Okay, guess I'm becoming a more vocal tweeter -- the postings on age and
sex of birders caught me.

Though I don't remember the date, I clearly remember the incident and the
species that hooked me for good as a birder. I was eleven years old and
attending a summer girl scout camp. The bird was a dead meadowlark. To
answer Don Baccus' question, this was in the days of "Duck Hawks." The
local library hadn't yet discovered Peterson's western field guide, and
most of my time was spent perusing eastern books in frustration. None of my
friends and no one in my family was interested in birds, though as time
went on my father got me some opera glasses and a field guide, and even
went along on a couple Audubon trips with me. I was definitely an odd duck.
This was in southern California back when there were still some vineyards
in production, and citrus crops were rescued from frost using smudge pots
[we used to burn our garbage in backyard incinerators and wonder why we
couldn't see 10,000' mountains for the "haze"]. There were some acres of
chaparral just down the street (long since all gone to tract homes). If I
did all my chores and came home strictly when told I was occasionally
allowed to walk down there and stalk birds. My first observations of
nesting birds were on phainopeplas. Being from a dessicated environment,
the ponds and sloughs and lakes encountered on family camping vacations
were like paradise -- but persuading my father to slow the car or even stop
was next to impossible. I got good at birding at 60 mph -- but only after
hours of scenery and a host of blurry birds!

We were called birdwatchers back then, rather than birders, and I admit to
prefering that moniker. I am a lister, but not a twitcher, so my life list
is not as long as my age might suggest. I think counting numbers of robins
and starlings during CBC's is vital. I find watching crows dig for "sand
crabs" (and gulls failing at it) to be fascinating. After a circuitous
route through various occupations I finally landed in avian research
(aquatic species!). But even though I could be termed a "professional,"
there remain some curious gaps in my knowledge and experience. I'm still
learning, and plan to keep at it.

At times I feel old when I realize I've been birding for longer than some
of my colleagues have been alive, but I'm not a granny yet ....


Janet Hardin
Port Townsend, WA
wings at olympus.net