Dear Burt, Mike, and Tweeters,

Burt, thanks for starting an interesting topic.

Yep, there's nothing like learning the birds the solo
way! That's how I did it, and I am glad. Stumbling
into birds is so much more fun than "targeting" them,
I'd say.

When I first moved to Washington, I was able to
continue stumbling for two years or so, before I
stopped seeing lots of new birds. It was so much fun
to ramble around and see what turned up. Sometimes I
rather miss those days and their surprises.

When I moved to Saudi Arabia in 1998, I was able to go
back to square one for a few years. There were field
guides published for the Middle East, and there was
even a book about the birds of the Yanbu area where I
lived, but there was very little available on
birdfinding. I had to wander around and find out what
the habitats were, on my own. I don't know if I'll
ever have as much fun birding as I did those first two
years, sneaking around wadis in search of birds, all
the while trying to stay one step ahead of the Saudi
cops and coast guard. I certainly learned a lot about
desert environments, and ended up finding just about
all the birds there are to find in the Hejaz region.
It would not have been anywhere near as jolly if I'd
had someone leading me around by the nose, playing
recordings to make the birds jump out on command.

True, I missed out on some things. It took me three
years to figure out where the raptor hotspot was, and
then I had just one autumn migration season to
experience that amazing spectacle--but at least I did
eventually see it, plus enjoying the thrill of having
found the raptors' watering hole on my own.

Of course, however, there are times when "targeting"
is fun, too. If some friends and I want to go out and
do a big day, then we will target away, and have a
merry time of it. Somebody in the party will have
acquired the latest audio gizmo, and at the first
playback, the songbirds will jump to attention at a
moment's notice. Still, I would not want to bird that
way every day.

Forgive the ramblings; two more days before school
lets out, and then my brains might get a chance to
regenerate into something resembling a mind again....




Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch

near Lyman (Skagit County), Washington

garybletsch at yahoo.com


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