Blog Focus
Birdseed & Binoculars is Nancie Waterman’s blog about backyard bird watching. I’m especially interested solutions to problems that come up when feeding backyard birds. I experiment extensively with feeders and bird foods in my Mid-Atlantic yard to see what works best. Some of my posts also touch on amateur bird photography, stories about bird species and birding field trips.
My Bird Watching History
I’ve always loved watching birds. I took binoculars and a field guide on our honeymoon over three decades ago where Jim and I did our best to identify gulls and terns on a North Carolina beach. And there has always been at least one bird feeder in our yard since we moved into our Maryland home in 1984, starting with a metal hopper feeder and a couple of cage suet feeders.
But it was the middle of 2015 when the real bird watching/birder bug truly bit me. That was when I started my life list on eBird and Jim and I started exploring birding hotspots here in Maryland and beyond, several of which I’ve posted about. (See my Field Trips posts.)
At the very end of 2015, I started Birdseed & Binoculars. Originally it was a separate blog on my VSN website, but in mid-2019, I moved it to its own website: birdseedandbinoculars.com.
Lots of Time, Feeders & Seed
2015 is also when my bird feeder purchasing obsession took off. From three feeders back then, I now have twenty-five in the yard and several more stored in the garage that I sometimes swap around. I buy seed regularly in fifty pound bags!
They say you need to spend 10,000 hours to really know how to do something well. A LOT of my time is spent watching birds, often several hours each day, either in my own backyard or at other birding locations. My binoculars and birding camera are always within reach. See Maryland Backyard Birds for a peek at birds in my backyard.
I have also spent A LOT of time messing around with bird feeders and various types of seed and other bird foods to figure out what works best. What I’ve learned is the core of what I share in this blog. See Bird Feeder Reviews to see posts with reviews of my favorite feeders. Check out Choosing Seed For Backyard Birds to read what I’ve learned feeding birds over the years.
Blog Affiliate Links
Even a small blog like mine takes a little bit of money to run. After all, even if you are not selling products, you need to pay for things like software, web hosting, protection from spam comments, bird feeders, etc. This is why you will see some Amazon Affiliate links on my site. I only use these for products I have personally used unless I specifically tell you otherwise. I’m upfront about this and so you can find my statement about this at the bottom of every page.
Past Writing Passions
I am a writer by nature. Since I was very young, if I am passionate about something, I have always found some way to write about it. In my professional life, I spent twenty years writing, editing and producing a small magazine about making art with rubber stamps called Vamp Stamp News (VSN). In 2012, I stopped print publication and switched to publishing in-depth online eArticles about stamping topics for a couple years. (If you are into rubber stamps, these are still available at no cost on my Vamp Stamp News Blog.)
My writing style is very in-depth. Typical articles or blog posts are a mix of my personal experience and research. Since my VSN days, I’ve always been very big on credits. So if I learn something from someone else, I’ll credit them. There are some great birding resources on the web too. When they fit the topic, I’ll point you to them.
Hang Out on Birdseed & Binoculars!
I hope you find the information on Birdseed & Binoculars useful and interesting. If you have a question or comment, please do comment on the blog pages. I’ll try to get you the best answer. Comments and feedback keep me inspired too and sometimes inspire future experiments and posts!
I add new posts often and work hard to keep older posts updated with current information. So please do subscribe to the blog or bookmark it so you can find it again. (There is a subscription box at the bottom of every post.)
Thanks for being here!
Nancie
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