A gray-and-yellow one with a goth superhero eye mask (the common yellowthroat, apparently). There was a little orange-and-black guy that moved like a hyperactive toddler (the American redstart, he called it). I saw nothing but leaves.Įventually, another birder took pity on me and shared his binoculars. After they figured out what they were all looking at, they moved on. Then someone might raise their binoculars to look at something, and everyone else would raise theirs and look at the same spot. They walked and listened, and every now and then, they’d swing their heads in unison. In fact, these people didn’t even call it bird-watching. I also realized there’s not a lot of watching. The second thing I learned: Bird-watchers love offering up their knowledge to the uninformed, solicited or not. It was May, the peak of spring migration, and we were looking for the birds that were here for only a few days before continuing their journeys north. Those were common “residents,” one of the club members told me. But I quickly realized we weren’t going to be watching the birds I usually saw in the park like robins and pigeons. I hadn’t brought a pair because I saw birds all the time without them. The first thing I learned is you need binoculars. So I joined a Brooklyn Bird Club walk in Prospect Park. When I got back home, I decided I needed to see a flycatcher. Making lists? Checking things off lists? All while being outdoors? This was a hobby I could get into. The concept of being present eluded me - and here was another example of my inability to live in the moment. A chronic forward-thinker, I was always planning and setting goals so I could check them off my mental to-do list. I didn’t even know what a flycatcher was, but I knew why I hadn’t seen it. I tried to tell myself it wasn’t a big deal that I’d missed it, but I was annoyed. Apparently, everyone had spotted some sort of special flycatcher. I was lost in thought when I looked up and noticed our course leader jabbing his figure at a tree. The first time I started paying attention to birds was in 2015, during a mountaineering course in the North Cascades. I’d noticed some interesting ducks across the street. I should have been on hold with American Airlines instead, I was looking for my Leica Noctivid binoculars, which I had packed in a protective wad of dirty laundry because they cost 33 times more than a room at the Miami International Airport Clarion Inn & Suites, where I had just spent the night. Even birds that look matte black come alive in the sunlight, exploding with different colors.Īnyway, that was my thinking a few weeks ago when, at 8:47 a.m., in the middle of an unscheduled 16-hour layover, I unzipped my suitcase and laid it open on the asphalt of a parking lot in southern Florida. Each species has its own quirky behaviors, and the variety is endlessly amusing. If you want to see them, you have to be ready. And yes, I just wrote that sentence and know exactly how it sounds because it sounds that way to me too. Once you become a bird-watcher, you can never not be a bird-watcher - you see, it’s not so much a hobby as it is a lifestyle. Not much to say but he was pranked by silver and they don't seem to hate each other.Photo-Illustration: The Cut Videos: Getty Peter seemed to act very excitedly when he learned another toucan, Hal, lived on the island. Peter and Red go on many spying missions and in general, are good friends. The rest of his flock are good friends with him. Peter and Shadow seem to be good friends. Peter seems to be good friends with ella and has lots of interactions with her. Shadow, Ella, Vincent, Spring, Sunny, Bert, Matt, Lav, Owen, Meg, and Jack. Peter has his own flock featuring 11 birds. They soon decided to move to Piggy Island, they met reds flock there. Others soon joined such as spring, shadow, and Vincent. Peter was born on Tropig Island, when he was 17 he made his own flock starting with his friends Ella, Lav, and Jack.
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