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concentric ring exercise and goodbye...



Hi Gang,

I have to leave this list but wanted to do so with one easy exercise that
some of you may enjoy.  It's a great one for kids too, or the whole family
or any group of people at all really and helps to start hearing more of the
language the birds are speaking.

You see, when predators move through the woods the birds send out alarms to
all the other forest creatures.  This is a noticeable call that one can
recognize and eventually decipher what the alarm is in regards to, it's the
easiest call to understand from the birds.  And since man is the fiercest
predator in the woods in the eyes of the animals s/he draws the most alarms,
therefore s/he's a great place to start studying the sounds of the alarms.

Here's what you do.  Start as a group (whatever size, from 2 to however many
you want) in a central location.  Have everyone in the group walk quietly to
individual sitspots somewhere along a predesignated trail in the woods.
Preferably a somewhat secluded spot out of sight.  The group walking to
their sitspots will cause some disturbances and alarm calls.  But when the
group sits in their spots for an amount of time, we usually use one hour,
the birds will settle into their more baseline routines and not be on alert
because of the group any longer.  After this time is up, the hour or so,
have one person walk down the trail past the others sit spots slowly posing
as a hunter or just a person walking through the woods.  The greatest thing
about this is that all the people in the sit spots will most likely be able
to hear the birds telling of the approacing hunter or hiker before that
person is visible.

That's it, very simple.  Go out and sit, have a person walk by later, and
try to hear when you they are coming before you try to see them.

If anyone has further interest feel free to email me direct as I will no
longer be lurking on the carolina birders list.

Happy birding all, enjoy this day!!

Craig Armstrong
Chapel Hill NC