A wonderful read, Nate! I love how the birds just persistently worked on you until you accepted your fate as a birder. Also, that Elf Owl encounter sounds like something from a dream! Thank goodness you and your brother both kept notes in your field guides 😂
Hahaha I know! The more I look at that note in my field guide, the more I realize I added the location later. Handwriting is indicative of juv Nate, not adult. Gotta look at all the field marks.
The Elf Owl was so incredible. I can still see it so clearly.
Great post Nate! I think my spark bird has to be the female Red Winged Blackbird. Up until that time I enjoyed taking pictures of birds (mostly sparrows & robins) but wasn’t going out of my way to look for them. One day I snapped a pic of what I thought was a sparrow (I have bad eyesight so the world is generally in soft focus for me 😂), only to upload my pics at home and realize that was no sparrow. It led me to wonder what other birds were out there that I was missing out on.
That's perfect. Female Red-winged Blackbirds. Fooling birders since the dawn of birding. And there are so many female birds still fooling me. Female orioles and tanagers especially. Female Indigo Buntings tie me in knots Every. Single. Year. It never ends. But it's also kinda cool. Birds never get boring.
Thanks for reading, Julia! Also thanks for the reminder that I need to get my eyes checked. I lost my glasses two years ago and never replaced them 🤓
Fun post! I read The Serviceberry, too. So good! Have you read The Comfort of Crows? I can’t remember if I’ve recommended it to you. I think you’d like it. My son’s spark bird has to be the harpy eagle. We haven’t seen one irl (yet), but he loves everything about them. I’m with you on the Robin. They’re solidly cheerful, comforting. Eastern Bluebirds are very exciting to see, and I can’t hear a Meadowlark’s song on the backroads here in OK without rolling my windows down and looking forward to hearing another one.
I was a casual not driven birder until::::: a client lent me his place in Hopkins, Belize.. I learned of a unspoiled retreat about an hour away so i booked a few nights. Arrived at the entry road(a loosely used word), got out and began trekking down the path(another silly word)as the sun broke thru the trees.. I imagine entering all sacred places felt like this moment because above me in a banana tree was a white owl so majestic that i stopped breathing. Standing there in awe I was baptized a real birder as the sun blinded me and my binoculars. But that moment I knew I was saved.
Well that’ll do it. Few things in nature can fill us with awe like an owl can. And under those circumstances? Forget about it. How could you not be a birder after that? The owl commanded it be so!
Love this, Nate. We too readily think of a one and done spark bird, but really there’s a cascade of species that keep us in love with birding.
Osprey got me started, then Northern Shoveler, Prairie Warbler, Brown Creeper. Swamp Sparrow. More recently: Red-cockaded Woodpecker, Nuttall’s, Acorn. Blackburnian and Harlequin weren’t “spark” but were birding goals I was obsessed with. Thanks for this.
Sounds like my first Brown Creeper encounter too! I knew the species of tree, but not the species of bird. Birds loved that basswood tree.
For the Red-cockaded I was in Louisiana for a wedding, made sure to get to Big Branch Marsh. Some of the best birding of my life, and I got to go with a family member with a budding interest in avians. Tons of great podcasts and articles about that species.
New York, Costa Rica, Monhegan (cough, go, cough, Maine, cough, stop at Wells Reserve and Rachel Carson), North Carolina—pounding the birding pavement! Where else? Where you going in North Carolina?
I really want a basswood. Not sure our yard can handle much more planting. It's so dark already for all the giant oaks.
Hahaha yeah, that's all we have planned for now. We'll certainly hit NY next year. That's annual. Alex gets to pick the next big trip. Who knows?
NC trip will be Outer Banks. Corolla. We used to go every year as a kid. Started up again a few years ago, but then we moved, my brother moved and had a bunch of kids. Hopefully next year's trip gets us back into that annually. Big lifer goal there is Chuck-wills-widow.
An Arkansas snow and ice storm had locked us inside for a day or two. With time to spare, I sat by the window and for the first time I could remember, really looked at the birds coming to our small feeder. White throated sparrow. Its song and color surprised me, and I learned for the first time that not all sparrows were one and the same. Oh Canada Canada Canada.
