first bird trip to South Texas and the Rio Grande Valley that November,
rolling down the highway in his ’57 Chevy Bel Air. In the first 45 minutes
walking the boardwalk in Santa Ana NWR near Brownsville, Texas, we
spotted twelve new birds we had never seen before, lifers! And Mark
knew them all. He had studied. As the years went on my brother Rick
joined up and continued our yearly trips around the country in search
of lifers. We call ourselves the ROAD SHOW and we will take our third
trip to Alaska this summer; while we have a friendly competition on our
“numbers” it’s just great company.
Red-necked Grebe
great potoo
Birding is a lot like dermatology, very visual with subtle clues
differentiating species. But birds sing, telling you who they are and
how upset they may be. Patients sing too and if you listen carefully they
will often tell you what is wrong with them.
Birding takes you places you would never otherwise visit. My brother
and I have watched birds on all seven continents. Memorable trips include
walking among the penguin nests on the Antarctic Peninsula, watching
eagles and buzzards wait for the cheetahs and hyenas to finish with the
freshly killed wildebeest in Tanzania, canoeing past a Great Potoo on the
Amazon River in Peru, and spotting a Red-whiskered Bulbul in a park in
his native Hong Kong (they can also be found as exotics in Miami and
LA). We have been lucky enough to see the world bird by bird.
Birding is a relatively simple hobby. All you need is a good pair of
binoculars and a field guide, now available as an app on your smart phone
that includes bird songs. A spotting scope helps bring in distant shore
birds and ducks. To attract birds, set bird feeders outside your window.
Hang them from the gutters. You will be surprised how close the birds
get. Start with a small oil sunflower seed feeder for Cardinals, Blue
Jays, Chickadees and Titmice. Add a thistle tube feeder for Goldfinches
and House Finches. In the summer, add a hummingbird feeder with a
simple 5:1 mixture of water to sugar. In winter, a suet cake will attract a
variety of woodpeckers, nuthatches and the Carolina Wren. Don’t forget
a shallow birdbath. Birdhouses for Eastern Bluebirds and House Wrens
work on most lots. I have a Cooper’s Hawk that occasionally stakes out
my feeders, but that’s nature.
A tank of gas will get you to any of the state parks in Kentucky where
the Kentucky Ornithological So