Subject: Re: Raptors 'n warblers
Date: Apr 17 10:13:23 1995
From: Dennis Paulson - dpaulson at ups.edu


Eric Henriksen wrote:

>The sight of small, and sometimes hard to identify birds, hidden usually in
>dense coverage, is what gets my birder's blood boiling.
>
>In the end, I'll take what I can get. But I often wonder if there as many
>birders who get excited about a bushtit as a Cooper's? Or are there more,
>but silent?


I'll bet one of the criteria is whether you grew up in the East, where
passerine migration is thrilling. I miss very much the migration I
experienced in southern Florida for years. Although I guess it's not quite
the magnitude of the past.

But out here, there is as spectacular a seabird and shorebird show as
anywhere south of Alaska, so my interests have shifted over time. Not that
I don't plan to be thrilled by migrant passerines when I go to southeast
Texas in a few weeks, but the sight of big flocks of birds flying over the
water or feeding at its edge is sufficient to get my adrenalin really
flowing.

Raptors? Who said anything about raptors? A rather taxonomically
conservative, not very common or diverse group of birds, as I understand
it, when compared with groups such as warblers and shorebirds. They must
have something going for them, however, as I've heard they have a
passionate group of aficionados.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416