Birding With Cows

Reality is Not What You Think:
Everyone has unusual interests. For example a certain bald guy I know takes pairs of photos and makes 3D prints out of them. He’s a genius and pretty good looking as well. He’s also modest. But honest. I am good looking.

But what does this tell us about him. Bald people are a little off? Since 3D photos evaporated in the 1950s he’s a throwback? Is that his whole life? Do we care?

Well, guess what? He has other interests. One is bird watching. A few years ago he got into birding (as the in crowd calls it) because there was a class and it seemed like a fun way to spend a couple hours on Thursday nights. But it turned out to be a lot more than a way to waste time. Learning the names of all the birds is not as hard as he thought. OK, the 3D guy is me. And I watch birds.

Birds are divided into groups and those groups are categorized into sub groups which are tracked according to some National Group of “People Who Make Bird Watching Rules” or something, I don’t really know. But almost all of the field guides are organized along those same groupings. There are groups like shore birds and woodpeckers. Once you figure out what group the bird is you can figure out its sub group and finally the name of the species.

Wrong! Not the method, just your result. That redheaded white and black bird pecking on that willow tree is not a seagull. Try again. That’s why we have field guides.

You can get three pertinent things from field guides: there’s usually a small map that shows you where each bird lives and in which season. Then there’s usually a blurb on behavior so you know the bird grabbing a salmon out of the fjord is probably not a chickadee. And then the picture and description of the bird itself. When you’re at the beach it’s a good idea to check the shore bird section when you see birds running around in the surf, for example.

The point is learning the names of birds is not as hard as I thought it would be. The hard part is finding the birds that you haven’t seen yet. This is referred to as a “life list.” That means the first time you see a certain bird in your life you put a check mark by that bird, note the date and location, and quit looking for that one. I presume if one fills up ones life list they can take up a new hobby.

Another issue with birds is they fly. I don’t normally get off the ground during the course of my day so I’m kind of stuck watching birds flat footed. A few years ago I began to wonder if I should switch to watching something whose habits were more in line with mine. I took up cow watching. It seemed easy. They hardly ever fly and they don’t even try to hide. You don’t have to stop the car. But I ran into an issue. Among the 50 to 60 registered breeds of cow

http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/cattle/ in America there are 100 times that number of hybrids. In fact Modern domestic cattle evolved from a single early ancestor, the aurochs.

Once you get that concept cow watching gets a little tedious. Sure that cow is black and white and seems to belong to a dairy farm but is it really a Holstein? Soon I didn’t care. I saw Angus with Brahman humps. I saw belted Galway with brown spots. Then I saw the mighty Santa Gertrudis

http://www.king-ranch.com/santa_gertrudis.html in Texas. There’s one big cow. Once I added that to my cow life list I realized that hobby was about over.

Birds, however, come in hundreds of species and they tend to stay fairly loyal to the breed. There aren’t a bunch of farmers experimenting with mixed breeds to get more yields. OK, we have domestic chickens, turkeys, and ducks but you don’t really see those at bird watching sites. Also, birds that do mix are mentioned in the field guides so you can guess what you’re looking at.
The other point about birds is that their feathers are important to everything they do so getting a good look at the plumage is a good way to decide what kind of bird it is. A brown cow can be almost any breed. Thus the birding life list is a lot bigger challenge which means it’s not very often one gets completed.

And don’t forget the variations in plumage within species that represent geographic separations. Lots of subtle intrigue involved.

Which brings us the reason for this meandering discussion. I went bird watching Saturday and I saw another bird to add to my life list. It was a red crossbill.

http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst/i5210id.html This bird eats conifer cones. It uses its unique bill to pry them open. Kind of like reverse pliers. It forces the pointy parts between the cone seems and then uses leverage to open its mouth which exposes the nut. Then it plucks out the nut. It was hundreds of feet away from me in a tree top so I was not able to take a 3D photo but I did get a good look with my binoculars.

Reality is enjoying the quest. It’s looking for that one special cow that’s a unique registered American breed with interesting history. Seeing the actual cow is only a part of the fun. Learning the history of the ranch and how they manage their cattle is a big part of the fun. Learning how the birds behave, eat, migrate, breed, and chase bugs is just as much fun as seeing the actual birds. Seeing them is the frosting on the cake.

Chasing special birds is not exactly my thing. Sure I like to see the special ones and get a look at how they behave. It’s just not the main goal. The main goal is keeping the engine form over-revving.

Al