FreeLists / birdky / [birdky] Birders Anonymous

["Scott and Glenda Record" <sgrecord@xxxxxxxx>]

I started this year by swearing off birding.  That's right; I told my wife that 
I wasn't going to bird this year but concentrate on crappie fishing, turkey 
hunting, traditional archery and maybe even training a beagle puppy.  She 
immediately started crying.  Actually, she was laughing so hard she was crying. 
 Her unbelief not withstanding, true to my word, I haven't been birding this 
year.  No scopes, binoculars, checklists, nothing.  This morning I told my wife 
I was going looking for shed antlers in the Barlow bottoms.  I was also 
scouting some isolated ridges in flooded timber that I previously had 
discovered on a topo map.  Anyway,  I  certainly wasn't birding.  I did happen 
to bring my binoculars though.  They can be really helpful in identifying 
antlers and such.  Things started out great.  After wading some sloughs, and 
only getting water over my boots twice, I was finding some great hunting spots 
but found myself submitting to strange compulsions.  At first it was only brief 
scanning with binoculars at little things flitting through the tree tops.  This 
behavior quickly gave way to full blown pishing, squeaking, and screech owl 
whistling.  There were brown creepers, nuthatches, hermit thrushes, yellow 
rumps, ruby crowns, and woodpeckers everywhere.  I think it was the fox 
sparrows that pushed my over the edge though.  That's a county bird for me and 
in the middle of a tupelo swamp to boot.  Shortly, I was in the truck and 
headed up river to BWMA.  Several thousand snow geese, a couple thousand 
mallards, some pintails, whitefronts, and several other species later I find 
myself sitting at my computer with nothing to show for my effort.  No antlers, 
turkey tracks, feathers, nothing.  HELLO, MY NAME IS SCOTT AND I AM A BIRDER.  
Now where did I put those checklists?

Scott Record
Ragland Ky