big backyard

one of the things that most enamors me about our new neighborhood is the proximity to uninterrupted nature.  we are surrounded by open space and private land.  there is water, marshland, orchards and groves of cottonwood and (i learned this weekend) russian willows (a depression era project that put locals to work).

for my entire life i have not been interested in birds.  i mostly disregarded them.  except when they pooped in my general direction.  i was disdainful.  my fondest memories of birds was the call of the mourning dove (which i imagined to be an owl until only a couple of years ago).  and then i changed.

last year i read life list: a woman's quest for the world's most amazing birds by olivia gentile.  it is a biography about the life of phoebe snetsinger who was a prolific and still most respected "birder."  she was obsessed.  i find her character unpleasing in a lot of ways, as a person, wife and mother.  you would have to read the book to understand to what lengths her obsession for birds took her.  but her story of a life long pursuit of birds, sparked this little interest in me just about the time we were moving to our new/ old house. 

i had never considered types of birds or their variations.  i had not thought a lot about their habitats or preservation of such things.  then i was sitting in my new kitchen, and i started watching and naming the birds i saw in my backyard.  and i started seeing purpose in the way my family had gardened before me.  why certain volunteer trees were allowed to stay, and bushes in unlikely places remained intact.  i haven't kept an official list of the species in my yard, but i've seen wrens, finches, robins, jays, bluebirds, blackbirds and orioles.  others i can't name.

this weekend i was invited to walk with a local "birder."  and by local, i mean people come for miles to see what this man sees...to our town, where he lives.  we walked for hours through the forest.  places i explored as a child (the hundred acre woods) and places i've never seen before. 

he talked ornithology on a level i never imagined i would understand, and the horticulture and botany of the big backyard that surrounds our town.  as we walked under the budding canopy, i thought to myself how amazingly blessed i am to get the opportunity to truly enjoy and appreciate God's gift of this place.   

with total certainty i counted 18 species.  he counted 37.  i obviously need practice...hee hee. 

this is the official list:

Canada Goose 4 (on my list)

Wood Duck 10 (on my list)
Gadwall 4

Mallard 2 (on my list)
Blue-winged Teal 3 (on my list)
Great Blue Heron 2 (on my list)
Turkey Vulture 1(on my list)
Red-tailed Hawk 2(on my list)
American Kestrel 2
Eurasian Collared-Dove 4
Mourning Dove 6(on my list)
Great Horned Owl 1(on my list)
Broad-tailed Hummingbird 2
Belted Kingfisher 1
Downy Woodpecker 10(on my list)
Northern Flicker (Red-shafted) 3
Say's Phoebe 1
Blue Jay 4
Western Scrub-Jay 1
Common Raven 2(on my list)
Tree Swallow 1
Black-capped Chickadee 10(on my list)
White-breasted Nuthatch (Interior West) 4(on my list)
House Wren 8
Western Bluebird 1
Mountain Bluebird 3(on my list)
American Robin 18(on my list)
European Starling 8
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon's) 1(on my list)
Spotted Towhee 6 (on my list)
Chipping Sparrow 10
Song Sparrow 2
Red-winged Blackbird 15(on my list)
Western Meadowlark 1
Common Grackle 10
House Finch 6
Pine Siskin 2 
 
phoebe snetsinger i am not.  but it will be hard to drag me out of those woods i am certain.