Not long after I got here, I put up a hummingbird feeder and a suet feeder. I immediately had hummers, chickadees and Titmice. Before long I had seen Red Headed Woodpeckers, Red Bellied Woodpeckers, Downey Woodpeckers, and a variety of other species.
The next time I went to my storage unit, I dug out my bird books from my dozens of field guides. Then I started boneing up on the ones I was seeing.
Of course,I prowled the internet looking for information on local birds.
Before long, I had daily activities that involved birds in some form or fashion.
Today, I ordered a 200 mm lens for my Nikon D60. Mainly for bird watching.
This afternoon, I was making a checklist of birds that I had seen in the park or that would likely be seen here. Then I had this realization. OMG! I have become a birder.
Oh, I have always enjoyed birds. As a biologist, I always made a point of identifying the local birds, wherever I happened to be. My interest in and knowledge of birds were about what you would expect of a naturalist/biologist. I also learned many of the local plants, common insects, the mammals and, of course, the herps. The birds were just another part of the whole picture. This is the first time that birds have been at the forefront.
Michael is a former biologist and Texas Master Naturalist. Originally from Newsome, Texas (Between Pittsburg and Winnsboro), educated in Dallas & Garland schools, then off to the University of Texas system where he received a degree in biology and worked as a biologist with the University of Texas system. After many years away from nature and biology, he relocated to the banks of Lake O' the Pines where he has been rediscovering the joys of nature. He is somewhat surprised that he has become a birder. Most of his interest in nature was centered around reptiles. Perhaps just like birds evolved from reptiles starting in the late Jurassic, he has begun his own evolution. During his formal education, his interests in biology/nature grew to include community ecology and population studies, all with a binding of evolutionary processes. He liked birds, but they were secondary at best. All at once he finds them fascinating.
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