My last few commentaries in the newspaper have been pretty depressing. Hilarious and insightful, yes, but still depressing. I thought, this time around, I would say something about how wonderful West Virginia is, instead of griping.
West Virginia, with our mountains, trees, fields and rivers, is a great place to see birds. In fact, if you look up into the sky and don’t see any birds, I highly recommend looking in the mountains, trees, etc.
When people ask, “Why did you take up birdwatching?†my wife says, “Because he is old.†But that is not why I'm a birder. I consider myself an outdoor person and I was embarrassed to realize that the only 10 birds I could positively identify were the ones I learned in grade school: robin; blue jay; cardinal; bald eagle; wild turkey; Road Runner; Woodstock; Tweety; Daffy; and Big. And flamingos. I bet I could identify a flamingo.
The first thing you learn as a birdwatcher is that at least one-third of all birds were named by 13-year-old boys. Like the ... well, if you know you know.
I’m a minimalist by nature, but, as soon as I took up birdwatching, I magically acquired two cameras and a pair of binoculars. And then I learned that birdwatching has its own special hazards. For example, if you’re a grown man standing in the parking lot of a hotel with a pair of binoculars and a 3-foot zoom-lensed camera, and a police officer asks, “Say pal, just what’s going on here?†and you say, “There’s a long-legged, red-headed, small-chested wigeon up there and I was trying to snap a picture of her,†things might turn sour. And saying, “Oh, I’m a birdwatcher,†doesn’t necessarily help.
Another drawback to birdwatching is that, even though the birds are out in public, they’re just trying to live their lives. Aim that camera, and the birds will look at you like you are a member of the passerine paparazzi.
It was just dumb luck that I started birdwatching during migration season, when lots of species were passing through. I would have been quickly bored, had I started in July. When it is not migration season, there are only five birds in my neighborhood. Not five species. Just five birds. We all know each other by our first names.
I tried birdwatching when I was younger but, back then, all we had was bird books. Books are so hard. You see a bird, then you flip through the pages to see what you are seeing. Once you’ve found the right page, the bird in question has flown off.
If you are lucky, the bird doesn’t go far, and you can still hear it singing or chirping. So, you look at the book to see what the bird sounds like. The author has helpfully transcribed the bird call into English. If it is a whip-poor-will, or a bobwhite, two of the rare onomatopoeias of the ornithological world, you might have some luck identifying them from the book’s description of their call. But if you read, “This bird’s call sounds like ‘whaw-whaw, chew-chew-whaw,’†good luck identifying or reproducing that call.
What you want to do is download the Merlin app. With the press of a button, the Merlin app listens to all the birds around you and tells you what you are hearing. It is amazing.
Since March, I have positively seen 121 different species of birds. I haven’t seen them all in West Virginia, but I’ve seen a bunch of them here.
I live in South ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä. Kanawha State Forest, Little Creek Park and my neighborhood are great places to see birds. We’ve seen a bunch of birds at Cedar Lakes, just up Interstate 77. Grandview and the rest of the New River Gorge National Park are great places for birders, as are our splendid state parks. North Bend, Blackwater Falls, Canaan Valley and Cacapon are a few of the parks at which we’ve seen a wide variety of birds.
I’m going to hazard a guess that there are birds at all of our state parks and state forests, but I don’t want to steer you wrong. You may want to call the rangers before you go and ask if they have birds in their park. Rangers love those kinds of questions.
In closing, I will say that, if you are in the parking lot of one of the resort state parks, with a 3-foot zoom lens, dancing around yelling, “whaw-whaw, chew-chew-whaw,†the officer who shows up to arrest you might say, “Great. We’ve got another birdwatcher.†If that happens, please don’t mention me.
