Benchmark birds, eh... That's easy. Well, actually it came in two phases.

Phase One: Bohemian Waxwing. Maryville, Missouri in the winter of 1960 I
think. Well, whenever it was when I was in the 7th grade and had been
working on my 7th grade science project. The topic I chose was on birds in
which I made a big fancy scrap book full of pictures and life histories on
local common birds. Anyway, at some point in the middle of that creation, I
was walking home from school one day and came upon a crab apple tree full of
Bohemian Waxwings. I thought that was pretty neat and even then realized
that stumbling upon Bohemian Waxwings rather than the more common and
expected Cedar Waxwings (NOT in winter though) might be rather unusual. I
had no idea how rare or unusual this sighting was as I hadn't advanced to the
point of really knowing the difference and birding as we know it today had
not yet come of age. It wasn't until years later that I came to learn that
that particular year was an extraordinary winter in northern Missouri with
respect to a Bohemian Waxwing invasion. Actually, I don't think there has
been a repeat event since.

Then there was a period of dormancy through my high school years and my
primary obsession was chasing the most vile of violent thunderstorms and
tornados. I still crave doing that by-the-way. Seattle is just a total
loser crappy place to do it! Boorrrring!! :-))

Then, along came Phase Two raising it's ugly head. My life has never been
the same since. It was my first semester in college in the Fall of 1965,
Northwest Missouri State, Maryville, 'pre-meteorology-severe storms / tornado
expert par excellance' major. On day, I spotted an announcement on the
bulletin board in the Admin. Building announcing the organization of a
Maryville Audubon Society (whatever that was supposed to be), and also for
the first bird watching field trip to a lonely pine grove west of town that I
never knew existed. So, I signed up but I don't really remember why exactly.
Just something different to do I guess. Curiosity.

That cold frosty appointed Saturday rolled around in early November, and low
and behold, I was to discover a couple of birds that I had never ever seen
nor had even ever heard of. At the top of the list was the RED-BREASTED
NUTHATCH. And there were Pine Siskins too. I was hooked. And hooked bad!
My life was turned upside down. I cut classes, armed myself with county road
maps to Nodaway, Holt, and Atchison Counties, cut more classes, quit studying
altogether, and set out every day to explore EVERY road in those three
counties in the northwestern corner of Missouri. And I did too and
extensively marked on the maps all the good spots or places with promise that
I discovered in this odyssey of exploration. Gas was only $0.17 / gallon
back then, $0.12 during gas wars :-))

The bird bonanza of that autumn of 1965 continued to escalate at an
unprecedented scale. I was totally enchanted by the Red-breasted Nuthatch
and that isolated pine grove continued to produce the unexpected. A week or
two later, Red Crossbills turned up. The following week, the place was full
of Red Crossbills AND astonishingly, WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILLS too! My God!
By December, Common Redpolls had arrived. Just two months earlier, I had
never known these things even existed. It was unbelievable and the
excitement for us new budding birders was contagious and outrageous.

Needless to say, all this hoopla had a rather detrimental effect on my
academic performance. I failed miserably. No, actually I failed
successfully. If I didn't flunk everything, I came very close. I think I
ended up with a 0.9 GPA. That first semester ended with my being kicked out
and suspended for a semester. Oh well. So, I had to get a job. I drove a
taxi around town and surrounding countryside and that for a then very naive
18 year old at the time was a vast mind expanding coming of age experience in
it's own right but a tale better left to adult late night pay-per-view.
Death comes to sheltered innocence even if it was the rural God-fearing
Midwest. I figured it was something in the water.

Come the Fall of 1966, with the faith and support of a certain biology
professor and literally mentor who saw promise in me and my ravenous appetite
for birds, wildlife, and nature, I was back in school, newly oriented and
focused which has led off down the path to which I follow today. Sometimes
though, I wonder what might have happened had I never seen that fateful field
trip announcement, or met this guy, or ever laid eyes on that Red-breasted
Nuthatch. It was a turning point for sure, a fork in the road. Had that
Red-breasted Nuthatch never come along, then that would be ME you'd be seeing
in "Twister" and any one of those 'tornado chasing' shows on TLC, and living
in Norman, Oklahoma.

Instead, I've managed to wind up in the Pacific Northwest. Nice area for
sure and I think part of why I continue to refuse to pull up stakes and leave
is for the Red-breasted Nuthatches around here whose presence is not just
sporadic and given to whims of invasion but year round. Indeed, they are
always a presence in my yard and at the feeders and are always seen as that
symbolic benchmark to reflect back upon each time I see them when I'm back
home and taking a break from some far flung field assignment somewhere else.

****************************************************
Richard Rowlett (Pterodroma at aol.com)
Bellevue, WA.....
......but in the field now 'til June
NOAA/NMFS Gray Whale Survey
Piedras Blancas Lighthouse
San Simeon, California

"Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what
nobody has thought" --Albert Szent-Gyorgi (1893-1986).
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