Flashback Friday Five First Feathered Friends From 2015

Okay, so technically some of these shots are from 2016, but I didn’t want to mess too much with my alliterative title attempt…lol! When I was looking through my photo archives yesterday for my Thursday Tree Love post, I noticed a shot of a bird that I’d completely forgotten about. Mostly because it was taken back in 2015 with my old camera from a distance, so the quality wasn’t all that great. I know I shared it to a local birding group on FB for an ID, but since it wasn’t a particularly good capture, I didn’t post it on my blog, even though it was a “first” for me. After scrolling through my old shots a little more, I realized I could do a Flashback Friday First Feathered Friends with five different ones from that time frame (aka when my family started referring to me as the Crazy Bird Lady).

And what exactly is a first? Here’s an explanation from the site Bird Searcher –

YOU ALWAYS REMEMBER YOUR FIRST

Any true birder will always remember, and probably excitedly tell you all about, the first time in their life they saw a bird. Not just any old bird; but their first correct identification of a species of bird which they have never seen before. This first-in-your-life bird is referred to as a “life bird.” Or simply, “lifer.”

Have you ever seen a Florida Jay? No, not yet? Well, the first time you do see a Florida Jay, that would be a lifer for you. You’d tell your birding buddies that “I saw a Florida Jay, it was a lifer for me!” But the second time you see a Florida Jay, it wouldn’t be a lifer because you’ve already seen it.

And yes, in some cases I’m sharing photos from another time I saw the same bird, which means they aren’t a “lifer” but it was still the first time I saw/ID’ed that particular one, so it’s still a “first” (especially since this is just a post for fun, and not a birding report… 😂 ).

Lastly, these were taken with my old Olympus camera for the 2015 shots, and my Nikon for those in 2016, in my Durham New Hampshire yard. I also cleaned them up a ~~ton~~ bit on PicMonkey.