Indeed, Al. I agree with your points and would add several more: The intellectual and perceptual challenges of birding are an satisfying. Studying field guides before, during and after a good sighting to figure out what gull or shorebird (or sparrow, warbler, vireo, flycatcher, etc) you saw by deduction and analysis of available clues can be rewarding.
And developing the skill to ID a bird from it's sounds alone or a quick glimpse - assessing shape, color and movement quality - in a given habitat - are both ways to make the common birds more of a challenge for me as well. I also enjoy the wandering; Exploring new places and getting to know familiar places better - in different times of year for example - is also a pleasure. And the feeling of connection to the rhythm of the seasons, the ebb and flow of life on this planet, is a ceaseless wonder. Jim On Mon, Jul 1, 2013 at 9:08 PM, Al Schirmacher <alschirmac...@live.com>wrote: > Why do we bird? > > (Tongue firmly in cheek) > > * Play - since we're not eight anymore we can't ride our bikes at top > speed down the road. But, in dignified fashion, we can raise binoculars > and comment on the bird, while secretly just enjoying being > O U T S I D E. > > * Collecting - rare art & books are too expensive, stamps/coins/baseball > cards are perceived as juvenile, and Beanie Babies - tag included - never > panned out financially. But birds on a list...! > > * Beauty - we claim that we need Painted Buntings & Scarlet Tanagers for > the next county list, but really we want to be ravished yet again by bright > primary colors, like back in kindergarten. > > * Spirituality - some have found peace, some meaning, some transcendence - > but migrating warblers, followed by Chinese buffet for lunch, also touches > our inner beings. Somewhere. > > * Camaraderie - there's nothing better than sharing a good birding morning > with friends - unless it's beating the pants off the reigning Big Day team > - for charity, of course. > > Submitted ironically, > > Al Schirmacher > Muscotah, KS > > Sent from my iPhone > ---- > Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net > Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html > -- Sincerely, Jim Ryan Saint Paul's Westside ---- Truth does not become more true by virtue of the fact that the entire world agrees with it, nor less so even if the whole world disagrees with it. - Maimonides (1135-1204) ---- ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
