I was a birder—a bird watcher—for most of my adult life. Tramping through the brush, binoculars in hand and guide book handy, was for me a wonderful way to spend a day. Joining my Audubon friends in the grassy shallows off Rocky Point in search of a Green Egret or at Bartlett Lake in search of a Ladder Back Woodpecker were the joys of my life.
My husband Bob did not share my interest in bird watching even though he was a naturalist and a painter of wild life. He would rather be painting a pair of Gambel's Quail spied crossing our back yard than tramping with me through the scrub pine forest of upper Michigan—looking for one of the rarest birds on the continent, a Kirtland Warbler. But oddly enough that is exactly what Bob found himself doing months later when we finally spotted the bird after searching for three hours.
In May, 1973 we took a great vacation trip with two purposes in mind. For me it was to get as much birding done as possible along the southern Rio Grande and Texas gulf coast on our way to visit Bob's family in Michigan–and then do a little birding there, too.
Our first stop was Davis Mountain State Park in Texas. The very next morning at Davis I found a Black-Crested Titmouse, an Orchard Oriole, and from a high lookout over the Pecos River a Painted Bunting. Three new birds to add to my birder's Life List on my first morning! The Bunting was so beautiful I couldn't believe it was real.
Driving farther south in Texas we stopped at Falcon Dam along the Rio Grande River and drove down to a deserted place along the river to look for a Ringed Kingfisher. We saw it almost immediately. Excited by the thrill of seeing this rare bird I urged Bob to photograph it. Trying to accommodate me, Bob crawled down the steep bank but slipped and slid into the river covering himself with mud from head to foot. The air was electric for a while—then scary quiet, and I began to think it was going to be a long trip to Michigan—until we spotted a strikingly marked Kisadee Flycatcher, and we became partners again.
Another one of our delights was found in the Jones State Forest north of Houston. Here we found the rare Red-Cockaded Woodpecker. There to our complete surprise we were able to see and photograph a pair of these woodpeckers feeding their young at a nesting hole in Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge in Mississippi.
A highlight of my birding memories was our trip to Mio, Michigan and finding the Kirtland's Warbler, a rare endangered bird. We got a fleeting glimpse of one within a few minutes of our arrival, but we didn't see another for three exhaustive hours searching in the Jack pines. Finally we spotted one with enough time to have a complete “feather by feather study.”
It was an unbelievable feeling to add these rare birds to my Life list: the Ringed Kingfisher, the Red-Cockaded Woodpecker, and especially the Kirtland's Warbler (there are fewer than a thousand of these warblers in existence).
On this trip I added 55 new birds to my Life List.
And what did I achieve for my decades of birding?
A lot of enjoyment spotting a new bird to add to my Life List or just the pure joy of simply listening to a bird song such as the Chachalaca's amusing song: “Cha-cha-la-ca, cha-cha-la-ca, cha-cha-la-ca.”
My guide book says there are about 645 species of birds in North America above Mexico and that some “serious” birdwatchers may have seen 600. My records show that I saw 573.
Wasn't I serious enough?
“Once a Birder, Always a Birder” is written by Zona Brighton, Beatitudes Campus Resident and published in the May-June 2017 edition of the roadrunner extra! – Volume 09 Issue 03
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