Bird watching was not something I did during my youth. In my college days, the common loon may be considered my “spark bird”. (A spark bird is that bird making you more serious and interested in birding.) But in reality, I just loved seeing that bird. Hiking miles to Adirondack Mountain lakes in upstate New York State to see a common loon and sometimes its chicks was just a thing I did. Then I thought I started birding when the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) was declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020. I did not.
Recently I found a bird journal of mine. It looked like I took my bird watching to another level on August 30, 2018! I literally recorded more specific notes than I ever remember completing. Amazingly I was teaching myself the difference between some birds as I was identifying my observations. I had a 30 -70 mm camera lens at the time to help with my identifications. Two years prior, in 2016, Merlin Bird ID became available for uploaded photos which no doubt helped me identify birds.
In 2019, I continued to list birds per outing along with the guidebook page, some notes, and additional info about other wildlife seen. I also collected pictures of birds I hoped to see when visiting upcoming locations, such as “Ding” Darling Wildlife Refuge in Sanibel, Florida.
On December 25, 2019, at Sweetwater Wetlands in Tucson, Arizona, I was caught standing between a good-sized javelina and a bobcat. I do remember that day because a woman from Florida was birding also and very scared. My only way to calm her was to have her stand on a bench as I was convinced the javelina would walk by and the bobcat would turn and leave. Which all of that did happen!
August 2020 I attended my first bird festival in Tucson, Arizona. I may have believed I was a birder now as I bought camera lenses for improved bird photography. (In reality though I was birding since 2018.) Photography really helped me learn the names of birds. Attending bird festivals in Texas and California were most informative too.
I noticed in my December 2020 listing I was keeping track of my life list of bird species in eBird. So I was well on my way with 177 species, yet I thought I only began birding at the start of the pandemic. Interesting! Through 2021 and 2022, along with my sightings, I listed places for future birding visits. Time of year with possible bird sightings and directions to the place. Of course, I did set out to visit some of these places!
2023 I set a personal challenge to record one bird sighting, therefore bird checklist, per day. For 365 days there is at least one checklist per day of birds I saw, and sometimes there were more than one checklist per day. It was an especially fun activity as I traveled cross-country in my van and stopped at wildlife refuges, rest areas, family member’s backyards and parks … wherever I thought I’d see a bird … and created a checklist for the observations.
2024, only a few notes of the many birds I saw in Sicily, Italy and later in the year in Australia and New Zealand. Now I no longer have a paper trail of the checklists of birds I see per outing. All is entered in eBird and I search there for date and locations of specific birds I need to know about from my observations. Part of me misses the writing of the info in a book. I do scribble in a list in my travel journal, but it feels different than the listings of years ago when I started birding. Now I am pre-occupied with sketching birds … that I hope to see … or did see. Who knows what format my future listings will take. But now I know I actually started birding in 2018!! In my future travel I hope to see this bird: European robin.
If you are interested in learning about birds and to have access to all of the free and valuable apps from Cornell University, check out, click on this link at All About Birds. Go have some fun!
