In recent years, I have discovered the many pleasures of birding with
friends, but I have always enjoyed birding by myself, and still find it
very satisfying to track down and identify birds on my own. To me,
there is something very special about the experience of being out in a
wild (or even not-so-wild) place all alone. I'm not a particularly
fearful person, so I usually feel pretty safe wandering around alone,
both in the United States and abroad, but there have been times when, as
a woman birding by myself, I wonder what on earth I was thinking. Is it
really a good idea to be walking down the road alone in the dark in
rural South Carolina looking for Chuck-Will's-Widows? Is that a mugger
coming toward me in East Rock Park in New Haven as I look for migrant
warblers? Maybe, maybe not, but how do I know?

I don't want to make it sound like I am always looking over my shoulder
for dangerous characters when I am out birding, but, sadly, safety can
be a concern for women birders. (It is for men, too, I suppose, but not
to the same extent.) This is especially true when we travel far from
home. As strangers to a place, we may not always know the "rules",
which places are safe and which are not, who to trust and who not to
trust. And sometimes those birds just live in skanky places. So,
though it would be really wonderful to explore a place on my own,
sometimes I choose to engage a guide or go with friends or on an
organized tour. There are many good reasons to go somewhere with a
guide and/or group (I probably will see more birds in less time with the
extra help, and traveling with friends is a lot of fun), but safety
considerations are definitely a part of the decision.

This sort of brings me to one of my theories about birders. It seems to
me that the great majority of the famous ornithologists and hot-shot
birders of my generation are men. They all seem to have started birding
as children or young teen-agers. When I was growing up, boys were free
to run wild and roam wild places by themselves, while, due to gender
stereotypes and worries about safety, girls were discouraged from doing
so. I was a contrary child (maybe misfit would be a better word...), so
I did it anyway, but my parents didn't think I was safe out in the
canyons on the edge of the San Diego suburbs, and only let me go
exploring if I took along our big dog. Not all girls faced this kind of
discouragement, but I think it's the reason that many women my age or
older didn't discover birding until much later in life, often after
their children left home and often with a husband or a ready-made
birding group like a local Audubon chapter. When I started birding in
college I knew only one other woman birder my age, but I am very glad to
see that things finally are changing. More and more girls and young
women are getting out there in the field with the boys and with each
other. I hope they will all stay safe and well, and I look forward to
seeing them become a new generation of women ornithologists and
hot-shots.

Rachel Lawson
Seattle
RachelLawson at softhome.net