>Burt Guttman wrote:
>
>> I have an impression that the people who lead the expensive tours, like
>> VENT, have a knack for being at the right place at just the right time;
I
>> sometimes feel like I have just the opposite knack. If anyone knows the
>> Secret of Success (other than being in the field full-time) or the Magic
>> Incantation, I wish they'd share it.
>
>You create your own "luck" by being observant (unbelievably important),
>patient and knowing what to look for and when to look for it.
>
>A good example was Dick Veit finding the little stint at Iona Island,
>Vancouver. Everybody else was scoping the ponds and (presumably) passed
over
>the bird as it was roosting. He noticed that the back of the neck was more

>rufous then would be the case for a western sandpiper and voila, 3rd
record
>for BC (?).
>
>However this takes a lot of experience, so I suppose in one way there is
no
>substitute for being in the field full time !!!
>
>Stuart - aspiring towards competence ;-)
>---
>#import "StandardDisclaimer.h";
>
>Stuart MacKay AT&T Wireless Services

It also helps to be born with certain abilities. Practice helps, but some
people have better developed brains for spatial patterns than others. I
know some people who can't identify species A from species B, but I love to
bird with them because their ability for finding birds is so much better
tuned.

On a parallel wave, think of persons who bird mostly by sound. If you're
tone deaf you'll never be one.

The same is also true for picking out diverse patterns on a mudflat or
motion in a tree top by sight.

--Jerry Tangren