That's a great one. White-throated Sparrows really caught me off guard when they came to our yard in Indiana. I knew about Song Sparrows but not much else.
I had the same revelation about gulls. They're not all one species called Seagull??? Well blows me down!
Spark birds for me are very similar as well: Black-capped Chickadee, Northern Cardinal, White-breasted Nuthatch, Downy Woodpecker, and my personal favourite the American Crow. All of these are my regulars in my weekend hikes and it's almost like meeting up with friends.
Lately, I've been really focused on Herons and learning to appreciate them in a new light. Jaw-dropping lifer was the Great Grey Owl I saw this past Winter.
Yeah! Wild how there are no woodpeckers on my list. I do remember being awestruck by my first Pileated. Funny thing about White-breasted Nuthatches... I wonder if I thought they were chickadees growing up. I know they must have been around, but I don't remember them at all.
Great Gray Owl... one of my real dream birds. Maybe next winter I can experience that too. So glad you got to see one!!
A wonderful read, Nate! I love how the birds just persistently worked on you until you accepted your fate as a birder. Also, that Elf Owl encounter sounds like something from a dream! Thank goodness you and your brother both kept notes in your field guides 😂
Hahaha I know! The more I look at that note in my field guide, the more I realize I added the location later. Handwriting is indicative of juv Nate, not adult. Gotta look at all the field marks.
The Elf Owl was so incredible. I can still see it so clearly.
Thanks for reading!!! :)
Great post Nate! I think my spark bird has to be the female Red Winged Blackbird. Up until that time I enjoyed taking pictures of birds (mostly sparrows & robins) but wasn’t going out of my way to look for them. One day I snapped a pic of what I thought was a sparrow (I have bad eyesight so the world is generally in soft focus for me 😂), only to upload my pics at home and realize that was no sparrow. It led me to wonder what other birds were out there that I was missing out on.
That's perfect. Female Red-winged Blackbirds. Fooling birders since the dawn of birding. And there are so many female birds still fooling me. Female orioles and tanagers especially. Female Indigo Buntings tie me in knots Every. Single. Year. It never ends. But it's also kinda cool. Birds never get boring.
Thanks for reading, Julia! Also thanks for the reminder that I need to get my eyes checked. I lost my glasses two years ago and never replaced them 🤓
My spark birds? That’s a good question. I think it started with the ibis and kestrel. But there are so many, I can’t choose!
I KNOW RIGHT? There's a billion birds. They're all amazing. Just sparking my brains out.
Fun post! I read The Serviceberry, too. So good! Have you read The Comfort of Crows? I can’t remember if I’ve recommended it to you. I think you’d like it. My son’s spark bird has to be the harpy eagle. We haven’t seen one irl (yet), but he loves everything about them. I’m with you on the Robin. They’re solidly cheerful, comforting. Eastern Bluebirds are very exciting to see, and I can’t hear a Meadowlark’s song on the backroads here in OK without rolling my windows down and looking forward to hearing another one.
Haven't read that one but I certainly will. Title sounds familiar :)
Harpy Eagle. That's a good strategy. Make your spark bird something from the tropics so you have to travel. Smart.
I LOVE hearing meadowlarks. I have to drive a bit to see them here. Their habitat is slowly disappearing from the county. Really sucks.
Thank you for reading, Haley!!! <3
Love the idea of spark birds! I'm glad you had so many versions of the spark and that it took!
Hopefully it took. Who knows? Maybe I'll wake up tomorrow and be totally over birds.
Yeah. Even if you get an Eternal Sunshine procedure, it's not happening!
https://youtu.be/03H4ylrWiqk
wow what a wonderful journey in this piece. thank you
It was fun to piece this together. It was hard to leave stuff out. This could have been thrice the length lol
never too long for me.. keep on Nate
You're the best, Nettie. I will!
