The Evolution of a Birder

I used to make fun of bird people, when I was a much more avid outdoors woman. I made fun of them because they carried those giant binoculars and practiced making bird calls. I thought it looked ridiculous and sometimes, I still do.
One summer I got a job in Denali National Park in Alaska. It was kind of my dream job at the time. I was a naturalist guide and I took people out into the wilds of Alaska to look at animals, plants and geologic formations. Most of my clients ended up being birders though. I quite quickly had to learn what a golden plover was and where to find ptarmignans. People were looking for them to add to their lifer lists, or a bucket list of must see birds. I was looking for tips to save for a trip to South America.
The thing about birders though is that they know much more about the natural environment than many naturalists do. They know what kind of trees or bushes their birds live in, what they eat, how they mate, where they make their nests and where they travel to in different seasons. All of this, I found fascinating that summer. I had always spent the majority of my time staring at plants and mammals y la tierra so I ignored most of the general bird population.
Since then I have searched for Quetzals in Guatemala and Toucans in India, to no avail. I have watched bright green parrots fly over a tropical river in the Amazon and listened to the wind blow on the wings of a soaring Andean Condor. I look closer now at the ground when I hike, looking for evidence of both animals and birds.
I’m obviously older now than that girl in Alaska (by about fifteen years). I haven’t slowed down but my kids make life a bit slower. They cannot backpack more than three miles and spending weeks on end with very little resources isn’t so attractive to them therefore, not attractive to me either. Now I spend far more time car camping than trekking through countries. Now we car camp but in Mexico.
The campgrounds we have spent a majority of our time in are basically grassy flat areas with trees, a water spicket and an electrical hook-up. Some of them have bathrooms with hot showers. We are usually surrounded by giant RV’s or 5th wheelers, all of which cost about what we bought our house for ten years ago.
We set up our camp when we arrive which consists of a table and chairs, bicycles, a couple of big plastic tractors, some firewood, our birds and a hummingbird feeder. Thus far, they have arrived within the day. The hummingbirds that is.
From what I can see, currently our feeder is feeding two pairs of hummingbirds. They hover near the feeder making a clicking noise before they circle it a few more times, then take a drink. The males are green feathered and both male and female have bright red beaks. They also hover near the neighbors giant red brake lights, which always makes me laugh. They are single minded these hummingbirds, red being their entire world.
Next I hang up a half an orange. We did this last year in baja and two different kinds of orioles came by for visits. One was a bright red orange fat oriole, like we see in the States and the other was a more slender and yellow one. They can devour a ½ of an orange a day. In this campground, I have seen no orioles but the woodpeckers are interested in the orange. They fly to the top of the tree and very suspiciously and slowly shimmy backwards down the tree towards the orange. They eventually get close enough to reach over and peck away.
Our campground is also filled with doves and palm birds. They aren’t called palm birds but I do not know what they are called. I call them that because last year in Baja they were always picking the palm fruits out of the trees and dropping them to the ground. Here, they are ground feeders. They are large, the size of a small crow but very slender with long tails. The males fluff up their feathers and point their beaks to the sky to impress the ladies at night. They are so black they are almost blue. They pick at things in the grass, working in groups like cattle grazing.
Lastly there is a bright red vermillion fly catcher. They are the size and color of a cardinal but with brown feathers on their chests. They sit in the trees and then occasionally dart into the sky and very quickly return to their branch. They might be the reason we have no flies in our campground. They are a beautiful burst of color in my perephial vision.
I sit with binoculars and watch now. I know the different calls of these birds. The shrill and whistle of the palm bird, the constant cooing of the doves and the click click of the hummingbirds. I watch the woodpecker shimmy and I watch the palm bird puff and I feel myself, aging. I prefer to call it evolving though. I’m not sure I’ll ever have a desire to fly to Alaska to see a bird for my list but if I saw a Toucan in the Yucatan you can bet your ass I will be talking about it on this blog and for years to come. I might need binoculars though.