Red Shirt

Honestly, does this guy look anything like me?

There are any number of meanings attributed to the wearing of red shirts, from sports team support, to promoting beef, to impending doom for media characters.

There is also an actual book out there, Good Birders don't wear White.

You see, if you aspire to be a good birder you dress in colors that tend not to draw notice from the sharp-eyed little beggars.

Thus all summer I have embraced grey and brown and green as my signature morning bird walk colors. However, this weekend my safety-conscious hunter son suggested....well, it was kinda strong for just a suggestion, "Ma, you better get some color on. Wear one of my safety vests, or an orange sweatshirt or at least a red bandanna over your hair."

No he doesn't.... I am neither thin, nor graceful, nor can I turn on a dime

Because, yeah, my fading blonde hair is kinda deer colored.

I was reluctant. I admit it. However, there should probably also be a book entitled, Retired Farmers with Binoculars wear Blaze Orange during Hunting Season.

So I gave in and wore my warm red flannel shirt yesterday when I went out for my morning walk. Amazingly the birding was downright stupendous. One of the first birds I saw was a Golden-Crowned Kinglet, a first for the farm and indeed a first ever for me. The trees were draped with Yellow-rumped Warblers, there were Palm Warblers, and interspersed among them the first Juncos of fall. Lots of fall birds, winter birds, year-round birds and migrants passing through.

It was sweet! Here's my list .

 Why were the birds ignoring me in my bright red shirt? It took me a while to figure it out.

And then I noticed.