Mary Hrudkaj wrote of her delemma of whether to look at rocks or birds. I
have this problem in much greater magnitude. Somebody once said that a
naturalist is a biologist with a short attention span. Here is a description
of why I no longer go out on organized bird trips.

It starts off well enough, I hoist the bins with the birders and we spot and
chat and check things off lists, the bird books out and pages flipping.
However, I linger while the group walks on to the next spot, and I notice a
vole trail in the grass. Immediately I am on my knees, parting the grass to
look for signs or tracks. I follow the vole tunnel a bit then stumble into a
mushroom. Eureka! It?s an Agaricus campestris, so I tuck it into a pocket
and begin to look for a few more. Then I spot a rotting log and simply have
to turn it over and in doing so come up with a snail and find a huge
carabidae beetle, so I fish around in my pockets for one of my numerous
collection jars. I get the beetle in the jar and have flipped my bins over
to use them as a microscope so I can examine the beetle closely when I hear
a bird call and suddenly remember, oh yeah, I came out here to look at
birds....The rest of the group is now a half a mile ahead and wondering,
where did that bearded guy get off to?

I had a moment once in costa rica where I had birds, butterflies, a huge
beetle, a snake, a lizard and a small rodent all competing for my attention
at once. I sort of had a melt down.....

Rob Sandelin
Naturalist, Writer, teacher

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