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The semester is pretty much over now. The grades are figured, though not all submitted yet. I'm still fielding grade complaints, which cause me a lot of stress. (Honestly, if you can't be bothered to write a full-length paper with an arguable thesis for your culminating essay, I'm not sure you deserve to pass the class, so a C+ is far more than you deserve, not less.) I'm starting my month of relaxation now, and so far it isn't going that well. It's hard to figure out what to do if I'm not working. And if I'm not "working," then why should I work on the lawn? Hmph. (I may have to redefine my relaxation.)
Anyway, today I made it up to Sharp's Ridge, which is east TN's premier birding hotspot during spring migration. As the warblers pass through, they stop on the higher-altitude trees, and because the road is up high, you can actually see ones that hang out at the tops of trees. Normally when I go up there, I go with a group and we see lots of things. I wanted to go up alone to work on my birdwatching skills. The biggest problem with birdwatching is finding the damn birds. You can hear them, but where are they? It's rather pointless to scan with your binoculars. What you do basically is watch for movement. Did that leaf move? Is there a bird on the other side of it? Let's watch and see if it comes out. I spent about an hour today just watching one tree (a leisure not available during group trips). Mostly I saw yellow-rumped warblers; those are common so most birders aren't excited by them, but they're still lovely, especially in breeding plumage when the males look like they're wearing little black vests. Some other birders identified a golden-winged warbler by sound, but we couldn't locate it. I did see some plain warblers with yellow butts--excuse me, undertail coverts--and chestnut caps. I flipped through my book and discovered they are palm warblers. I've seen palm warblers before, but this was my first time identifying them for myself. It's very different when you learn for yourself. I'm going back up to the ridge tomorrow for a couple of hours to work more on identification skills before the group bird walk on Thursday morning. If you're in the area, we meet by the ranger's station at 8 a.m. It will be the last bird walk on the ridge for the year. Already, the leaves make it difficult to spot the birds.
Anyway, today I made it up to Sharp's Ridge, which is east TN's premier birding hotspot during spring migration. As the warblers pass through, they stop on the higher-altitude trees, and because the road is up high, you can actually see ones that hang out at the tops of trees. Normally when I go up there, I go with a group and we see lots of things. I wanted to go up alone to work on my birdwatching skills. The biggest problem with birdwatching is finding the damn birds. You can hear them, but where are they? It's rather pointless to scan with your binoculars. What you do basically is watch for movement. Did that leaf move? Is there a bird on the other side of it? Let's watch and see if it comes out. I spent about an hour today just watching one tree (a leisure not available during group trips). Mostly I saw yellow-rumped warblers; those are common so most birders aren't excited by them, but they're still lovely, especially in breeding plumage when the males look like they're wearing little black vests. Some other birders identified a golden-winged warbler by sound, but we couldn't locate it. I did see some plain warblers with yellow butts--excuse me, undertail coverts--and chestnut caps. I flipped through my book and discovered they are palm warblers. I've seen palm warblers before, but this was my first time identifying them for myself. It's very different when you learn for yourself. I'm going back up to the ridge tomorrow for a couple of hours to work more on identification skills before the group bird walk on Thursday morning. If you're in the area, we meet by the ranger's station at 8 a.m. It will be the last bird walk on the ridge for the year. Already, the leaves make it difficult to spot the birds.