Learn
We are all students of the world of birding, but CAS is always happy to share our knowledge whenever we can help someone in their journey.
If you are interested in learning more, here is some reading we would recommend:
Audubon Magazine. If you join as a member of the National Audubon Society, you will receive their magazine.
Dr. Drew Lanham. What Do We Do About John James Audubon? The namesake of the Audubon Society had plenty of character flaws. Dr. Lanham, a professor of ornithology at Clemson University, tackles the issue head on in this Audubon Magazine article.
https://www.audubon.org/magazine/spring-2021/what-do-we-do-about-john-james-audubon
Dr. Drew Lanham. The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature. Did we mention Dr. Lanham is a South Carolinian and a world-renowned ornithologist? He is also a great writer. This is an autobiographical account of his life growing up as a bird fanatic.
Noah Stryker. Birding Without Borders: An Obsession, a Quest, and the Biggest Year in the World. An autobiographical account of a birdwatcher's frantic 12 months of birdwatching around the globe.
Joe Dunn. The Glitter in the Green: In Search of Hummingbirds. A bird lover travels from Alaska to southern Chile seeking out hummingbirds.
Joe Hutto. Illumination in the Flatwoods: A Season Living Among the Wild Turkey. A naturalist/scientist is given turkey eggs and becomes a part of the flock.
Kirk Wallace Johnson. The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century. If you love a good murder mystery, this book is for you...minus the murder.
Looking for a birdwatching field guide or reference book? There are SO many good ones out there, we aren't even going to wade into that contentious debate. If you are just getting started, you might want to consider downloading the Merlin Bird ID app on your phone. It was developed by The Cornell Lab at Cornell University. It is easy to learn and FREE! Learn more about the app here: https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/
If you do want a field guide, we recommend that you get one that focuses on birds of the Southeast.
PHOTO CENSORED!
Think that dead bird you saw is no big deal? It is a HUGE deal.
It is estimated that as many as 1 BILLION birds are killed each year due to collisions with manmade objects. More info here and here.
And it is estimated that house cats kill 2.4 BILLION birds in the US every year. Keep them indoors, folks!
Did you find a dead bird?
Using iNaturalist, you can help bird science by reporting any dead bird you encounter.
In iNaturalist:
Open the iNaturalist app and click on "Projects" along the bottom banner.
At the top of the next page, do a search for "Dead Birds".
Choose the "Dead Birds" project and click on Join.
Go back to the Observe screen and enter the bird's info: species, pictures, location, etc.
Scroll to the bottom of your observation page, click on Projects, switch on "Dead Birds", and choose the likely cause of death
Click on Back and the Save to complete the report.