I started birding because of my crazy Zoology teacher. It was in 10th grade that I made the fateful decision to take this course, a sort of next step to my Biology class I'd taken the year before. I wanted to be a Vet and the more science I took the better. In Biology, we'd had a lot of fun dissecting things, goofing off with the animals kept in the lab (reptiles) and scaring people with these same reptiles...you know fun stuff. I expected more of the same in Zoology.
I ended up with the less stuffy teacher. He was a lot of fun, a little crazy, there wasn't much structure in the class except somehow during all the dissecting we learned things like phylum and species and how to put paper hats on Ascaris worms and diaper ,cats. Science was fun because our teacher, despite his best efforts to make it boring, couldn't. He loved it too and allowed us to explore, ask questions, discover. The other class was much more structured and was taught by a very strict guy. Not that they didn't learn but we got the impression that there was no high jinx or cat diapering going on in his class.
In the spring, we all looked forward to two very special field trips, both were supposed to expose us to the scientific observation of the avian species. Extra credit points were up for grabs aside from the very real opportunity to get credit for playing outside for 2 Saturdays. That was what I expected...instead I found it exciting when I found a Scarlet Tanager in a tree down by Sugar Creek singing in a tree. It was like a giant scavenger hunt with the one finding the most birds the winner. Most people just walked the trails, some guys took risks and ended up sliding down muddy cliffs and are 40 years later still be ribbed about it, others were stuck with the serious teacher and had to look for birds all day. My group found ourselves doing a little of wandering and exploring and looking for birds. That was the foundation which my love for birding was built upon. Wandering around, observing, exploring nature in its glory.
So, today, I have a life list which I relish adding to. I lust for high powered, expensive binoculars and have my eye on the new Crosley birding book and a book on feathers. I keep my naturalist's bag ready in my car at all times loaded with my Sibley's guide, wildflower book and bug jars. In fact, I think this class actually was the beginning of my life as an official nature watcher. I had always been curious but never knew that I could actually write, observe and keep track of what I saw and that this lifelong obsession would then lead to deep knowledge and understanding about how life itself works. So, on this Earth Day 2012...get out, ask questions and have fun! Nature is addicting. lets love it and do what needs to be done to save it!
