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Learn about some of the experiences of a young birder from his earliest moments of discovering birding, to meeting new mentors, and his current favorite elements of the hobby.
June 2024
Christian birding in the field
Coppery-headed Emerald from Costa Rica; photo taken by Christian Scheibe
How did you discover birding? Was there a spark bird or an event you attended?
At a very young age, I was fascinated by raptors. I looked at raptor books and studied pictures of them all the time. I then started attending the Bucktoe Hawk Watch led by Larry Lewis who helped me get into birding, and continue my love of raptors. In 1st Grade, my teacher was a birder, and during the year we had a bird study. All of the class members chose a random bird name out of a hat, and that’s the bird we were to study. I selected the American Robin and the more I studied them, the more I realized how amazing birds were. I then learned of the Great Backyard Bird Count, and that is how I was introduced to keeping checklists. Then, a handful of years ago, I went up to the Bucktoe Hawk Watch, and instead of Larry counting hawks, it was a photographer by the name of Hank Davis. He taught me how to use eBird to keep my life list, and to this day continues to aid me in birding. When Covid-19 hit, I started homeschooling and, since then, I have entirely taken up birding, and I bird whenever I have the chance.
Christian in front of a sign for the very habitat-specific Scrub-Jays
How has your birding experience been so far and how has it evolved over time?
My birding experience has been absolutely incredible. Birders are so friendly and welcoming, and I feel like I’m meeting new birders daily. One of the things I most love about birding is that it can connect us to the outdoors. Birding is a fantastic excuse to exercise, go on a walk, or even travel to a place you’ve always wanted to go. You can see birds wherever you go, or even if you live in a big city, anyone can go birding.
My birding experience has evolved tremendously since when I started birding. At first, I couldn’t identify any bird by sound, and I didn’t know how to distinguish a Turkey Vulture from a Black Vulture, for example. But now, I can identify almost all the birds in our area by sound and can identify lots of birds just by seeing them fly over. To anyone who is thinking about starting birding, go for it! Even if you can’t identify most or even any birds, you have to start somewhere, and the more you do it, the better you’ll get.
Turkey Vulture
Black Vulture
Roadside Hawk from Costa Rica; photo taken by Christian Scheibe
What’s the most fun adventure birding has brought you on? Why was it fun?
I’ve gone on lots of amazing birding adventures, but if I had to pick one I would have to pick my trip to Costa Rica in March 2023. On the first day, I arrived at El Silencio Lodge, and in the afternoon I saw 12 lifers (birds that I’ve never seen before). Everyone at the lodge was telling me to wait till the morning and I would see tons of birds. I thought to myself, “yeah right, I don’t think it can be that much better,” but boy was I wrong! That day, just at the lodge, and on a waterfall hike, I saw 56 lifers! The next morning I went on a guided bird hike, and just on that 2-and-a-half-hour hike, I saw 72 species and 21 lifers. I finished the trip with 139 lifers.
If you could lead a birding expedition for your non-birding friends, where would you take them?
There are a lot of really cool places, but this question is a no-brainer for me. I would definitely take them to Cape May, New Jersey during Fall migration. Cape May acts as a funnel for migrating birds and with the right winds the results can simply be amazing. The Higbee Beach dike has a morning flight watch where there is someone counting migrating birds. It feels like every morning is a good morning there, but I’ve been there on two different occasions where over 60,000 Yellow-rumped Warblers were counted, along with hundreds of other birds. It’s simply amazing. During the day, you can head to the Hawkwatch and see hundreds of hawks migrating overhead. Cape May in the fall is just awesome. I think that anyone who saw one of those flights of hundreds of hawks fly over would want to learn more about birds and could be the start of a new birder!
Christian's birding sillhouette
The Marbled Godwit, a relative of the Bar-tailed Godwit
Could you share your favorite birding fact?
I think migration is simply unreal, so one of my favorite bird facts is that the Bar-tailed Godwit flies over 7,000 miles nonstop over the course of about 9-10 days. That’s no food or water for 10 days! Another really amazing flight fact is that a Bermuda Petrel was tracked flying 10,000 miles on one feeding trip. To put that into perspective, it's 7,500 miles from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia. Another crazy migration fact is that an Arctic Tern was tracked flying 59,650 miles in its yearly migration (two trips). That means that in a little over 4 years of the bird’s migration, it would have flown enough miles to reach the moon from Earth, and that doesn’t include all the flying the bird does outside of migration!
What birding gear do you use?
Right now, my binoculars are the Vortex Diamondback 8x42, my camera is the Canon 7D with a 70-300 mm lens. I also use a spotting scope, a Vanguard Endeavor HD 15-45x65, with a Celestron regal tripod. For new birders, I suggest the Vortex Vanquish 8x26, these were my first bins, and I still use them sometimes.
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