I was a casual not driven birder until::::: a client lent me his place in Hopkins, Belize.. I learned of a unspoiled retreat about an hour away so i booked a few nights. Arrived at the entry road(a loosely used word), got out and began trekking down the path(another silly word)as the sun broke thru the trees.. I imagine entering all sacred places felt like this moment because above me in a banana tree was a white owl so majestic that i stopped breathing. Standing there in awe I was baptized a real birder as the sun blinded me and my binoculars. But that moment I knew I was saved.
Well that’ll do it. Few things in nature can fill us with awe like an owl can. And under those circumstances? Forget about it. How could you not be a birder after that? The owl commanded it be so!
and i have been a member of the church of the owl since. lol
Love this, Nate. We too readily think of a one and done spark bird, but really there’s a cascade of species that keep us in love with birding.
Osprey got me started, then Northern Shoveler, Prairie Warbler, Brown Creeper. Swamp Sparrow. More recently: Red-cockaded Woodpecker, Nuttall’s, Acorn. Blackburnian and Harlequin weren’t “spark” but were birding goals I was obsessed with. Thanks for this.
Sparks and resparks. Eleven thousand birds to see! Most of us have just scratched the surface.
How could I forget Brown Creeper! Another Indiana yard bird I had no idea existed until I saw one winding its way up the tree.
We're going to North Carolina next summer. That's the year I get a Red-cockaded Woodpecker. Where did you get your first one?
Sounds like my first Brown Creeper encounter too! I knew the species of tree, but not the species of bird. Birds loved that basswood tree.
For the Red-cockaded I was in Louisiana for a wedding, made sure to get to Big Branch Marsh. Some of the best birding of my life, and I got to go with a family member with a budding interest in avians. Tons of great podcasts and articles about that species.
New York, Costa Rica, Monhegan (cough, go, cough, Maine, cough, stop at Wells Reserve and Rachel Carson), North Carolina—pounding the birding pavement! Where else? Where you going in North Carolina?
I really want a basswood. Not sure our yard can handle much more planting. It's so dark already for all the giant oaks.
Hahaha yeah, that's all we have planned for now. We'll certainly hit NY next year. That's annual. Alex gets to pick the next big trip. Who knows?
NC trip will be Outer Banks. Corolla. We used to go every year as a kid. Started up again a few years ago, but then we moved, my brother moved and had a bunch of kids. Hopefully next year's trip gets us back into that annually. Big lifer goal there is Chuck-wills-widow.
An Arkansas snow and ice storm had locked us inside for a day or two. With time to spare, I sat by the window and for the first time I could remember, really looked at the birds coming to our small feeder. White throated sparrow. Its song and color surprised me, and I learned for the first time that not all sparrows were one and the same. Oh Canada Canada Canada.
That's a great one. White-throated Sparrows really caught me off guard when they came to our yard in Indiana. I knew about Song Sparrows but not much else.
I had the same revelation about gulls. They're not all one species called Seagull??? Well blows me down!
Spark birds for me are very similar as well: Black-capped Chickadee, Northern Cardinal, White-breasted Nuthatch, Downy Woodpecker, and my personal favourite the American Crow. All of these are my regulars in my weekend hikes and it's almost like meeting up with friends.
Lately, I've been really focused on Herons and learning to appreciate them in a new light. Jaw-dropping lifer was the Great Grey Owl I saw this past Winter.
Yeah! Wild how there are no woodpeckers on my list. I do remember being awestruck by my first Pileated. Funny thing about White-breasted Nuthatches... I wonder if I thought they were chickadees growing up. I know they must have been around, but I don't remember them at all.
Great Gray Owl... one of my real dream birds. Maybe next winter I can experience that too. So glad you got to see one!!
Northern Cardinal, Black Capped Chickadee, Baltimore Oriole, Common Loon
Thanks for a wonderful post.
Oh yeah! Such great memories of learning about Common Loons when I camped in Canada with my grandparents. That song!!
Thanks so much for reading!!
Well, that was just wonderful, and I didn't even have to leave my chair!
Well thank you! Glad you got to read in comfort hahaha!!