Birding with NAI.

Simons, Don R.

Golden-crowned Sparrow Zonotrichia atricapilla

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DATE: October 28, 1988

LOCATION: Rosecrans National Cemetery, San Diego, California.

REMARKS: [Seen] With Caty Justis and Neil Curry after NAI workshop in San Diego.

White-collared Seedeater

Sporophila torqueola

DATE: February 24, 1993 LOCATION: San Ygnacio, Texas.

REMARKS: Three females. With Wallace Keck, Bob Jennings, Bob Gress, Wally Whaling, Jim Mason, Gerald Wiens, and Jay Soule. Before the NAI Region 6 meeting in San Antonio.

White-headed Woodpecker Picoides albolarvatus

DATE: November 14, 2003 LOCATION: National forest on southern part of Lake Tahoe, California.

REMARKS: With Shea Lewis and our wives during the NIW in Sparks, Nevada.

Rufous-backed Robin Turdus rufopalliatus

DATE: November 10, 2006 LOCATION: Bosque del'Apache NWR, New Mexico.

REMARKS: With Shea Lewis and Jay Schneider during the NIW in Albuquerque.

Thumbing through my Birder's Life List & Diary these are just a few notes that bring back fond memories of birds and birders with whom I have been fortunate enough to share some time. Quite a few of my first-time sightings of birds have been credited to traveling to, field trips during, or returning from interpretive workshops. Sam Ham said a good interpreter is well traveled. So is a good birder. NAI workshops have been vehicles that have carried me far from home, enabling me to expand my knowledge, horizons, and my life list. Workshops in Alaska, California, Michigan, Connecticut, and places in between have provided me with life experiences, lifelong friends, and lifers.

My first trip to a western NAI workshop took me to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, mountains and deserts in southeastern Arizona, the Grand Canyon, and a pelagic trip out of San Diego. The return trip took me through the Anza-Borrego desert and the Salton Sea. That was a long solo drive. A tour of the lower Texas coast and the lower Rio Grande Valley with Wallace Keck was fun. I flew into Anchorage, Alaska, a week before the national workshop in 1998 for a great adventure. A field session near Manhattan, Kansas, starred booming greater prairie chickens. Circumnavigating Lake Tahoe during the Sparks, Nevada, workshop produced the last woodpecker species (beside ivory-billed) I needed for my U.S. list. At Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico, we were impressed by huge flights of geese and cranes and surprised by a rufous-backed robin (a rare visitor to that area) during the Albuquerque workshop. Huge trees in California were awesome to visit on our way to Portland. The Oregon coast had a unique and inviting charm. A group of us explored the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut. St. Louis provided a unique blend of history and birding at the confluence of two mighty rivers. All of these places require more exploring.

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I am not quite as obsessed as the guys in the movie The Big Year. As Hollywood always does, it exaggerated the characters from a nonfiction story, The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession by environmental journalist Mark Obmascik. Guys like that rush from bird to bird as if they were addicts needing their fix. Taking a second look at a species is a waste of time and money to them. Their joy lasts only as long as it takes to identify a new species for their list. I enjoy a more laid-back approach to birding with others of similar interests, exploring diverse habitats, landscapes, and cultures. However, I was the nerd with binoculars scanning downtown buildings for a gyrfalcon between sessions in St. Paul.

Keeping a bird life list is one way to preserve and refresh those memories. One treasured memory was seeing my first (and only) blackthroated blue warbler with Wallace Keck, Bob Jennings, and others. We were at the Texas Sabal Palm Audubon Sanctuary, one of the last remaining fragments of native palm forest in our country and as far south in Texas as one can go. I don't know if it was a lifer for any of the other NAI birders in our group. That was one of the highlights of a great trip just before our regional workshop in San Antonio. Recently my wife and I revisited some sights in the lower Rio Grande Valley just before our Region 6 workshop in Austin. It was interesting to see how much that area has changed in 19 years.

Everybody who knew Bob Jennings knew a man with standards. Bob told me he had purged his North American list of species that were unnaturally introduced to the continent. House sparrow, European starling, rock pigeon, and others were cut. I don't know if he ever spent time in Hawaii. Most animals there today are introduced species. Many of their endemics have gone extinct as a result. Bob also kept a list of beer brands he encountered during his travels.

For most people birding is about adventure, fellowship, and enjoying birds. But numbers are important too. Birders make up the largest group of citizen scientists in the world, contributing massive amounts of data to science. Christmas bird counts are combinations of social meetings, collecting data, and friendly competition. In their efforts to tally as many species and individual birds as possible in one day, participants provide important data to studies of bird populations. On the other hand, while a person's life list can be impressive, it's not that important to science.

NAI-related travel has taken me to many habitats and hot spots in search of birds. However, birds are not the only kind of animal that attracts my attention. During a pelagic trip out of San Diego I saw my first whales. While exploring Alaska with Suzanne Buchanan we heard wolves, encountered a pair of moose, and saw beluga whales. Sea lions were loud and comical along the Oregon coast.

These days, I have to put out an extra effort to add a new bird to my life list. For example, before the workshop in Las Vegas, I studied range maps and found this would be a good opportunity to see a Le Conte's thrasher. I had seen all the other species that regularly occur in that area, so I targeted that one species, studying its song and habitat preferences. Then I searched the net for reported sightings. Shea Lewis and I rented a car and drove out to Desert National Wildlife Refuge, the largest national wildlife refuge in the lower 48 states. Luckily we did not have to search all of its 1.5 million acres. A walk on nature trails near their visitor center was all we needed. Phainopepla sang from exposed perches. Verdin hid in thorny brush. We knew we were in the right habitat. It did not take long before we heard a few thrasher-like call notes. We found it perched on a limb for about twenty seconds, just long enough for us to study its field marks. It disappeared into dense brush. No amount of pishing could bring it out again. We birded the rest of that day in a couple other locations. Shea picked up a few lifers. I enjoyed seeing quite a few species I had seen only once or twice before but was satisfied with only one lifer.

My point is, make the most of an interpretive workshop. Whatever your interest: birds, botany, history, etc. Do some research and plan to arrive early and/or stay late in the area, especially if it is new to you. Use some vacation time to explore at your own pace. Contact a local member for suggestions and assistance.

Traveling to so many places across our country has given me many experiences to share with visitors. Birding in unfamiliar habitats has helped me develop skills that transfer into my guided walks. They also humble me as I realize how little I know.

As I grow older and slower, I find myself enjoying birds, birders, and birding more. For my life list I've set some goals with no deadlines. Slowly, one species at a time, those goals are being achieved. Once a goal is reached, I set another to keep my enthusiasm going. There should be no end to our horizons.

Purple Sandpiper Calidris maritima

DATE: November 21, 2009 LOCATION: Hammonasset State

Park, Connecticut REMARKS: With Jay Schneider, confirmed by local birders, during the NIW in Hartford. (Eat your heart out, Shea.)

Don R. Simons is a Certified Heritage Interpreter at Mount Magazine State Park in Paris, Arkansas.