What Bird Got You Interested in Birding? (1 Viewer)

Larry Lade · Nov 18, 2004

Here

The above post caused me to think of which bird it was that got me interested in birding. (For Roger Tory Peterson it was a Northern Flicker.) For me I believe it was probably an American Robin (this was when I was in elementary school). I did not keep lists until much later, but beginning with this bird I soon discovered that there were doves, barn pigeons (Rock Pigeons), ducks (Mallards), sparrows (House Sparrows), blue jays and cardinals. It was a rather simplistic beginning but has evolved into a quite pleasurable pastime.

Which bird was it that got you started birding?

Larry Lade · Nov 18, 2004

The above "link" takes you to a thread entitled "A rank beginner in New York, New York". In this thread Pinewood relates that the bird that got him started birding was a Long-eared Owl.

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=18171&page=1&pp=25

Bluetail · Nov 18, 2004

Northern Lapwing

RCarter · Nov 18, 2004

At the age of 8 I "won" a pair of 3X plastic bins selling newspaper subscriptions door-to-door. A beloved aunt who was interested in birds gave me the Golden Guide to Birds -- which was then designed for kids, colorful paintings of perhaps 50 common American birds. I quickly went on my first birding hike, middle of winter in Nebraska, and a brush pile yielded a smallish sparrow that let me get a really close look: bright rufous cap, dark spot in the middle of the breast. Quite simply the most beautiful creature I had yet seen! Checking the book showed me that it was a "Tree Sparrow" (now American Tree Sparrow). I was hooked!! That was 54 years ago..............

Dick

Larry Lade · Nov 18, 2004

RCarter said:
At the age of 8 I "won" a pair of 3X plastic bins selling newspaper subscriptions door-to-door. A beloved aunt who was interested in birds gave me the Golden Guide to Birds -- which was then designed for kids, colorful paintings of perhaps 50 common American birds. I quickly went on my first birding hike, middle of winter in Nebraska, and a brush pile yielded a smallish sparrow that let me get a really close look: bright rufous cap, dark spot in the middle of the breast. Quite simply the most beautiful creature I had yet seen! Checking the book showed me that it was a "Tree Sparrow" (now American Tree Sparrow). I was hooked!! That was 54 years ago..............

Dick

Dick,

That was a great beginning experience!

What part of Nebraska were you in when this took place (if I may ask)?

KC Foggin · Nov 18, 2004

Mine would be the Ring-necked Pheasant. When we were kids, the area I was born in finally banned the hunting of Pheasants as the population had been completely decimated. My brother and I heard of a Pheasant farm in a nearby state and we talked our Aunt into driving us there and getting a few Pheasant chics to raise and release.

Only problem was you had to take 100 chics! Well, my brother could talk the spots off a leopard so picture one adult, (the leopard in this case) two kids and 100 pheasant chics in a station wagon on a 3 hour trip back home

All but about a dozen survived and when they were ready, we released them. Happy to say the Pheasant population in Staten Island is alive and well.

Keith Reeder · Nov 18, 2004

One Winter's day when I was about 8, my then teacher (Mr Bewick, bless 'im - a direct descendant of Thomas Bewick, no less) took me and a couple of my classmates kicking and screaming to the stand of pine trees at the bottom of the school playing fields - he obviously knew better than us, that we'd appreciate what we were about to see...

There, within a few feet of the trees, he showed us the flock of waxwings that had taken up temporary residence.

I'd had a passing interest in wildlife up to then, thanks to my well-meaning mother, but I was completely bowled over by the idea that these fantastic, exotic looking creatures had travelled all the way from Scandinavia to visit - I didn't know birds did that (especially birds as spectacular as waxwings) and from that day, I was hooked too.

Even better: when I got home, a smaller flock of waxwings was sitting waiting for me in the dog rose bush at the bottom of out little council house garden - obviously a message, that!

To this day, even though they aren't exactly a rarity, I get such a rush out of my first waxwings of the year, because it takes me straight back to that fantastic day in 1968 when everything changed.

Lucky me for having a teacher like Mr Bewick.

RCarter · Nov 18, 2004

Larry Lade said:
Dick,

That was a great beginning experience!

What part of Nebraska were you in when this took place (if I may ask)?

Larry,

I lived in the little town of Ashland, between Omaha and Lincoln.

Dick

Kevin Mac · Nov 18, 2004

I had a bird guide, the Golden Guide of North American Birds for a couple of years that I used to carry around in my truck but didn't use much. One day I got a closeup view of a Western Tanager (without binoculars) that sent me rushing to the guide. That started my really looking at birds, and one day while fishing a Black Oystercatcher had me leafing through the guide again. Those are the most memorable birds before I became a birder.

columbidae · Nov 18, 2004

The American bittern turned me into a hard-core birder.

