Once in a Lifetime

This story is about accomplishment, goal setting, and pride. After all, you only see your 200th bird once. After eBirding for four years, I have seen many birds and seen many places. I have crossed the path of warblers and finches, pelicans and cormorants. Every bird is unique and special, but seeing your 200th bird is something different. I am thankful to the family, friends, authors and more that encouraged and helped me along this path. I feel grateful for the nights I would pull a Sibley’s or Peterson’s bird book off the shelf and take it to bed. I love and appreciate those places or backtrails that constantly reveal something new. So seeing my 200th bird was something that would never happen again and I will always remember that moment. I am going to share with you four species, each from a part of the U.S.

 Every bird counts. That’s the truth. It will take forever to reach 200 if you only record the unusual birds like orioles, and thrushes and puffins. Even the everyday birds like ducks and pigeons and sparrows need to be recorded. In fact, the first bird on my eBird life list is a Canada Goose! I have traveled to six states and each has recently revealed new birds. As I see more and more species, new birds are becoming more infrequent. Here are four stories about birds that helped me reach 200 species.

 I will start in my home state of Montana, in Granite County. My family and I were sunbathing on the banks of the Rock Creek river and enjoying the summer heat. Everyone was relaxed. Well, almost everyone! I was anxiously scanning every rock, bush, and stump for snakes. If you did not know this already, I have an intense fear of snakes and am constantly thinking about the probability of seeing one, even in winter. So I got up, grabbed my camera, asked for a phone so I could sound ID birds with Merlin and headed into a swampy section of willows, which was likely to have snakes. Immediately, Song Sparrows started chirping alarm calls and a spotted bird flew out from the long waving grasses. It settled amidst a dense bush and started calling. I did not have the sound ID turned on at the moment so I explored the calls of thrushes that looked like what I had seen. I believed the bird to be a Veery but Papa thought it was a Swainson’s Thrush. When we were back in Missoula, I submitted the bird to eBird as a Veery knowing that I would be corrected if the thrush was mis-idententified. Since I have not yet received an email from eBird to re-identify the bird, I am confident it was a Veery.

The west coast has provided me with many new species of the year and this year was exceptional. With seven new species I couldn’t decide which story I wanted to tell! I finally came to rest on the perky Semipalmated Plover. Mama, Papa, Lucy, and I walked around the state park where we were camping there. I have stayed at Fort Stevens multiple times and have been to this place maybe once or twice. When we got there however, any recollection of the place vanished, for the beach was overflowing with shorebirds! I tried to identify them from a distance, but as you might know, sandpipers are difficult to ID. Upon further investigation and verification by Merlin, we learned that the flock contained a majority of Western and Least Sandpiper with the tinier Semipalmated Plovers scurrying around the edges. The most surprising bird however, was a small cluster of about eight or so Red Knots! As I got closer, I could see the reddish-orange underside that gave them their name. But the Plovers! I just love their fluffed up multicolored feathers as they dipped their miniscule orange feet into the ocean. I was extremely lucky to have witnessed that congregation of feathered friends!

We have now arrived at the third and I crossed paths with this bird in Pennsylvania. It was the 6th of July and I was wandering around my grandparents property glancing down every now and then at Merlin’s sound ID. All the regular birds had shown up like jays and cardinals so I started pacing around the parking lot feeling the burning asphalt rise into my bare feet. A small, olive bird was perched in an oak bordering the driveway. It resembled a juvenile White-crowned Sparrow, but thinner and more streamlined. The bird had been trilling for a while but I hadn’t deciphered the call from all the other songs, but when I looked down at Merlin another bird had appeared. Worm-eating Warbler. First I thought “They don’t eat worms”, and then the reality of what that meant began to sink in. I have never seen a Worm-eating Warbler! I rushed inside to share the news. Lucy was jumping up and down and shouting “You saw a new bird!”

Number two-hundred is a different bird for everyone, and for me it was the Greater Yellowlegs. I was in Alaska fishing with my family along the Kisaralik River. I had just finished the juiciest hot dog ever and was wading to the boat when a thin, gray shorebird flew in and landed on the edge of the water. It bobbed up and down, the shorebird’s long neck extending and then shortening. This behavior is known as head-bobbing and is most familiar in the Rock Pigeon. Birds do this to keep focused on a particular object while walking. This behavior continued for about a minute before the yellowlegs took off and circled around the island to land on the shore of the river I happened to be standing on. I continued to the bow of the boat where my camera bag was resting and then approached the yellowlegs, careful to keep my movements slow and minimal. The bird was framed against the Kisiralik, which had a bluish-green tinge to it. The yellowlegs continued to move in that monotonous up-down-up-down-up-down movement that defines many sandpipers. It was just so funny! It flew away for the second time and headed downstream to a different gravel bar only to pass by again a couple hours later. 

After years of hard work, I am overjoyed that I was able to see 200 birds and achieve something that spectacular. I now will have to find and set another goal, maybe something like visiting another country such as Japan or Costa Rica. I could also work towards photographing 100 species. Hopefully neither of those ambitions will take four years to accomplish!