List Lust & Lent

#401 Loggerhead Shrike

2012 was an amazing year in my birding career.  I don't know why I had such luck, but I was able to add 11 species to my life list, which finally topped 400.  I hadn't seen double-digit lifers in a single year in over a decade.  And while my Massachusetts life list is well over 75% of the total, I continued the curious trend of milestone lifers being out of state: #100 in New Brunswick, #200 in Maine, #300 in New Jersey, #400 in North Carolina. 2012 also marked the high water mark for my World Series of Birding team, the Wicked Witchities, who finally topped 200 species in a single day and brought home second place honors and the Stone Award.

#402 Spruce Grouse

2013 has already started with great promise with my team's winter plumage, the Wicked Pishahs finishing with the second highest species total at the Super Bowl of Birding and personally I listed 100 species in the first month of this auspicious year.  I am filled with excitement because for the first time in my life I expect to travel west more than one time zone.  That will mean a huge list of potential lifers. In fact, after carefully mining data on eBird for sightings in recent years for the dates and

#403 Black-bellied Whistling Duck

locations I will be visiting, I have a list of over 225 potential life birds to chase during June.  There is a very good chance that I will tick more lifers this year than any year before (I'm predicting 113) and that I will hit lifer #500 (I'm predicting Arizona for the location). And it all begins so soon, as new migrants show up each week, slowly the pressure is building which will explode with the spring migration and the World Series of Birding (I'm just crazy enough to believe that the Wicked Witchity/Four Loons super team combination has a shot of winning it all!)

#405 Wood Sandpiper

This sort of frenetic anxiety about a thing as ephemeral as a list of bird species is clearly abnormal behavior which takes its toll.  For the most part, the price aside from a significant one-time investment in optics and variable travel expenses is paid in loss of sleep (and some would contend, sanity).  In other words, it is the birder who pays the price, not the bird.  But I recently had to face the cost of my behavior paid by the object of my obsession.

#406 Allen's Hummingbird

Appropriately enough, the day was Ash Wednesday, the day of confession which begins the season of Lent, during which fasting and self-examination are expected.  I heard that a LeConte's Sparrow was being "very cooperative" in Concord, about an hour away.  I decided to chase this bird which was missing from my life list despite a couple of previous appearances by the species in the state during my birding career.  When I arrived, I discovered that I needed to be careful in my approach because the bird was feeding on the ground in the tiniest strip of exposed soil imaginable along the road surrounded my snow

#408 Little Egret

banks a couple of feet tall. There were about a dozen birders gathered around it at distances from about 3 to 10 feet.  When a vehicle passed by we all had to move and the bird didn't move.  When the bird did move it flew to a bush just beside the road.  I only stayed a short while and there were birders arriving as I departed.  From the reports, it appears that the bird stayed a few days and was seen by likely hundreds of birders, all at close range.

I would like to say that I was aware of the stress this bird was under and I did what I could to minimize it.  But the truth is, I added to the stress this bird, far from it's normal range, scrounging to eke out an existence, experienced in its time here.  In fact, it is likely enough that it did not survive.  There is a certain stoicism associated with chasing birds that are rare because they are out of
their range since often they are either already ill, exhausted from the travel, or so ill equipped to survive where they land that they die soon after being discovered.  While that is not always the case, it did seem to be true of this poor sparrow that it was stressed, not just by its misadventure in getting to Massachusetts, but also by the treatment of its "admirers" once it got here.

#409 Le Conte's Sparrow

Perhaps I will take the time to consider more fully the impact of my behavior on the birds I am eager to enjoy the next time a similar situation arises.  More likely I will find myself questioning after the fact.  Regardless, the questions are vital if my behavior is to change.  And I can't expect others' behavior to change if I don't first change mine.  And ultimately, the necessary changes are those that reduce the suffering of the innocent creatures that we claim to want to enjoy and help.

Wild Goose Chase

When I was a child in Pennsylvania, I remember being rushed outside on a spring day at the sound of the honking of Canada Geese flying over our house. I recall only fleeting glimpses of those impressive flying “V's” of wild geese heading north, but the seed of a passion for nature observation was planted. I acquired an insatiable curiosity, a great desire to explore and to learn. It blossomed into an addiction to birdwatching that has pushed me into places I might not have otherwise gone. It has meant distinguishing species observing both similarities and differences in order to categorize and list. And the categorizing and listing can easily seem to go on, world without end, amen.

