What was your "spark" bird?

[Leslie Kinrys]

My "spark bird" was the lowly House Sparrow. I must have been five years old, when my father put a fledgling House Sparrow in my hands. I was enchanted. That was the start of my love for nature and especially birds. What was yours?

[paul_reeves]

Mine was an American Goldfinch in 2011.

I was at the Evergreen Brickworks just looking around to see what was there and these bright yellow birds I had never "seen" before were going nuts feeding on the seeds of a plant that was taller than I was. They didn't care that I was there and let me take some photos. A few days later I was back and these same yellow birds were at it again but this time there were young birds as well.

This time an adult pulled a seed from a plant and fed it to a youngster and watching this behaviour I became hooked.

[Rotarran]

I've always been fascinated by the bouncy little House Sparrows and their curious ability to perfectly adapt to the human environment.  But I don't think it necessarily sparked me into being a birder.  

For me I think it was more a couple of articles I saw in the paper...which seems fitting as my background is in journalism.  

June 2011 - An article in the Toronto Star about a rare Arctic Ptarmigan  (how do you even pronounce that? lol) stopping by the Darlington Power Plant which attracted thousands of birders.  That article fascinated me...how could a simple bird delight so many people?  Of course it's no simple bird and I now get the "delight"...but at the time I actually thought it was kinda goofy and that I'd never "get it"...lol  :lol:
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2011/06 ... plant.html

December 2012 - Then an article on Joshua Vandermeulen's Ontario big year in the Toronto Star kinda set the fire for me.  Reading about Josh's adventures made me realize what an interesting province we live in, bird wise.  http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2012/12 ... ecord.html


I bought a camera during boxing week in early January and have never looked back.  I like to take a picture of every bird I see.  It's both for proof but also for record-keeping.  

The first bird I saw "officially" this year was the Mallard.

[birddog]

My son asked me what that bird was and I had no idea. It turned out to be a starling, it was all uphill from there.

[Howieh]

Probably a budgie! A few years ago I was wandering around Rosetta MG with my heavy gear, looking for butterflies, and Big Frank came over and pointed to the top of one of the evergreen trees. 'Hunter', the resident redtail hawk, was on squirrel watch and may well have been the first bird I shot with my 100-400 lens.

Btw, Leslie, have you seen the waxwings that hang around the pond adjacent to the golf course in Earl Bales? Since I've photographed waxwings feeding their young in the lower park, I assume they are nesting somewhere in the park.

[Leslie Kinrys]

Hi Howie,
The Cedar Waxwings seem to be all over Earl Bales Park. The last time I was down by the ponds, they were flying out over the water, hunting for insects. They are one of the later nesters, so they should get going on the next generation soon.

[Bluffs Birder]

Although I've always been interested in birds in one respect or another, I don't think it was until a spring afternoon back in 2007 while waiting for a TTC bus that I really got hooked.  As I approached the bus stop I could hear a lot of racket coming off the top of a building that the stop was located in front of.  I thought to myself that there was one heck of a (bird) party going on up there.  Then all of a sudden it went silent and I saw a strangely marked bird fly up in to an evergreen by the front doors of the building.  The 'racket' started once again but seemed closer this time.  My curiousity got the better of me and I slowly walked up the path towards the doors, things went quiet again and before I knew it the bird I saw flew out of the tree right at my head!  I almost went down but quickly regained my composure and headed for shelter (bus shelter!)  After a minute or so I bravely stuck my head back out only to find that same bird sitting on the wire above and starring right down at me, almost begging me to step back out.  That didn't happen tho, in fact I think I might have ran on to the bus once it arrived!  When I got home, I pulled out the old Audubon book that we had and it wasn't long before I was able to ID that crazed bird and the 'party' that came with him.  It was a Northern Mockingbird!!!  Later on I learned why it was likely trying to attack me, it was guarding it's nest and territory.

Before this incident I had never known birds to show such attitude.  Of course now after several years of serious birding, I've been attacked by many different species without really asking for any of it!  Red-winded Blackbirds are my favourite!

Walter

[Howieh]

Hi Howie,
The Cedar Waxwings seem to be all over Earl Bales Park. The last time I was down by the ponds, they were flying out over the water, hunting for insects. They are one of the later nesters, so they should get going on the next generation soon.

...and speaking of late nesters, Mad Max, my male hummingbird still does his courtship dance if there's a female around when he comes to feed. Is this normal behavior for so late in the season?

[Pat Hodgson]

I have to say there were two.  First, western tanager, because when I first went out west it was so cool to see something so different.  Second, golden-winged warbler, because that was when I realized there was so much more to see in the east as well (beyond the common birds "everyone" knows).

[Leslie Kinrys]

Hi Howie,
I always thought male hummers left at this time, to head back down south. I guess Mad Max is hoping to get lucky one more time.