http://search.csmonitor.com/search_content/0210/p11s01-sten.html
from the February 10, 2006 edition
Up early with the birds
At the annual Superbowl of bird-watching, teams compete to be top of
the pecking order.
By Teresa Méndez | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
ROCKINGHAM COUNTY, N.H. –Five birders; 5 binoculars; 4 telescopes; 1
"Sibley Field Guide"; Odiorne Point, 1 stretch of rocky New Hampshire
coastline; 30 minutes; 9 species identified.
Birders keep lists. It's in their nature.
They keep lists of the total number of species catalogued in a
lifetime. They keep North American lists. State lists. Neighborhood
lists. Day lists. They keep "man powered" lists of the birds they've
seen while on foot or bike. Some even keep lists of the species they've
spotted mating.
To the uninitiated, it can be difficult to fathom the allure of
bird-watching: It seems sleepy, a solitary hobby for retirees with too
much time on their hands. But for a few, at least on certain days,
bird-watching becomes a competitive sport - albeit one contested over
an unusually large playing field.
The official start time for the third Superbowl of Birding is 5 a.m.
It's held a week before that other, more familiar Super Bowl, on a
Saturday in New England that happens to be quite cold.
In the inky black morning, the five-person Monadnock Merlins are making
their final preparations. They are last year's winning team.
81 species; 1 Swarovski trophy engraved with the team name; five $100
birding-store gift certificates.
For the next 12 hours, they will crisscross Rockingham County in
southeastern New Hampshire, trying to spot as many bird species as
possible. Rare birds earn more points. A majority of the team must
agree on each identification - birders abide by an honor system.
The Merlins are competing against 25 other teams in the event,
sponsored by Massachusetts Audubon's Joppa Flats Education Center. Some
competitors will scour Essex County in northeastern Massachusetts, some
both Rockingham and Essex. The Merlins, who traveled both counties last
year, accepted a challenge to limit themselves to Rockingham today.
Their stops along the water, at Sandy Point and Odiorne Point State
Park, are leisurely, closer to what you'd expect of bird watching.
Through spotting scopes, the water comes alive. At Sandy Point, an
estuary, scores of Common Goldeneyes, ducks with a telltale white cheek
spot, winningly dip their heads and shake their tails.
But the rest of the time, the Merlins are dashing in and out of cars,
peering through binoculars into strangers' front and back-yards, and
traipsing through manure at a working dairy farm in search of cowbirds.
The predawn morning starts off quietly. They drive to the spots that
Terry Bronson of Fremont, N.H., now retired and the team's only
Rockingham resident, has been scouting for weeks. Wool earflaps go up
as hands are cupped behind ears, to better listen for owls.
Then the calls begin. Rich Frechette, the team's captain and a doctor
from Peterborough, N.H., toots like a Saw-Whet Owl. Dave Rowell, also
of Peterborough, calls a Barred Owl: "Whoo hoo hoo hoo, whoo hoo hoo
hoo hoo." Finally, Scott Spangenberg, a software engineer from Amherst,
N.H., tries his Great Horned Owl call.
"Is that a Screech?" asks Frances Doyle, confused. "What are you trying
to do?" She's an environmental consultant from Rowley, Mass., and Mr.
Spangenberg's girlfriend. They can't get a quorum on the owls. They
move on.
Spangenberg's car - with customized New Hampshire plates that read
"PERGRN," for peregrine falcon - has a cat's squeak toy for calling
birds and a hunter's whistle that mimics a crow.
There's high-tech equipment, too. Spangenberg checks his Treo phone
frequently for e-mail updates of bird sightings. He says that his
Pentax PF-80 scope, the best of the bunch at $1,000, falls on "the low
end of wicked excellent."
It all raises the question: Why birds? Why not stamps, say, or football?
"A lot of people, when they first get a really close look through
binoculars, [are] blown away by the detail," he says, trying to
articulate his passion. It was the structure and the colors - the
oranges, blacks, reds, and greens - of migrating warblers that really
grabbed him as a boy in Maine.
"They're very attractive," agrees Mr. Bronson. Plus, with migration, he
says, "the cast keeps changing."
Bird-watching has always been more than a hobby - it's a pastime that
lends itself to competition. (This year, for the first time, even the
Great Backyard Bird Count, which begins next week, is creating a
contest by offering prizes - see sidebar below .)
There's the intellectual challenge of observation and identification.
The acquisitive counting. In Massachusetts alone there are 460 species.
North America has 675 native species in addition to the migratory birds
that get blown off track - all there for the spotting and tallying.
46 million US bird-watchers; 18 million who travel to find birds; $32
billion spent in travel and equipment to pursue those birds.
The majority of birders are casual types. But as with any hobby, there
are the devout. Mark Obmascik's book, "The Big Year," recounts the 1998
quest of three men to win the North American Big Year - a 365-day
pursuit of as many species as possible. The former Denver Post reporter
says his story grew out of an interest in obsession. He wondered: "What
happens when you take the brakes off?"
This is what happens: You spend $100,000 to spot 745 species as the
winner, Sandy Komito, did.
Spangenberg, Ms. Doyle, and Dr. Frechette of the Merlins understand
that sort of devotion. They've driven 17 hours to North Carolina and
taken a boat 75 miles offshore to see open-ocean birds that can only be
found there - three times.
Late morning at the Superbowl, the team parks by the side of a road,
chasing down kestrels. Mr. Rowell, a slightly built computer programmer
who studied zoology, leaps out of the car. He takes off running,
bounding through shin-deep snow, his binoculars in hand.
Frechette is the team's motivator and minder. "Mr. Logistics," Rowell
calls him. He herds and manages his team like the father of five that
he is. At Odiorne Point State Park, he slows the frenetic pace,
somewhat.
"Surf Scoter, Frances," calls out Rowell, spotting the black-and-white
seaduck.
"Got it," Doyle answers back. "Red-throated Loon."
"Loon? You got a Red-throated?" asks Rowell.
"Where? I'm not on it," replies Spangenberg "Red-necked Grebe."
"Where? What have we got?" interjects Frechette. "Cormorants on the
rocks."
They continue like this, in their birder dialect, for 30 minutes. They
leave Odiorne with nine new species. But in the end, their efforts
don't equal a win - and that's okay.
2006 Superbowl of Birding: 127 people; 86 species logged by winning
team; Monadnock Merlins: 70 species, 13th place.
Undaunted, the Merlins are already looking forward to reclaiming their
title next year, at Superbowl IV.
Backyard bird-watching
For four days, beginning Feb. 17, enthusiasts the country over will
track the birds that pass by their homes. It's the ninth year of the
Great Backyard Bird Count, sponsored by the National Audubon Society
and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Paul Green, Audubon's director of
Citizen Science, says he hopes 100,000 bird watchers will "reconnect
with nature" and through this "reconnaissance survey" help create a
snapshot of species numbers and migratory patterns - which will help
conservation efforts and inspire more focused scientific study. For
more information go to audubon.org or birds.cornell.edu
--------------------------------------------
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
--------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message:
'unsubscribe birding-aus' (no quotes, no Subject line)
to
|
