What Do You Notice About How It's Flying
Okay, so this is the question I ask more than any other question out on the trail. What do you notice about how it's flying. Not what is it. How is it flying.
I do this on purpose instead of just naming the bird for you, and I'll be honest, some people find it a little annoying the first time. They want the answer. I get it. But if I just say "that's a red-tailed hawk" you'll forget it by the parking lot. If you watch it flap-flap-glide, flap-flap-glide across the field and you notice that pattern yourself, you'll know that shape for the rest of your life. That's the whole method. I'm not being cagey, I'm trying to get it to stick.
Start with these three questions
When you see something flying, before you reach for the field guide, ask yourself:
Is it flapping constantly, or gliding? Some birds beat their wings the whole time, like they're working for it. Others flap a few times and then coast. That coasting tells you something. Turkey vultures barely flap at all, they just ride the air. Ducks flap the whole way, hard, because they're heavy little bodies and they have to.
Is the flight path straight, or is it doing something else? A lot of ducks and geese fly in a pretty direct line, point A to point B, business trip. Some hawks circle. Woodpeckers, if you ever catch one in flight, go up and down in a wave, which is genuinely funny looking once you notice it.
Is the body steady, or is it tipping and rocking? This is the one I love teaching because it's such a clean example. A northern harrier flies low over a field and tips side to side, side to side, like it's had one too many at the ward party. Once you see that wobble you cannot unsee it. I mentioned this back in an earlier lesson and I'll say it again here because it really is the thing that changed how I bird. A rough-legged hawk, similar size, similar habitat, doesn't do that. Flies steady. Same neighborhood, completely different walk.
Why this actually works better than color
I've said this before and I'll keep saying it because I believe it: color lies. Especially out at the lake in the morning, when the light's flat and gray and everything looks like a silhouette anyway. But the way a bird moves doesn't change with the light. A harrier tips whether it's eight a.m. or noon. A vulture glides whether the sun's out or not. You're building a skill that works in bad conditions, which out here is most conditions, honestly.
Practice this at home first
You don't need to wait until you're standing in the cold to start training your eye. Here's what I'd actually do:
- Watch birds in your own yard or on a walk around your neighborhood, even if it's just crows and pigeons and the occasional robin. Ask the three questions above. You'll start noticing that crows flap steadily and pigeons do this quick, almost nervous wingbeat.
- If you've got a phone, pull up a couple of short videos of hawks in flight versus ducks in flight. Don't worry about naming the species. Just watch the pattern. Flap-flap-glide versus flap-flap-flap-flap.
- When you're out at the lake with us, resist the urge to ask "what is it" the second you see something. Give yourself ten seconds of just watching how it moves first. I know that's hard. I still have to remind myself.
One caution here, and it's a small one but real: don't get so locked onto a bird through your binoculars that you stop watching your feet. The trail out by the lake has some uneven spots and a few root sections, and I've nearly gone down more than once because I was tracking a hawk instead of looking where I was walking. Watch the bird, then walk a few steps, then watch again.
A nod to the quiet woman on the trail
There's someone I see out there most weeks. I don't know her name, we've just gotten into this habit of nodding at each other and pointing at things. One morning she pointed up before I'd even registered there was anything there, and it turned out to be a merlin, sitting on a wire, and I never would have caught it. I looked where she was pointing and just said "oh." She nodded like that was the correct response. It was.
I think about her a lot when I teach this. She wasn't naming it out loud. She was just watching closely enough, and long enough, that she caught the movement before I did. That's really the whole skill. It's not about knowing more birds. It's about watching more carefully.
Before next time
Try the three questions on any bird you see this week, crow, pigeon, whatever's around, and just see if you can describe its flight pattern in one sentence before you look it up. That's it, that's the whole assignment.