It was a lightning flash moment in which I realized there was so much more to birds—and to bird diversity—than I had ever expected. The very next day, when I got my library card, the first book I checked out was Pizzey & Knight’s “Birds of Australia,” and I was off! I’m pleased to say that my fascination with birds has remained since moving back to the United States, where I have found the birds of the Sonoran Desert and Sky Islands to be just as fun and novel.
#birding #sparkbird
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It was so shocking to me to see large flocks of such creatures in a semi-arid desert. Soon I noticed brilliant green birds as well, Australian Ringnecks, with their bright yellow collars and blue-black heads and wingtips. It was mind-boggling. Uneducated about birds, I’d always imagined that cockatoos and parrots were inhabitants of humid jungles, and here I was, in a hot, dry environment surrounded by them!
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Here is my spark bird story: I’ve long enjoyed hiking, and I took a casual interest in the woodpeckers and blue jays in my local forest where I grew up in New Jersey. However, I did not become a birder until I stepped off a plane in Central Australia in 2017 and saw my first Galah. These pink and gray cockatoos, with white crests that they extend on alert, comically waddle around on the ground chomping away at grasses and seeds.
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One of my photos (and long description) made the annual report for an awesome nonprofit @Jillianmarisa and I support as Master Naturalists here in Missouri. Pretty cool to turn the page and see it. ❤️
#MasterNaturalist #Missouri #KC #SparkBird #Conservation #Naturalist #rubythroatedhummingbird #invasivespecies #DescribedMedia
Happy New Year! Here’s to new beginnings, better habits, and the benefits of hope.
Let’s all share a photo that is associated with a new, or renewed passion.
I caught this Great Blue Heron in September, 2009 when I was just getting used to my then brand new dSLR. This trip to a local wildlife refuge, and the resulting photos cemented my interest in #Birding.
#Nikon #GreatBlueHeron #birdphotography #birdsofmastodon #Missouri #masternaturalist #sparkbird
Can you remember a moment, event, person, project, video, article that first sparked your interest in open education? This week’s pulse poll asks for the source of that, and we hope you also reply below and share more about that story. The term is borrowed from one used by bird watchers “to describe the first bird that got them seriously interested in birding” (source) or more fervently “the species that mutates one’s benign regard for nature into a seething, immoderate interest in avifauna” (s...
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jendefer
JL Johnson 
Jillian J 
Alex Enkerli