Word: birder
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Normally a birder starts in the backyard or a nearby wood, sees all the local birds, then graduates to more and more travel in search of new species. Next come vacations in the states with the most birds (California, Texas and Florida), followed by forays onto the big-time birding circuit: southeast Arizona for Mexican specialties, the Dry Tortugas for noddies and boobies, Alaska for arctic and Asian species. The final step is the long trip to see a single bird: Michigan for Kirtland's warbler, Calcasieu County in Louisiana for the black francolin, a grueling five-mile trek...
Most birding zealots are at a loss to explain this lavish expenditure of time and energy. "It's just something I have to do," says Richard Turner, a professor of fine arts at New York University, falling into the familiar language of helplessness that marks the committed birder. The backyard and occasional fanciers should consider themselves lucky, according to Pete Dunne of the New Jersey Audubon Society. "Those people are still in control of their lives," he says. "For the rest of us, birding controls us. We're addicts...
...late, it is the rare bird that has seen hide or hair of Roger Tory Peterson, 73. America's foremost birder has been sequestered in his Connecticut studio updating A Field Guide to Western Birds. But with spring's arrival, Peterson ventured south to Texas to lead fellow Bird Experts Victor Emanuel, 41, Ted Parker, 29, and John Roulett, 38, in an effort to break the U.S. record for the most sightings in a 24-hour period. Says Peterson: "I had the best eyes and ears in Texas with me." There are some 550 species in the state...
...sublime craftsman, Peterson paints in laborious detail, often from photographs he has taken with his own Nikons; he is an expert birder who has counted more than 3,000 species and, say friends, can identify a rare bird from a speeding car. Still, the work for the new book was, in his words, "slavery of a sort," involving countless 15-hour days in his studio in Old Lyme, Conn. Guarding his nearby home is a 2-ft.-high statue of Antarctica's emperor penguin, Peterson's favorite bird-some birders call him "King Penguin." Says Peterson: "I like...