Drive by birding

Birding binoculars are, of course, the basic tool used by all birders, but, if you know your birds, there are plenty of opportunities to identify birds that do not require binoculars. In fact, you can identify a great number of birds from your vehicle as you drive cross country, as I did over the weekend, on a visit to St. Paul, Minnesota and never uncase your binoculars.

New to my 2010 birdwatching list, is the Wilson’s Phalarope. Spotted a whole flock of these shorebirds, feeding in a marsh, in suburban St. Paul as we were stopped at a light. No birding binocular needed to spot Phalaropes when they are feeding – they swim in circles, but you can also identify Phalaropes from their distinctive silhouette. However, in the off chance that you might spot a much rarer Red-necked Phalarope swimming with a group of Wilson's, you should take a look with a binocular when you have a chance. The light changed before I could get my binoculars uncased in this instance.

Next addition to my 2010 birding list was the Canvasback. This is one of my favorite ducks and it, too, has a very distinctive silhouette that allows you to identify it without binoculars from quite some distance, but the Canvasback is really too pretty a bird not to view with binoculars. In a spotting scope, I’ve spotted these in mixed flocks of ducks at tremendous distances.

Saw quite a few Bald Eagles, too, on the way to St. Paul. Most folks probably just think hawk when they see eagles, but the shape and proportion of wings and body size make any eagle easy to distinguish from a hawk, also no binocular needed.

Even easier to spot and distinguish from a hawk are Turkey Vultures. The distinctive V shape they create by the way they hold their wings can be seen from incredible distances without the aid of a binocular.

All in all, there are a good many birds that you can identify long before you raise your binoculars to your face.