B is for Birding

This summer I decided to officially take up birding. I’ve always been a birder at heart, but now I’m finally heeding the birdcall, with a boost from a birder book my buddy Brooke bestowed for my birthday. She’s the best.

I adopted a bird when I was young. I heard it a lot near where I grew up. It’s the black-capped chickadee that sings “yoohoo!” Listen:

I loved it because it’s simple enough for me to mimic and also I like that in a world of beautiful complex birdsongs, so, too, exists this bird happily going along with two single notes. One day I’d like to write a song based on these two single notes. I decided to call this bird mine. It is always joyous to hear it, like a friend who sort of follows you around throughout your life and though hidden from view, randomly calls out to you. Feels good just to know they’re there.

I like to talk to birds and try hard to copy their songs. I’m a pretty good whistler (say that in a braggy tone) so sometimes I can get quote close. I like to imagine I’m close enough so that the birds do recognize it and maybe respond, but are confused, as if to be thinking, Something is wrong with that bird. Poor fella.

Sean and I just watched a movie I’d never heard of called The Big Year which I think is a parody on birders who take a whole year to see as many birds as they possibly can, which is apparently a thing. I wasn’t all the way convinced of the tongue-in-cheekiness because I am a genuine bird nerd and identify with this so I kind of watched it in all sincerity. But it definitely is at least a partial parody because it stars Jack Black, Owen Wilson, for crying out loud, and Steve Martin among others. In case you’re interested, to my knowledge, in order to do a Big Year, there’s a checklist provided by the ABA (American Birding Association) and you don’t have to log your bird sightings anywhere or snap a photo or have any kind of proof. It’s an honor system and you just have to identify the bird by sight or sound.

In the movie, they’re in competition to see the most birds. So they often cross paths, like a nationwide treasure hunt, but they all pretend they’re not actually doing a Big Year and are just traveling far and wide for love of the bird. One funny scene was with Steve Martin chatting at the doorstep of a woman whose backyard is the location of a sought-after hummingbird. As Steve is talking to this woman, over his shoulder you see Owen Wilson suddenly pull up, park his car, dash across the yard behind Steve’s back, leap over the fence, then seconds later, leap back, jump in his car and drive away. It’s ridiculous and cutthroat and gets funnier the more I think about it.

When I was in college, I had a class called Appreciation of Nature and we learned about everything. It was the greatest class and I think about it often. My teacher forced us to make daily statistical guesses and then he’d call on a random student to come down to the board and profess their guess. On this particular day, he asked us to guess the number of bird species in the world. I was chosen to come to the front and announce my guess. Having recently viewed Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, I happened to recall an old woman who was an expert and probably an avid birder herself announce the number of species. I shared this fascinating backstory and said I couldn’t remember exactly what the woman said but remembered an eight in there somewhere. So I guessed either 8,000 or 1,800. 8,000 was the right answer. Though, I just googled and Wiki said 10,000. I did go to college many moons ago, as the crow flies.

(Incidentally, though I love Hitchcock, I’m not a particular fan of The Birds. I believe birds to be our friends, better than us sad flightless humans. So if they’re willfully attacking you, you must have done something to deserve it. I guess I cheer for the birds in the film. Sorry, Tippi Hedren.)

I downloaded a bird app that I can use to record birdsongs and it will identify the bird for me and automatically catalogue it so I have my list. I love it. It’s magical once you start something, how it opens your eyes to it wherever you go. Now when I’m out, if I hear an interesting song, I’ll abruptly stop what I’m doing, politely tell everyone to shut their pie holes and see if I can acoustically capture it. It’s an addicting, nature-connecting game. Like Pokemon Go, but real. I was hiking recently and used it to identify a lovely single-tone birdsong/call.

I passed some people chatting and, unable to help myself said to them, “Do you hear that bird?”

The woman responded, “Yes! I was just talking about it wondering what it was!”

I told her its name and reminded myself that not all heroes wear capes. But, I concede, most do fly.

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