Birding Origins

A lot of people have asked me how I got into birding, and why birds are so interesting to me. Sometimes I give them a condensed version of the story, sometimes I just tell them "I dunno." Here's the full story.

Let's see, it was around Thanksgiving in 2006. Around that time, my grandparents had a winter home in Tuscon since they were serving a couple mission. This is similar to the mission that a young man goes on (such as I will) only it's with a spouse, and it's usually focused on service. My grandparents did a lot with the LDS Institute at the University of Arizona, which is also where one of my uncles works. Alright, moving along. Being that they weren't going to live in that house for long, (They had it for two, maybe three years?) they didn't have much stuff in their house. So, for a ten year old boy, it was a pretty boring place. All of the adults would just talk and hang out in the living room and watch golf of the TV, and I would just roll around on the carpet, dying of boredom. I don't remember if my mom told me to go read a book or find something to do, or if I just did it myself. The small bookcase that my Grandma had was actually in the room I was staying in, convenient enough. Most of the books were "Literary Classics". "Pfft, what's so classic about anything literary" I thought to myself. Ah, but there was something more interesting to look at: National Geographic's "Field Guide to Birds of North America: 2nd Edition." It was a pretty used book, so it immediately opened to the middle of the guide, where owls could be found, specifically the screech owls. (My 4th edition of this guide is worn down as well, and it opens to the page where the Burrowing Owl and Northern Hawk Owl can be found.) I didn't know that there were so many species of owls, and according to the maps, some of them lived around Tuscon. I showed my mom this, and she told me to go ask my Grandma about them. So I did, my grandma is freaking cool. She probably said something around "Oh are you interested in all of those owls? I saw a Great Horned Owl a couple of days ago. Why don't you go on a walk with Charlie (my grandpa) tomorrow morning?" That sounded pretty interesting, beats being cooped up in this dumb house.

The next morning, I got up off of the air mattress, threw the blanket on my brother and got dressed. Charlie was already up, waiting for me. It was kind of cold outside, but luckily I wasn't no turkey and had a sweatshirt on. We walked along this trail that was right next to a small, dried up ravine. The image of the bird I first actively saw is still clear in my head. It was a Killdeer, a species of plover that isn't typically found at a beach, but rather in fields and open spaces. My grandpa told me that it was called a Killdeer, because its call was a harsh, shrill kill-deer. "It's a pretty neat looking bird" I thought to myself. We watched it for a couple of minutes until it ran off. there's the chance that Charlie took me to a spot where he had seen some Burrowing Owls, which is probably what I wanted to see in the first place. I don't remember if we did see any owls, but that one Killdeer is engraved into my memory, and I've been a birder since.