Month: August 2005

Following up on my newly-found interest in birds, last week I ended up at the Seattle Audubon’s society home page and from there at Birdnote, the home page of short podcasts on various bird species.

One of the first podcasts I listened to was Hazel Brown and the brown creeper, the story of a Seattle activist who was converted to a bird lover after observing the small, brown creeper on her first outing.

For me, the most remarkable part of the story was simply that there was a bird called the brown creeper that I could not remember ever seeing despite many years walking the Northwest woods. Even more remarkably, I spotted one of them on my very next walk, a walk I’ve taken nearly five times a week for the last two years.

I wasn’t more than two hundred yards into my Nisqually walk when I ran into another brown creeper climbing a large, moss-covered tree:

After these kinds of experiences, it’s hard not to begin to wonder exactly how much in life I’ve been missing. I’ve begun to notice just how many small birds there are that I have taken very little notice of before, and, even more remarkable, apparently they all have names, not that it’s always easy to match a name to a particular photo.

For instance, here’s a Warbling Vireo who seemed to spend most of his time flying a foot or two off the ground:

Here’s what I think is a Hammond’s Flycatcher:

Though he doesn’t look very different from what I’m guessing is a Western Wood-Pewee:

Just knowing names doesn’t seem too important. For instance, learning today that what I’ve been calling an Oregon Junko for several years is really a Black-Capped Chickadee didn’t change my love of these small birds. Being aware of the large number of tiny birds inhabiting the woods, listening for their songs and watching for their quick flitting as I walk the trail is important, though. This increased awareness transforms walking into an even richer experience.

It’s tempting to go birding looking for specific “trophy” birds, large birds that I have never seen before. I’ll have to admit that I’m not beyond getting quite excited about seeing a bird I’ve never seen before, particularly if it’s a raptor. In other words, I’d really like to see Nisqually’s resident Bald Eagles.

But that’s really not the reason I walk there. I’d like to think that I’d enjoy the walk if I never even saw a bird, but I’m more than happy simply enjoying birds I’ve seen before and little birds that I’m not even aware of having seen before.

That said, I’m still having trouble not spending considerable time watching the herons, particularly since they seem to have many more than normal this year, and, no matter how many times you’ve seen one, they strike me as a beautiful bird:

I’m also slightly ashamed to admit that I’m not above having my interest peaked by an oddity or two. While taking a picture of a frog in the main pond, an attendant informed me that the they have a “blue bullfrog” in residence, and she was kind enough to actually take me down to the pond to see it:

I would never have spotted it without her assistance, but I enjoyed sitting and talking to her about the frog and more mundane attractions at the refuge. I’m not sure that herons and blue frogs really go together, but we’ll just pretend we have our “blue thing” going on today.