birding by bike and have done so for years. I've done the CBC by
bike most of the past 20 years. Compared to a car, I can hear everything,
note mixed species flock and stop quickly, and pretty much park anywhere.
Compared to walking, I can cover much more ground. Even if biking out to
the lighthouse or some other destination, I can pick up flyby crossbills,
Evening Grosbeak, or even a Townsend's Warbler chip, whereas by car I would
never have heard them.




On Tue, Sep 12, 2023 at 7:54 PM HAL MICHAEL <ucd880 at comcast.net> wrote:


> 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>

> wrote:

>

> On Sep 12, 2023, at 16:34, Kevin Lucas <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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-- 
​Steve Hampton​
Port Townsend, WA  (qatáy)
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