{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Journal of a Songbirder","title":"First Steps into Birding I: The Record Photo","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":381,"description":"Throughout my whole life, birding has always kind of just been there, in the background.I grew up on a farm in Bruce County, in rural mid-western Ontario, during the 1980s and 90s, and like many kids my age I was involved in Scouts, and that was the main source of my direct education about nature and the outdoors in general.More indirectly however, was the Golden Guide to the Birds of North America, a field guide we had around the house. At this age I’d never heard the term “birding”. I did however think that “birdwatching” either conjured up images of nature documentaries where international filmmakers were trapsing through a South American jungle looking for some rare avian species to capture footage of, or, just about anyone spending their day staring out a window that overlooks a birdfeeder. I didn’t really know of anything in between those two examples.The farm I lived on had many birds that I learned through my parents. There’s the obvious feeder species: House Sparrow, Northern Cardinal, Blue Jays, American Goldfinch, Pine Siskin during some winters, and at that time, Pine and Evening Grosbeaks showed up regularly during winters (though these winter grosbeaks are quite a rare sight in the area now).In the spring and summer, the songs of Mourning Doves, Eastern Meadowlarks, Bobolinks, and of course the wailing calls of the Killdeer were sounds that I just learned on my own — all these birds were quite overt with their vocalizations, and easy to observe without binoculars.So, was I “birding” back then? I could identify some, but I didn’t necessarily seek them out — these species were present where I was already, I was just being curious.I did however comb through the Golden Guide to read about various other bird species. I always thought, for example, Brown Creepers were very interesting birds, and always wanted to see one, but had no idea how I could find them. If only I had known, they were literally a short walk away. A woodlot within view of our house...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/WgLs1Y4NHEyB4UpBMu_z7jgrvdbxPzBMrEHT0E40OaI/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS85ODdk/ZTk4NmMyMjA1Mzk4/OTY1OTE1ODI3NThj/Y2U4Ni5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}