Ornithology is for the birds
- Michelle Wood: SWCD
- September 30, 2009
- 1086
I saw this as the year’s last chance for a respite at our favorite vacation spot. I considered the symposium an aside to one more Lakeside experience.
My wife and I booked our usual room at our usual place in the quaint little town. Of course, our usual friends, who love Lakeside as much as we do, joined us, too.
I enjoy birding, but I’m no Audubon. Compared to other birders, I only dabble in the popular sport.
My intent was to take in a few of the speakers and some of the workshops, and steer clear of the pros. By stereotype, ornithologists can be a bit snooty and pretentious.
I preferred to spend the bulk of the time in the company of friends on the wraparound porch of the hospitality house where we stay. It didn’t quite turn out that way.
At the end of the opening keynote address, the moderator announced that a male Kirtland’s Warbler had been confirmed at a state park only five miles away.
Even I knew that this was an extraordinary chance to see this rare bird, especially in the fall. Warblers are generally duller and harder to spot during their migration south.
I bolted to my friends, Robert and Michael, who were manning a booth at the symposium’s vendors’ market. Michael was excused from his sales duty, and joined me in search of this bird of birds.
Neither Michael nor I had ever seen a Kirtland’s. When we arrived at the park, many birders, spotting scopes and expensive binoculars in hand, were already there.
We were told that we had just missed the bird. It had been seen in an expansive grove of honey locust trees of various sizes.
After waiting awhile with no success, Michael and I decided to split up. I ventured away from the crowd of birders thinking the Kirtland’s may have been flushed to another, less humanized thicket.
An hour or so later, Michael’s face told me my idea was bogus. He was smiling ear to ear. He had seen the Kirtland’s, but once again, it had disappeared.
Needing to return to the booth, I took Michael back to Lakeside, got some lunch, and then returned to the state park. I was determined to see this bird.
I hustled to the place where the Kirtland’s had first been reported, and sure enough, I saw the elusive bird in a matter of minutes, not close up, but I saw it.
The crowd of birders, mostly symposium participants, thinned as the afternoon waned. Having seen the warbler, they wanted to return to their scheduled workshops.
Rebel that I am, I took a different tactic. Since my next seminar was on digital photography, I thought it better to actually be taking pictures than to be learning about taking pictures. I stayed, hoping to photograph the coy bird.
With the crowd gone, the Kirtland’s soon reappeared. But the colorful warbler flitted around, making it difficult to photograph in the dense vegetation.
Then it happened. The Kirtland’s perched on a skinny locust limb about 30 feet away. I focused my camera and snapped shot after shot of the bird in various poses. I was so excited my arms were covered in goose bumps.
I went to Lakeside to learn a little about birds, rest, visit and play games. Instead, I was blessed to add the Kirtland’s Warbler to both my life list and my photo collection.
Ornithology didn’t seem so stuffy after all.
Contact Bruce Stambaugh at brucestam baugh@gmail.com.