Life Long Pursuits: Defining a Birder
Fifteen or so years ago, I flunked birding.
It happened as I was sitting on the porch of a cinderblock cottage at Neal’s Lodges in Concan, Texas, overlooking the bluegreen Frio River which foamed and roiled over sculpted rocks between green and stony banks. I watched a large tawny dog chasing a ball that bobbed in the frothy current and a few shots of cotton clouds wisping over distant green hilltops. I noticed the shadows of whispering cypresses and a dozen other trees as they fell across the white swirls of the river. I very much wanted to ask someone what the other trees were, as well as the names of each of the wildflowers growing in casual arrangement near my doorstep, but no one was around. Everyone else from our natural history tour had gone birdwatching.
Neal's was the last stop on a weeklong tour of Big Bend country and a four-star destination for birders. Which was why my fellow travelers — life listers all — had arisen at dawn, clutching binoculars, for a last chance at perusing the trees and scanning the crystalline sky for a glimpse of a few of the eighty-one species reported on Neal's property in the past three days.I, on the other hand, sat comfortably ensconced in an apple green, 1940s metal porch chair, inhaling spirit of place, focusing on the beauty generally, rather than only its birdlife. It was the sin of a generalist attitude. I was always wonderfully interested in birds, but preferred them in a context. I like birds … and mammals and reptiles and other native wildlife … and native flora ... and the geology of a place and its cultural history, too. My favorite trips are always those from which I return with a real understanding derived from a broad scope and a close up view. Which is what I hoped for on that trip to Big Bend National Park and west Texas, so different from the dense, verdant habitats of the south Louisiana bayou-country where I live.
Fortunately and unfortunately, one of our trip guides was an internationally known ornithologist and bird painter so that birding soon, in a manner of speaking, ruled the roost. For almost a week, from the San Antonio airport where we landed through the hill country within the magnificent Big Bend National Park itself and along the return route, we were a convoy of two, white vans that skidded to sudden stops — usually in the middle of a perilous roadway — to peer through binoculars at distant specks. If the specks seemed worthwhile, a guide set up a tri-podded monoscope on the narrow shoulder of the road and we piled over each other like ants from a disturbed hill to be first to view the bird. At lunch stops and at night, the trills and songs of unseen birds provoked my comrades to stalk about, listbooks in one hand, binoculars in the other, wishing for a sighting. So, although I learned a lot about west Texas birds, I had grown increasingly frustrated with our lack of group interest in the other animals, wildflowers, trees, and rock formations.
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