I don't consider myself a birder, I am a naturalist, thus I am easily
distracted by interesting things other than birds. I find that since I
bounce from birds, to mushrooms, to rocks to weeds to bugs all in the first
five minutes, I am a annoyance on bird walks, or more likely, I just fall
behind and dissapear, sometimes taking some of the group with me to look at
some beetle or, ugh, turn over a log to find a salamander. I recall a bird
trip leader who got very annoyed with me when I "distracted" the group by
finding a muskrats who was building a lodge which was more apparently more
interesting than the bittern. When I am not teaching I tend to wander in the
woods alone or with other companions who know how to move quietly.

I do occaisonally show up on bird trips and I am always grateful for the
patience and help seeing things. I often end up wanting to stay in one spot,
to watch something a good long time, while the rest of the group moves on to
see other things. Given this, I tend to avoid car birding trips and often
prefer to drive myself, since then I can stay as long as I like.

Rob Sandelin
Naturalist, Writer
The Environmental Science School
http://www.nonprofitpages.com/nica/SVE.htm
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