Passing it On

My dad is a lifelong birder. Not surprisingly some of my earliest memories involve seeing Baltimore orioles for the first time when we moved to the country. A barn owl in our old barn. Barn Swallows. Bobwhites. I will never forget our first feeder cardinal back before they were common up here. Over the past decade or so various teams of us have always done the Audubon Christmas count. We also eagerly indulge in an ongoing battle of avian oneupsmanship over who sees the best birds throughout the year.

Now Alan is joining us in this endless delight. He has started a life list and will soon surpass any ability I might have in IDing birds in the field. (It doesn't hurt to study this stuff in college and to have sharp young eyes to boot.) We took a trip for some dog and cat food and other sundries yesterday and birded all the way home.

Can you spot the duck?

He pulled off the road here, something I have always wanted to do but was afraid of the traffic. It was like Heaven. Birds began to pop out of the woods and swamp the minute we parked. Green herons, mallards, cedar waxwings, red winged blackbirds, robins, tree swallows, Canada geese, they paraded by one after another. We could have stayed there all day with the camera, binoculars and field guide.



Alas the perishables were getting warm so we settled for taking the long way home. He got two lifers along the way, a brown thrasher and a meadowlark. (We saw several of the latter) I suspect that helping him with his list is going to be much more fun than doing my own was.


I hope we can go again soon. I can't think of anything more fun and the price is right.
A little gas.
A little time.
Great company. What's not to like?