My progress in birding has been slow. While I like keeping a list, and enjoy adding life birds to it over time, I am still very willing to dismiss those birds that I was unable to identify. Periodically I will scroll back through old entries and find a mistake, I correct the entry with an update, attempting to leave the mistake there for my future reference or to help anyone else who may stumble through the entries. Mostly though, I prefer to remain conservative in my identifications, and use my uncertainty in the field as a fuel to learn more and keep the incorrect assumptions to myself.
It is fun to look back now using Ebird and see the birds that I was able to identify on my first birding specific walk:
The birding highlight of that trip was the Northern Flicker. I had so little experience in the field that it was an unexpected shock to catch a bird that showed lots of red when it flew, but disappeared against a brown background when perching. Now, of course I see and hear them all the time, but it is a great memory - one that reminds me to always keep my eyes open in the common areas, and of how much I had been missing until I began to actually look.
Two years in and I am glad to have found a pair of hobbies that suit one another and can be rewarding whether I am by myself an hour before work, or with a group of friends on a hike. Birding may not be for all, but if it isn't for you I hope that something out there is....in the words of ski and snowboard movie legend Warren Miller:
"If you don't do it this year, you'll be one year older when you do."
So to anyone out there reading, take a chance and try your something - you may look back years later and wonder what took so long in the first place.
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