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May 2015

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Mon, 18 May 2015 07:38:14 -0400
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This is not a sighting, so if you don’t want to read a little narrative about learning to identify birds, then you can delete this message and move on with your busy life!  ;)

I formally began birding in February of 2013.  Since that time, I have seen (or heard) a remarkable 280 species of birds in the state of Ohio.  Much of that list happened while standing next to excellent birders and friends who have taken the time to point out a bird to me.  Nothing illustrates the difference it makes to be standing next to an experienced birder more than sorting through shorebirds, at least that is the case in my mind.  Gull IDs also feel similar in difficulty due to their wide range of plumage developments across multiple years, let alone breeding and basic plumage differences.

I have high expectations for myself, at least in certain realms of my life.  Birding is one area that I have thrown myself into with a sincere effort to develop skills that will help me to find and correctly identify the birds I see in the field when I am alone and do not have someone there to validate or challenge my ID.  The truth is that my expectations are too high for where I am in my development.

It’s good to set a high bar for yourself.  It keeps you growing as long as you are able to stop and smell the roses from time to time, or perhaps a more appropriate metaphor for this endeavor would be to stop and admire the Northern Cardinal.  But having high expectations can also set you up for establishing self-standards that are unrealistic and can begin to erode the enthusiasm that is experienced when everything is new.  Whenever I find that I am feeling frustrated or even angry while birding I know that I am trying too hard and need to slow down.

I experienced a few of those moments over the past weekend.  I’ll spare everyone the details of how those frustrations played out on Friday in NW Ohio in the interest of keeping this a bit more brief, but suffice it to say that if you are going to Oak Openings for the first time, consider going with a group or an individual who knows the park….it is OVERWHELMING!  

Yesterday I was birding around Wayne County as I tried to jump past the lines of rain that were slowly moving east in NE Ohio.  One of my stops was at Shreve Lake, which is drawn down and holding great habitat for shorebirds.  I was looking through some peeps and Semi-palmated Plover when I saw a Dowitcher.  As I studied the bird through my scope I was initially sure it must be a Short-billed Dowitcher due to time of year and a sighting the previous day.  However, the longer I looked at the bird the more my mind wanted to turn it into a Long-billed Dowitcher.  I was convincing myself that the rufous color was rich enough and was far up under the rump of the bird.  I was sure that the scapulars were darker and that I was seeing barring along the flanks, rather than spotting.  I was sure...

I was sure wrong.

One of the running jokes with my birding buddies Kent Miller and Ben Morrison is that I am effectively in my “sophomore” year as a learning birder.  I also often act a bit sophomoric, too, but I am not sure my puns even rise to that level.  The fact is that had I not met these two guys, who I am now honored to call friends, I would still be a long way from even being a sophomore in my educational trajectory.  I am not even certain that I qualify for being a sophomore, but that is that high bar emerging again.

Separating out Dowitchers is Graduate School level birding.  I need to remember that.  Sparrows are hard.  Gulls are hard. Birding is hard.  Shorebirds are REALLY hard.  

If you are new to this like I am, then remember to take a daily dose of humility when birding.  I bird with folks who have been doing this for all of their lives.  I have some inkling for how they must feel when they see/hear me making a mistake when I see/hear someone who is totally new to this in a group with me.  We live in an information age and that has created a big surge in sightings that are shared, chased, and listed by birders (like myself) who are otherwise unlikely to find or successfully ID these birds on their own.  Part of me loves that so many opportunities exist for us as new birders, but part of me also wishes for a slower pace of learning in which studying each bird and learning the important structural features is the way that it is done.  I do not do nostalgia and I cannot turn back the clock so that I learn these things as a much younger man (I am about to turn 48), so being mindful and humble will have to do.

Happy birding to one and all...


Jon Cefus
Cuyahoga Falls  
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