A special send of the Science Times newsletter for our summer birding project
Welcome to a special birding edition of the Science Times newsletter. Through September, we'll send a Friday update on The Times's summer birding project, which has readers observing birds in their area to help scientists gain a fuller picture of biodiversity. |
 | | David Sibley |
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For David Sibley, a master illustrator and author of the Sibley field guides, sketching and birding go together. |
"Even before I started my life list at seven, I was already drawing and drawing birds," Mr. Sibley told The Times recently. He was never formally trained as an artist; instead, drawing for him was a matter of careful observation. "It forces you to look more closely," Mr. Sibley said. |
So for the next challenge in our series aimed at helping new birders gain experience, we're encouraging you to try sketching a bird. |
You can sketch from life or from a photo, with pencils or digitally; Mr. Sibley offered step-by-step suggestions. When you're done, share your sketch by emailing birds@nytimes.com, and tell us how drawing birds might have changed the way you observe them. |
We'll have updates and another birding challenge for beginners next week. |
| JOIN US FOR THE SUMMER BIRDING PROJECT | | |
We asked readers: When do you like to go birding? |
 | | Dave Sanders for The New York Times |
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The classic advice is to go birding in the early morning, but really any time can be good. Last week we asked beginners to try observing at different times of day, and for experienced birders to share tips. Here's what some of you wrote, lightly edited for clarity and length: |
Today I started birding at 2 p.m. The air quality was not great, so the walk was fairly short. However, in the same conifer in a churchyard, there were two species that had recently left the nest. A house sparrow still showed downy feathers and was unattended. Close by and a little higher were two first-year American robins with spotted breasts. Even though early afternoon is normally very quiet, these young birds needed to be fed so they could develop into next year's parents. |
— Mark Songer, Greenville, S.C. |
Last fall I was working as an interpretive naturalist for the Cape May Bird Observatory in New Jersey. Most of my time was spent on the hawk-watch platform, but occasionally I would be there in the evenings. We used thermal scopes and flashlights to see the birds flying over in the dark and saw lots of rails, sparrows, gray catbirds, red-bellied woodpeckers and even a couple eastern whip-poor-wills and American bitterns! |
— Patrick Maurice, Atlanta |
And one reader in New York City shared the plans of Billy, an 8-year-old Central Park birder: "Going birding after school at 4:30 and seeing a snowy owl north of the reservoir!" |
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