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How I Became a Birdwatcher
by Henry Turner
Member, Putnam Highlands Audubon Society (PHAS)
In February 1980 Joan and I went to visit friends on Sanibel Island, Florida, for a week. Our first morning there, they said, "Let’s ride bicycles through the ‘Ding’ Darling National Wildlife Refuge. Take these binoculars with you; you might see some birds you would enjoy looking at."
We did! A flock of 8-10 Roseate Spoonbills feeding beside the road. A Green Heron perched on a branch near the water’s surface, staring into the water, then spearing a fish. Flocks of small shorebirds wheeling in flight, then landing as one at the water’s edge. A Bald Eagle perched in a tree on an island. A stately Great Blue Heron walking in the shallow water, peering down intently, looking for a fish. A Reddish Egret doing its "drunken" dance, staggering in circles, wings flapping, trying to scare a fish to spot and stab it. About half the water in the refuge is fresh, the other half salt, thus increasing the numbers of species one is likely to see.
That afternoon we went to a beach with very few people there. A man was surf-casting, and a Great Blue Heron, nicknamed "Charlie," was standing near him. If the man caught a fish too small to keep, he threw it to Charlie, who promptly gulped it. With every wave, dainty Sanderlings followed the water flowing back to sea, picking up tiny morsels washed ashore. Ruddy Turnstones searched for food in the debris further back from the water. Laughing Gulls, Sandwich Terns, and Common Terns flew up and down the beach, staring at the water; spotting a fish, they dived straight down to spear it and were usually successful. Walking back from the beach, we spotted an Eastern Towhee under bushes, tossing leaves with its feet, looking under them for a snack. A Purple Gallinule walked on lily pads in roadside shady wetlands.
I was hooked. On our sixth day a man named George was leading a morning birdwalk, so of course I joined the group. He was skilled at showing us the subtle differences among the various sandpipers and plovers—particularly important for beginners. By week’s end I had seen and identified 88 species of birds. I was amazed.
Back in New York, the spring migration was about to begin. First the Red-winged Blackbirds, then the Robins. I started birding in Central Park in late April. One day I saw a fairly large brown bird with a white rump patch fly into a tree and disappear. I could not find it again. Frustrated, I called a friend working at Audubon magazine who was also interested in birds, and asked her what that bird was. "Sounds like a Flicker," she said. I looked it up in the field guide—of course it was a Flicker! Another mystery solved.
That May I birded nearly every weekday in Central Park from seven to nine each morning. One morning I remember standing on a big rock in the Ramble near the lake, and seeing six species of warblers, all new "life" birds for me. Many other birders were in the Park those mornings, all more skilled than me, and they were very helpful in spotting and identifying the birds. Some mornings I left the Park with "warblers’ neck" from looking in the trees above my head for too long!
I’m still hooked. Some people collect stamps, cars, toys, books, sweaters—birdwatchers collect birds!
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