Good evening, Tweeters,

What was your benchmark bird? Do you remember? A benchmark bird is the bird
that awakened your desire to be a birder. It is the first bird that was out
of the ordinary, that aroused your curiosity, the bird that made you say,
"What bird was that?"...and made you into what you are today, a birder.

My benchmark bird was the Northern Flicker. I was just a kid, living in
Detroit, and my dad had begun feeding the birds during the winter. No one fed
the birds then, so dad was a pioneer, in his way. We didn't even have a bird
book! We had chickadees coming to the feeder then, not much else. One day a
large bird landed atop the feeder, yelled "clear!" , and promptly flew away.
We were all astounded, and of course had no idea what this bird was..it
wasn't a robin, blue jay, sparrow, rock dove, starling, chickadee or
cardinal, which was the sum total of my birding list at that time.

A couple weeks later, we saw it again. Same scenario, except this time he
ratcheted up and down the apple tree in the backyard. We got a much better
look at the bird, but still had no clue what it was. (my baby brother, at the
age of three, insisted it was an eagle.)
Mom found some extra money and bought a bird identification book. Talk about
a whole new world...I think I memorized every single page (it wasn't a
Peterson's guide, I think it was a Golden Books?? publication.). That's when
we learned that this large bird was a Flicker.
The rest is history.

Michelle
MBlanchrd at aol.com
Oly, WA