On Thursday, December 29, 2016 6:18 AM, Terry Witt
<terrywitt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I read with interest the posting by Mark Greene re the genesis of Jeff
Wilson's interest in birding, which for him (as well as me) became somewhat of
an obsession. Hope some of you may be entertained by my own story.
In 1982, at age 39, I was attending an evening class at MTSU entitled "Edible
Plants" (I had always been a nature buff). I saw a notice on the bulletin
board in the Biology Department announcing a bird walk at Radnor Lake the
following Wednesday. Totally by coincidence, I had recently read the excellent
book "Call Collect, Ask for Birdman", by Jim Vaardaman, about the quixotic (at
the time) quest to see 700 birds in the ABA area in one year.Wednesday was my
day off from work, so with an old pair of cheap binoculars, I joined the walk.
I had always had a low level interest of in birds (I was most interested in
snakes at the time), and could easily identify many of the common ones, but
that day there was a real "fallout", which is sadly seldom seen today. I was
fascinated by all the birds which were new to me, all the song which I could
not identify; it was an amazing morning, and I was almost immediately hooked.
Birding as a sort of competitive sport (listing), pushed all my buttons.
Like many others, I started with local birdwatching, then visited all the state
hotspots, covered most of the ABA area including Attu, and then in 1988 started
a worldlist with a visit to Mexico (also my honeymoon!). This was followed by
visits to each of the continents (all but Antarctica on multiple occasions).
My lifelong love for nature and the outdoors, coupled with a travel lust,
became a fatal attraction which still consumes me to this day.
One last aside: in November 2015, after retirement, I spent a month birding in
Australia; part of that trip included a weekend in Denniliquin guided by Philip
Maher. He is the local expert on the rare and endangered Plains Wanderer,
which at present represents a monotypic family, and is thus high on every
traveling birders wantlist. It was uncanny how much he reminded me of Jeff
Wilson. He is unquestionably one of the best birders you could ever meet,
always happy to share his expertise, and I was so impressed at how excited he
became looking at species that I know he sees literally every day. Jeff and I
started birding as contemporaries, and as we both progressed, he was always
generous in sharing his time and encyclopedic knowledge with me; he will be
sadly missed.
Terry WittMurfreesboro Tn
