Hi tweets,

My folks put up a feeder when I was five. The first customers were adorable little round birds with black heads and little yellow beaks. Nobody knew what they were, so my mother finally pulled out a field guide and looked it up. From then on, she was immensely proud to be able to tell people that the little birds they get at their feeders are "Oregon Juncos."

>From then on, whenever I saw a bird I didn't recognize, I automatically got the field guide, looked it up, and wrote it on a list. We were on a small lake that was half-covered with brush, so the list soon included Bald Eagles, Ospreys, Belted Kingfishers, Black-crowned Night Herons, Western Screech-Owls, Orange-crowned Warblers, MacGillavray's Warblers, Northern Shrike, Cooper's Hawks, Fox Sparrows, Bewick's Wrens, Purple Finches, etc. One year, a very lost Mockingbird landed on the deck right next to the feeder, called loudly for several minutes, and took off. Another year, a Hermit Warbler landed on the railing right outside the master bedroom window, looked at me for a while, and flew away. I have never, EVER gotten that close to one since.

On top of all that, the schoolbus took the longest possible route to school, through lakes and bays and woods. Over the years, I saw Harlequin Ducks, Barrow's Goldeneyes, Oldsquaw, scaup, wigeon, pintails, teal, eagles, ospreys in the bays, and Wood Ducks, Hooded Mergansers, avocets, ducks and grebes in the lakes. The first time I saw a Red-breasted Sapsucker, it was from the schoolbus - flying along the road, at eye-level, parallel with the bus! It was so incredible, I couldn't wait to get home to find out what the heck it was.

Prior to moving to our current house, I was in a north-facing condo in a very urban area. I put up a feeder, and got nothing but House Sparrows and more House Sparrows. That was so discouraging that I went out and bought a book on where to go to find birds. After my first trip (to Willapa Bay), I was hooked - I started planning trips to distant places just to look at the birds, and I've been doing it ever since.

Regards,
Christine Vadai
Mill Creek, WA
christinevadai at sprynet.com