When A Twitcher Texts, You Go!
A “twitcher” in the birding world is someone so dedicated to bird watching, especially the rare birds, that they will travel great lengths to see a species. While searching for the yellow headed caracara back in March, I befriended a few birders, but one in particular stood out as a completely different breed. A kind man driven by FOMO to see all of the birds had taken a red eye from Michigan to see the yellow headed caracara. His knowledge and passion for birds was immense and I gladly soaked up any information he had to give me (including some hot spots I’m waiting to check out in Ohio next month).
Fast forward to today, mid October, when I have ignored countless alerts on my phone. A bananaquit, a nectar drinking bird who usually resides in the Caribbean was in my home town, but I had a migraine. Then, a familiar name popped up: John, a gentleman who has over 770 birds (depending on if you count ABA or eBird). “John is at Gumbo Limbo, we have to go.” I said to my husband as I grabbed my camera before he could even react. Within 40 minutes we made our way east and found John with a group of birders in the butterfly garden all staring at the firebush. He immediately gave me his spot and pointed out the bananaquit so I could snag a photo… or 348. We observed him flutter from branch to branch drinking up nectar and letting out alarm calls when an iguana got too close for comfort.
The excitement in the air was palpable as more birders came up to the group and saw the bananaquit. There’s something so joyful to me to see the physical excitement in people of all ages when they see a rare bird. After about 40 minutes of observing, the bananaquit flew off deeper into the garden and disappeared. An okay day turned into a fabulous day as I checked off number 265 on my list. Thanks John for the motivation!
