Hi all.

One more benchmark bird................
Unlike many of you who wrote about your childhood birding experiences, I was
a kid who *didn't* like birds. I was a kid who liked to sleep late in the
summer and who got waked up early several times a week by mockingbirds and
Blue Jays fighting outside my window. Another early morning variation was
the thumpa, thumpa, thumpa of a squirrel seeking refuge under the air
conditioner, because the jays and mockingbirds chased it there.
I can remember less than ten other times in my life that I even noticed
birds, until I moved out here, though I was enamoured with mountains and
rocks and wildflowers. Gradually I began to notice the ducks at Greenlake as
I jogged around the lake. One foggy day, I saw a male Bufflehead that I
thought might be a decoy because it was so still. That piqued my interest
enough to go on an Audubon trip, with my hat pulled down and my collar
pulled up, in hopes that no one I knew would recognize me.
No pristine wildlife experience here: the bird that made me say "Hey, this
is great!" was a male Eurasian Wigeon, right in the center of a boiling mass
of ducks seeking handouts at Greenlake. What a beauty - russet and gray. I
now prefer birds that *eat* ducks, but I still stop and admire Eurasian Wigeons.

Ruth Taylor
Seattle
rutht at seanet.com