Word: birder
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...single pocket volume, Peterson's Eastern Field Guide to the Birds. An Idahoan or Californian had the same assurance with Peterson's Field Guide to Western Birds. But Texas is where, ornithologically, East meets West, and North America meets near-tropical Mexico. The conscientious Texas birder needed both Peterson books -or all three volumes of Richard H. Pough's Audubon Bird Guides-and by the time he had riffled all the pages, the exciting "lifer'' (i.e., a new bird) had probably flown away still unidentified...
...Bites Deep. Voluble as can be when arguing whether a bird is a Bohemian or a cedar waxwing, birders become strangely inarticulate when pressed to explain their sport. They have no simple motto like the Everest climbers' "Because it is there." They usually mumble something about liking birds since childhood, or about the thrill of hunting without its element of cruelty, or just the great outdoors. Whatever its origin, the birding bug bites deep. Wives picture themselves dolefully as "birding widows." A golfer trying to wave his ball into the cup for an eagle at the 18th hole when...
...true birder, that is the kind of challenge that compensates for the long, cold hours, the waiting, the superior smile of more lethal sportsmen. There's nothing quite like the glow of inner pride when a devoted birder spots a rarity. One who glowed this season was Ben Coffey Jr. of Memphis, who saw seven pine siskins (common enough in the North, but rare in the mid-South and beyond) on his Mississippi count around a crossroads hamlet named Kara Avis...
...serious ornithologist, and who once asked Daniels if he liked birds. "Sure, I love birds," answered Daniels diplomatically. So the girl's father took him along on a birding excursion, and Daniels has been fascinated with the sport ever since. (He also married the girl, no birder herself...
...East Coast. To pin down the discovery, Baird got out his .410-gauge shotgun. Daniels worked around to the other side of the bird, moving it closer to Baird, but was obscured from Baird by the foliage. Finally Baird said he was going to shoot. A faithful birder to the end, Daniels covered his face with gloved hands, bravely replied: "Go ahead." Daniels was peppered with fine dust shot, but the towhee got away. The next day Baird went out with a 12-gauge shotgun, brought down the bird and sent it to the U.S. Fish and Wild Life Service...