I have since moved from Pennsylvania, and the Canada Geese have moved in. But not just there, they have moved in to many places where they had not been before. Anyone who has tossed bread on the shore of a pond where ducks and geese have come to expect the handout will know that the wild geese are somewhat less wild now. It would be nice to think that they are more accepting of our species, but it seems to be a wary standoff in which they have their way with what we have created that they find attractive until we go to war with them; think golf courses. It is a classic case of human development inadvertently benefiting another species which then is seen as a pest. It is the story of numerous “pest” species from Norway Rats to House Sparrows. In the case of Canada Geese, we have created so many fields (such as golf courses) that attract them that some of them have simply moved in and now no longer migrate.

Another species that has expanded its range in recent decades is the Northern Mockingbird. Ironically, it now lives up to its name having been previously limited to the southern United States (but north of South America, and thus the name). They are master mimics primarily of, but not limited to, other birds species. It is not clear what value such imitation serves for them but when they insistently mimic sounds that we have created, like cell phone rings and car alarms, they appear to be living up to the other part of their names as they seem to mock us. Even though they clearly spend enough time near humans to learn our odd sounds, they don't seem all that interested in the food we offer in our feeders. They come near, but they remain aloof, they are still too wild to be part of our plans.

Four days in North Carolina at the Wild Goose Festival confirmed that Carolina Wrens are aptly named as they are indeed abundant in the Carolinas. In a reversal of Sherman's March, these little southerns have been advancing northward one suet cake at a time. Northern hospitality seems to suit them well.

This bird that just two decades ago set off the rare bird alerts in Massachusetts now nests in every community in the state. This bird is quite comfortable in close quarters with humans, gratefully accepting what we can offer to assist them.

To varying degrees, these three species have exchanged some degree of wildness to be in proximity to us. Canada Geese gave up enough to become squatters in spaces we intend for other use. Carolina Wrens seem willing to become nearly domesticated in their quest to expand their range into more places where humans live. And Mockingbirds seem only somewhat tolerant of our presence in places they want to be, in the process mocking us by protesting our noise pollution by reflecting it back at us. Yet none of these species have retreated from us, even though that may be a wiser direction than choosing to come to us. Canada Geese do still migrate, fueling our wanderlust and imagination as we watch them plow the skies to seasonally desirable destinations. Carolina Wrens teach us that a tiny thing can have a huge and melodious voice, inspiring us to pause and listen. Mockingbirds bring us the gift of far away places as they bring back songs from the far flung places they visit.

But what can we do with such wild gifts? These wild things come near but don't stay near. These wild things are attracted to us and attract us. These wild things show us the cost of our domestication and timidity. These wild things are very distinct from us and in other ways different from each other. Yet we are none of us the creator, we and they are creatures and so we feel a call to be one. These wild things are not going to get less wild, so we are going to have to become wilder. We are going to have to throw open the doors and let the Spirit in, or more correctly, find the true spirit of the Creator, in whose image we are made, inside of us and let the wild thing out into the creation all around us. In the end we are all bound to go on a wild goose chase because the wild things cannot be caught or contained. But along the way we will find other wild goose chasers and we will be caught off guard. Some of them will look like us, others will be wild and strange. But we will learn new things from them. Some of them will use old ways, others will use new ways. Some of the ways will seem outdated and some will seem out of this world. But since the wild things can never be caught, we will save ourselves a lot of headache and instead find a blessing if we see all the ways as gifts for enhancing and enjoying the chase. For, you see, the Holy Spirit is a wild goose calling us to chase because of what we will gain in the chase. The greatest gift of the chase is finding the other chasers. As we get closer to catching the wild goose the path gets crowded by lots of chasers who have gotten so caught up in the chase that they only keep those things that help in the chase. So they are no longer liberals suspect of evangelicals and evangelicals castigating liberals. They are post-liberals and post-evangelicals who have begun to see the gifts the other has and how wonderfully they complement the gifts they have. They find that cooperation is not only the best hope of catching the wild goose, but it is also a bunch of fun. And well, isn't that joy the whole point of a wild goose chase anyway? Maybe we can get the answer from God...right after that smile fades off of God's face.

More Fun, Less Shtuff!