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[Eltanin]

Astronomy - Used to be more active but nowadays it's about three evenings per week for a few hours, sitting on my patio, listening to music, watching the sky.

Geology - I have a fair rock and mineral collection, most of it purchased.

Hiking - Not real serious, mostly short day hikes.

Motorcycles - I  still have a couple that I ride on Sunday mornings -- slow old man rides. 

Bird Watching - Not a serious birder though.  I feed them, including the hummingbirds.  No lists.  (Well, I have my list of birds seen on my property.)

[Asianfire]

Welcome to the fold. We always love picture, so don't be shy......

[hummingbirdstones]

The hubby and I are bird watchers, too.  We also have a list of birds we've seen around our house.  Hummingbirds are obviously high on my list, since there were no hummingbirds to be seen where I used to live in Chicago.  The Anna's have been here since January 3 (!!!!) - really just one that we named Bossy.  He's always first.  The Black Chins just started showing up in droves this week.  Waiting on the Rufous and other migrating hummers to pop through.

[Eltanin]

I'm in the Sonoran Desert so we have hummingbirds here all year (Anna's and Costa's).  During Spring and Fall migration we get a few extras.  I'd say that we have about a dozen that hang out here all year.

[LithicStrings]

Here in Washington we have mostly Rufous hummers in spring - they take off in July.  We now have a few Anna's all year long, but not many.
We enjoy feeding them all, but going through 200 lbs of sugar some years means watching for sales at the grocery store!

Packlithic (are you getting the connection here?  lithicbeads, lithicstrings, and packlithic make up the family) has an extensive birding life list.  I stick to the yard list - less stressful and thoroughly enjoyable.  Interesting to see the list change as the property evolves over the years. 

[lithicbeads]

Packlithic is off birding and getting cooked in Palm Springs where it was twice as hot ,100 degrees, as it was here bythe Canadian border. Our house list of birds is up to 110 which is good considering we have no water to attract birds. We too are hikers but I am disabled so it is hiking on crutches.I never lived in an uncloudy place so astronomy was out but I love to read about astrophysics and cosmology. I am a sucker for big and little numbers  like 10 to the mius 37 when inflation started or the estimate of the number of atoms in the universe which is too long to type here. On all scales the universe is an amazing place.Welcome to the forum.

[Eltanin]

Our house list of birds is up to 110 which is good considering we have no water to attract birds.

That's great.  That's a lot!  Our yard list is only 32 birds (not including the hummers) and I have 24/7 water and food for them.

[Eltanin]

Here in Washington we have mostly Rufous hummers in spring - they take off in July.

One year we had a Rufous migrating thru.  He stayed a few days.

We enjoy feeding them all, but going through 200 lbs of sugar some years means watching for sales at the grocery store!

I got carried away and had four hummingbird feeders which got to be a little too time-consuming, so I cut back to one large feeder.  Here in the desert I have to clean and refill every other day due to the heat.

[Eltanin]

BTW, our hummingbird feeder is visited often by Gila Woopeckers, Hooded Orioles (in the summer), and Verdins.

[Eltanin]

I never lived in an uncloudy place so astronomy was out but I love to read about astrophysics and cosmology.

I hear ya.  I grew up in the Midwest, cloudy skies and all.  Here in southern AZ (not too far from the famous telescope mountain Kitt Peak) we have very clear skies.  I can see the Milky Way from our yard.

[hummingbirdstones]

The finches like to try to raid the hummer feeder, but I chase them away.     Bossy gets all pissed if someone else is on his feeder and I get to hear about it.  He'll even buzz my head when I make him mad.   Earlier in the year I was trying to prune the Asian pear tree his feeder is in and he kept buzzing my head.  I had to stop.  Guess I'll do it after he leaves this fall.  I did have a giant yellow swallowtail on the feeder on Sunday.  Have never seen one land on the hummer feeder and eat before.

When we lived up on the mountain in the pines (6,300 ft.) we had Acorn woodpeckers that would get on the feeders and have at it.  They'd end up on the ground in a sugar coma for a while.  Scared the heck out of me the first time I saw one on the ground.  Thought he was sick and dying.  Then he got up and left.  The next day I saw one on the feeder and then on the ground and figured it out.  Little buggers were getting high!   

[ToTheSummit]

I've always been an amateur astronomer.  I by no means consider myself well-versed on the subject, but I can go out at night and point out the major constellations as well as being able to refer to many of the visible stars by name.  I also know the locations for some of the deep sky objects (nebulas, etc) and have dabbled in photographing them.   When conditions are right I like to point out M31/The Andromeda Galaxy to those who don't know and describe what they are seeing, "That small, fuzzy spot is an entire galaxy."  Then I hand them a good pair of binoculars and let them take a better look at it. Its always a crowd pleaser.

Geology has always fascinated me.  I wish I was better educated on the subject, but I know enough to make my rockhounding that much more fun.  And I am learning all the time.

Hiking is a life-long love of mine.  Did a lot of serious backpacking when I was younger and I've dabbled with the idea of getting back into it as I get older.  But day hikes will always be a part of my routine, particularly hiking to the tops of mountains.  I have always been enthralled by reaching a new summit that I haven't stood on before.

I was raised riding motorcycles (dirt bikes).  Even did some racing in my youth (desert racing).  Rode a bike to work for many years in my late 20s/early 30s.  Kinda got away from it the last 15 years or so though.  Still theres nothing quite like the feeling of freedom you get when zipping along on a motorcycle.

I've never been an avid birder but I do love sitting and watching them, especially when I have some nice quiet time alone in nature (as I often do, I camp and hike solo a lot).  And I know just enough about them to make a semi-educated guess at what most of them are.

[Eltanin]

Thanks for the replies.

BTW, I haven't seen any White-winged Doves yet.  They usually migrate up here from Mexico by the end of March. 

The downside to feeding wildlife and having them hang around the house is that I see injured and sick wildlife quite often.  Birds with broken wings, bad legs.  Injured coyotes and javelinas.  It makes me sad, especially when I can't do anything about it.

[Talusman]

I'm also a long-time birder and part-time astronomy enthusiast.