Thursday, June 16, 2011

Called In Backyard Birdies

For the longest time I have been listening to Red-bellied Woodpeckers outside my back door, listening mind you not seeing. I have been back there many times watching and waiting with no luck at all. These guys would come in close but I still couldn't see them. Well... One of my daughters gave me an early father's day gift. A iBird app for my phone. It has hundreds of audio bird calls, including the Red-bellied Woodpecker. It worked amazingly well. I tried it first with the Cardinals... It worked. Then with the Downy Woodpecker... It worked. Wow I thought, it's time for trying it on the Red-bellied Woodpecker and it worked. I didn't realize how many of these birds were in the area. What a surprise. They were still a little bit shy and most didn't give me any photo opportunities but fortunately a couple of them did.  Is it cheating (the app) or another tool, I say a tool. I'll be using it again.

This is part of my back yard, a good place for birding...

Cardinal

Downy Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Red-bellied Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
 

2 comments:

TexWisGirl said...

oh, that's very cool!!! hey, if hunters can use bird calls, why should folks who shoot with cameras?! :)

Steve Ferendo said...

Cool. I see lots of new bird photos coming to your portfolio soon.