Birding Basics
Saturday, September 26, 2026
Our first outing of the season was at rare Charitable Research Reserve for Birding Basics. Istafa from rare led the outing. We learned about some of the ways bird bodies are different from other birds based on where each species live and what they eat.
Raptor birds have sharp claws for grabbing and holding on to prey. Owl feathers are camouflaged to help them hide in trees and duck feet are webbed to help them swim. A shrike cannot kill its prey with its small feet, so it impales its food on thorns to kill it.
We saw that blue jay feathers look blue until you hold them up to the light and then they just look brownish. Birds can see ultraviolet light that we cannot see and a woodcock that looks very plain and brown to us, is like a disco ball in the sky to other birds.
Outside, Istafa handed out binoculars, and we practised looking through them before heading out on the trail to look for birds.
We saw turkey vultures soaring up high. Turkey vultures have no feathers on their heads to keep themselves clean as they eat dead animals including road kill. Turkey vultures are good at cleaning up dead animals and their digestive system kills diseases and parasites so they don’t get sick from rotting meat. They also vomit on their food before eating it to start the break down of the food before it even gets to their stomach.
We saw chickadees and learned that their brains actually grow in size in order to remember where they have hidden seeds for the winter. There were many ring billed gulls on the river as well as a great egret.
The weather was sunny and there was a light breeze. It was a beautiful day!
Reported by: Rachelle