Subject: Birder/Lister/Behaviorist
Date: Apr 25 08:03:02 1997
From: Sue Ericksen - ericksen at nwinfo.net


First of all, this week we have had our first House Wren (we have several
nest boxes and he is busy filling them with twigs.

Wednesday morning 7:37AM daylight we heard a "hooty" Owl. A Great Horned Owl?

To the subject at hand:

We are birders in that we are always watching birds, we each have our own
binnoculars and they are always at the ready! Our Spruce tree by the back
door house innumerable sparrows, kinglets, starlings, robins, etc. And let
me tell you, them durn robins never sleep.

We are listers in that we make a notation when we see a new bird. However,
we are just as interested in the where and when of our sightings,and when
possible, we try to make those notaions in our Petersen Guide.

Side Bar: Our battle cry is "NEW BIRD" at 4 years ago we took a trip to
Galveston and our oldest daughter went along for the free vacation. We're
tooling along the road when I spot a "new" bird. I try to get hubby to see
it, but after several sightings and misses, the next one, we do a "U"ey and
go back and sit with binocculars to ID a a Scissor Tail Flycatcher! Later we
see another "new" bird and when stopped at a gas station my husband asked
the young attendant if he knew what it was. He replied" I can't even lie to
you, I don't know. Not long after we were able to identify it as a Common
Grackle. Needless to say #1 daughter learned something about her parents on
that trip!

We are behaviorists in that we want to know all that we can about the birds
that we are watching. Their habitat, what they eat, migratory trails, etc.
We never sit outside, but that our binocs are at hand, because if they're
not, we sure have to race back inside to grab them.

Sue, somewhere in the Mid-Yakima Valley