AV environmental consultant lends hand in identifying species
BY CYNTHIA MCINTYRE
MARINE CORPS LOGISTICS BASE, BARSTOW
Explaining why you watch birds is like explaining why you like football. Or hunting. Or cake decorating. Some people will never get it. Never. Others will be mildly interested. And the chosen few will become converts.
Actually, birding is a lot like hunting, except that you let your quarry live to sing another day. For both sports, it's the "thrill of the hunt" that gives the adrenalin rush. I was explaining this to two novice birders at the Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow Tees and Trees Golf Course on Jan. 10.
Natural and cultural resources specialist Stephanie White organized this outing in hopes of getting military families interested in birds as a hobby. Julie Wilbanks, director of Marine Corps Family Team Building and Family Readiness Officer of MCLB Barstow, showed up with her husband Fred and a new pair of binoculars. I pounced with evangelical zeal.
"Some birders keep a life list," I said. "It's all the bird species we've seen throughout our entire lives. As for me, I don't feel a sighting really counts until I get a decent photograph of it. Then I want to hang out with the bird, getting to know its habits, to 'experience' it rather than just see it." (My life list is 441 species and counting.)
Devotees of any hobby are understandably passionate about the thing that lifts their spirits. And so it is with birders. "Vermilion flycatcher!" said White excitedly. Binoculars were immediately trained in the general area. "In the second pine tree, by the fence."
Finally a cherry red dot dropped to the ground, ingested a bug, and returned to his perch. We knew it was a male because females lack the vivid coloration. We moved in, but the bird kept his distance. However, with binoculars, we saw his black mask and wings, giving a dapper contrast to this very lovely little gem. Sweet, sweet, sweet.
We were joined by a member of the San Bernardino Valley Audubon Society, Bill Deppe, who wants to help White establish an official Christmas Bird Count circle in and near the base next year. Deppe, an environmental consultant from Apple Valley and organizer of a recent Christmas Bird Count in Victorville, is very familiar with the bird species typically found here in winter and where to find them. He brought a scope to help identify birds that were too far away for binoculars identification.
After exploring the base wastewater treatment ponds (where we found northern shoveler ducks and a pair of mating coyotes) we headed down old U.S. Route 66 to Newberry Springs, then to Barstow Community College and the agricultural fields off Lenwood Road.
Deppe was most excited about the rarities - a handful of orange-and-black varied thrushes. We were in awe of the hundreds of neon mountain bluebirds in the fallow farm fields, and admired the prairie falcon that posed for us on a utility pole. But my favorite, my target bird, was the ferruginous hawk. When I enlarged my photographs, I found it had a metal leg band, meaning it was likely banded as a chick. If I could have read the numbers, I could find out where and when.
Whether or not we were successful in wooing new converts to the (ahem!) flock, it was a very good day for us. A very good birding day in Barstow.