Why We Do It? Birdwatching, That Is

Technically it’s no longer bird watching, it’s birding.  I don’t know that there’s a big difference, but birders are pretty sensitive types, and I, for one, don’t want to get on their wrong side of one. To answer my own question; I don’t know why I do it.  Furthermore, if you would have accused me forty or thirty or even ten years ago of becoming a bird watcher (birder) I would have guffawed and maybe taken a swing at you. BTW, in the UK, birders are called twitchers, but we all know they have a tough time with the King’s english.   I am, and I do, watch birds that is.  Worse yet, I try, mostly in vain, to take photographs of them.  They are harder to get in...

The Great Spring Break Road Trip – Part Two

S. decided without much discussion that another morning of birding was out of the question for her.  The downtown shops were a powerful morning attraction, and knowing that we had the afternoon booked for birding at the Fennessey Ranch was the clincher.  S. dropped me at the docks to join Capt. T and his boat the Skimmer about daybreak.  I was lugging all my gear, and he and his first mate were prepping the boat.  In a quiet moment before the rest of the group arrived, I chatted with him, asking how long he’d been doing this, and he quickly surmised that I really meant why are you doing this?  He presented himself as an outgoing, well educated, aggressive...