Lola and I Are Amateur Birders

A few weeks ago Lola and I watched the movie The Big Year on a Saturday night. The movie stars Owen Wilson, Steve Martin and Jack Black as 'birders', or people who bird watch and record what they see. All three men are attempting a Big Year, where professional birders see how many birds they can spot in the course of one year. It's cute. So after the movie, Lola and I decided we were going to have a San Diego Big Year. Knowing nothing about birds, bird watching or birders, we purchased some blank notebooks on Target.com and set out a little late in the year. Today was our first official day of birdwatching. We saw and recorded three birds. Each bird we watch with the binoculars, we draw in our bird books, write down the type of call it makes, where we spotted it, including what kind of tree it was on if it was a tree, if it was a fatty or skinny, the date and the time and the weather. The main thing about this is that it is something free I can do alone with my daughter. Mr. Curry took Ever on a stroller ride while Lola and I bird watched around our condo area, which is beautifully landscaped with plenty of trees. There are a lot of resources online for birders, including the American Bird Watchers Association Young Birders club and a few young birders blogs, like The Eyrie  which is kind of adorably interesting, run by primarily teenagers passionate about birding. Who knew? I'm going to order a book on identifying San Diego birds on Amazon so that we can try to label each one. Wish us luck :)