Okay, I can't resist. As I've read others benchmark experiences, I was
thinking that my "benchmark bird" was the Rufous-sided Towhee - the first
bird I identified with my new Golden Guide to North American Birds at age 12
in Shenandoah National Park on a family camping trip. Like Jim Elder, I was
truly amazed at this bird as it scraped through dead leaves just like the
book described and how well it fit its name (now known as the uninspired
Eastern Towhee - how many kids is that name going to inspire?).

Well, since that species has been taken, it's true confession time! My
benchmark bird is the European Starling! I grew in an urban neighborhood
near Boston, MA. While there were House Sparrows and pigeons around and
the occasional glorious May morning dropped a Savannah Sparrow on the
neighbor's lawn or a Canada Warbler into the maple tree in our yard, the
birds I grew up with were Starlings. At 10, when I found some old
binoculars in the attic, I'd sit and look out the 2nd story window and watch
the Starlings live their lives. The nested in the eaves of our house and in
spring sang their incredible cacophony of sounds from the roofs and
telephone poles, including my favorite starling sound, the wheeeeouoooooo,
wolf whistle. They'd raise their families all spring and the brown
juveniles would be out and about by early summer, in fall they'd change into
to their drab winter spots. I longed to be out of the city and cherished
our summer, car-camping trips to places like Shenandoah NP and Niagara
Falls, but through the long New England winter, the starlings were there to
remind of those wilder places. As part of the birding community, I know
that we tend to despise the creatures that are most like us, i.e., those
that flourish in the "unnatural" worlds we've created. I never begrudge
Starlings (or pigeons or gulls) their success - in the urban landscapes that
they dominate, they're a reminder of a natural world beyond. I can't
imagine an urban, bird-loving, childhood without them.

Gene Revelas
Tacoma, WA
grevelas at striplin.com