In the winter of 2001-2002 my wife gave me some bird feeders, and for the next few months I enjoyed keeping them filled and watching the birds from my patio. However, with the exception of an occasional walk in the nearby park, I really didn't get into field birding much. That changed the next fall, when I read on an email bird list that an American bittern (a real rarity for this area) had been sighted at a pond just outside of Charlotte. The next morning I went out bright and early, drove 25 miles, parked, trudged down the dirt road and across the fields, noting every bird I saw, until I got to the spot where the bittern had been seen.

I never saw it, of course, and to this day the American bittern remains my number one "dream bird". But ever since that cold November morning two years ago, I have been hooked.

Larry Lade · Nov 18, 2004

I believe, these are really interesting little insights into what gets people hooked.

Dan, I thought your revelation that the American Bittern really got you going, was quite interesting. And you are still waiting for "that first look"! When I was in grade school we had an art assignment to draw a picture of a bird. I drew a picture of an Osprey. Quite a handsome likeness, I thought. With those bent back wings, fierce eyes and commanding demeanor. However, living in the middle of Kansas at the time, I did not think that I would ever actually see a live bird, in the wild. Well, I do see them every year here in Missouri and I am thrilled every time I see one (or two or three).

Dick, when you were in Nebraska, did you ever get out west to Kearney/Grand Island to see the migrating Sandhill Cranes? Now there is a spectacle!

Ring-necked Pheasants, Western Kingbirds, Black Oystercatchers and Waxwings! Great birds all! I am still waiting to see my first Bohemian Waxwing.

Larry Lade · Nov 18, 2004

Oh, and Jason, I was able to see some of the lapwings when I was over in London in February. It does not seem like that long ago, but it has been almost a year now! I thought that they would be smaller than what they actually were!

RCarter · Nov 18, 2004

Larry Lade said:
Dick, when you were in Nebraska, did you ever get out west to Kearney/Grand Island to see the migrating Sandhill Cranes? Now there is a spectacle!

Larry,

Yes, indeed! Truly an incredible sight!! I always hoped to spot a Whooper among them, but no such luck, sigh. The sight of them on wintering grounds at Bosque del Apache in NM was also pretty spectacular. That's such a great place in winter, so many birds of so many species, lots of Snowy Egrets that I particularly remember.

Dick

Katy Penland · Nov 18, 2004

Such great stories! Wish I had one! While I always liked birds and was raised with a Yellow-naped Amazon we inherited from my great-grandmother when she died, I didn't really get "into birding" until my ex-boyfriend introduced me to it about 10 years ago. Oh, what *bird* did the hooking? I don't remember the very first species he and I ever saw together, but the most vivid recollection is of a Black-throated Gray Warbler reported in a canyon above Malibu, CA, and when we went to find it, it was feeding on the ground, making ever smaller circles as it worked its way around a campsite. Within a few minutes, it was literally at the toe of my shoe! I guess we were so still our legs just looked like four more tree trunks to this little thing. But I was absolutely shocked that a wild bird, and such a beautiful and unusual one, would allow us such close looks. That did it. I was officially hooked on birding.

very boring banned member · Nov 18, 2004

A related thread

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=19139

I've been interested in other lifeforms since I learned to crawl.

Malcolm Fisher · Nov 18, 2004

Larry Lade said:
Which bird was it that got you started birding?

That'd be her indoors, she's always been into it, and it rubbed off!

But the one (feathered) bird that got me seriously thinking to study birds and find out more was the Cuckoo. I listened to a documentry in about 1998 on radio4 when tootling about in my lorry, I was so fascinated it got me thinking!

Rhion · Nov 18, 2004

For me it was a Northern Wheatear. I knew what the usual suspects (Robins, Blackbirds etc) were, but what were the birds which showed a white patch when they flew away? So I got myself a field guide to find out, and worked out that they were Wheatears. Then I got to leafing through the book and decided to see if I could find some of the other species ... and just how much money I've spent over the years as a result is something I'd probably better not try to work out.

Joern Lehmhus · Nov 18, 2004

For me it was the Kingfisher that crapped into my soup when I was a child...

Hanno · Nov 18, 2004

Had a six-months break after my "A-Levels", spend at my moms place in Kenya. Purple-banded Sunbird was what made me buy my first guide. 500 guides later, I am still at it.

Benjismum · Nov 18, 2004

blythkeith said:
Lucky me for having a teacher like Mr Bewick.

It was Mr O'Hare and Mr Fellowes for me. They started the school birdwatching club which I initially joined to get out of some lessons,(they probably started it for the same reason) but I ended up getting hooked. I can remember being particularly impressed with slides of beautiful Barn Owls.

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