The bird that sucked me into this obsession of birding I would say would have
to be a juvenile NORTHERN PARULA. I have spent nearly every summer of my
early youth at my grandparents house right on beautiful Beaver Lake in the
very NW corner of Arkansas. Now my grandparents are not birders by any
sorts, but they did have about 5 birdfeeders and a ton of Hummingbird
feeders on their 5 acre Oak-filled lot. And what is a young 11-12 year old
boy to do when he is bored out of his mind stuck in the middle of nowhere
with his grandparents and sibblings? Well my grandma gave me something to do
by giving me her copy of the Audubon Field Guide to North American Birds,
Eastern Region. So I went outside and started identifying feeder birds.
Goldfinch, WB Nuthatch, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Blue Jay, Titmouse..etc...

I still wasn't really into the birds at that time, but I was beginning to
know the common species when I saw them. But then came the big hook... A
strange little bird showed up one day at our suet feeder which was
overhanging on the deck. It was drab blue bird with a touch of yellow on its
throat. My grandfather and I tried our best to ID it, but we could not come
up with anything. The bird would call all the time, its upslured
Zeeezeezeezeeeee. The bird would come back to the suet feeder quite a few
times a day and after buying more bird books at the local bird store, we ID'd
it as a juvenile NORTHERN PARULA! The bird stayed around all summer, and we
could slowly see it gaining a small orangish breastband and the olive on the
back was showing more and more. I found it very fun and exciting to identify
this puzzling species.

Now the Parula was just the catalyst during this summer visit, later on when
the temperature was getting in the low 100's, my grandfather put out a
sprinkler on his garden and 5 minutes into watering, I observed what still is
one of my best moments of observing birds. Birds came from all over to bathe
in the sprinklers mist: CARDINALS, the juv. PARULA, RE VIREO'S, WE VIREO'S,
WARBLING VIREO'S and two species which really caught my attention, a few
YELLOW-THROATED WARBLERS, SUMMER TANAGERS, and a single YELLOW-THROATED VIREO.

Now I was hooked, the YELLOW-THROATED VIREO later that day appeared 5 feet
away from where i was sitting eating at the suet feeder. That was it for me,
I took a few birdfeeders home with me to Washington and I started my
obsession by watching all the common puget sound species in my local
neighborhood woods and lake.

Ryan Shaw
Lacey, WA
rtshaw80 at aol.com