Birdventure No.1: Embracing Mediocrity
The birding began because just when I thought I’d seen every movie worth seeing, out of the blue The Big Year appeared. If you are on the fence about being a birder, watch this mild comedy about competing birders starring Jack Black, Owen Wilson, Steve Martin, and Rashida Jones. It’s a 3-star movie that I’ve now watched 3+ times; much like Jupiter Ascending or Hot Rod or Armageddon, but ignore that last bit if it damages my credibility to you.
“A Big Year” is when a birder decides to dedicate the year to spotting as many birds as possible. It’s sort of competitive, as depicted in the film, but it’s also sort of on the honor system and sort of cooperative… these folks go to great lengths to get their birds; it is the kind of low-key “sport” I can get behind.
I like hiking, camping, and adventuring, but I like those things a lot more if I have some sort of goal or a mission or a quest I guess. Birding gives me a reason to explore one place or another.
The very first time I set out specifically to do birding, I saw two birds that I have not seen since, and another that is fairly uncommon. A Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay, a White-Crowned Sparrow, and a Townsend’s Solitaire. If it weren’t for the mediocre photographs, I would have looked back on that list and assumed that they were all just American Robins I’d incorrectly ID’ed with my baby birder eyes.
I am used to posting only photographs that I decide are successful, well-composed, and interesting but the mission of this blog is to share what I see, and since a good photograph is not always an option with every bird spot, I suppose I’ll post the lame ones too (see above, good god.)
When I go birding I carry my biggest-ass lens and all the accouterments (for exercise purposes) but I don’t pressure myself to get good shots unless the opportunity really presents itself. I can actually relax with a camera in my hand.
The other great thing about birding is you can do it any time, anywhere. Birds are all over the place, until you go looking really hard, and then there is not a feather in sight.
