Bit cold right now

We’re off to a very good start from a birding perspective. We are currently sitting at 70 species to date – which is great, considering we usually average about 53 by the end of February. Meanwhile, The Middle Daughter (TMD) is in Hawaii racking up an impressive 19 or 20 life species at the halfway point of her trip. I have a couple of trips planned myself, so those should add some bulk to my year list soon.

I should probably explain how our birding lists work. TMD and I share one common list, but we both also keep personal lists. Here’s how we manage the overlap:

• The Shared List: If TMD or I see a Golden Eagle while we’re out alone, it still makes it onto the shared list. Since we both spend so much time ‘afield,’ we just know we’ll both eventually cross paths with one at some point in the year anyway. In addition, if it something we have seen many time before, but the other of us might not see it this year, we will put it on the shared list. Is this a ‘stretch’? Perhaps, but our goal is share our love of nature, and to document what we see in the field every year. I’m not going to sweat it if TMD sees a Lapland Longspur, it makes it on the list, and I don’t see it this year. I’ve seen them several times in the past; I’m just not going to sweat it. It still counts for our shared list.
• The “Outliers”: The rest of the family must have been vaccinated against our malady – they don’t participate in birding at our level of addiction, compulsion, er- enthusiasm. So, their sightings don’t get recorded. But I digress.
• The Personal List: If TMD is in Hawaii and spots an Apapane (a native honeycreeper), it goes on her list only. Am I envious of the fact that she saw an Apapane? Abso-flippin-lutely*, I am! I’m also crazy happy for her and proud of her!

All of that brings me to the post title: “Bit cold right now”. February is back to its old tricks. It has gone cold – we are sitting at -3 right now, and that’s likely not even the bottom. Consequently, I’m not seeing many birds at the moment, partly because my time afield is significantly reduced. As you know, Helena has a “strong relationship” with the wind, and the wind chill is getting brutal. While I can add layer after layer of wool for my own comfort, it’s just too painful for the Labrador to spend much time outside in these conditions.

For what it’s worth, it’s about 70 degrees in Hawaii right now… but who cares, really? (Okay, maybe I do.) On the bright side, we could be back in the mid-30s in a few days. But I digress (again).

As February slips away and March begins, we’ll start to see more movement and catch the early waves of the spring migration. I’m hoping we can add a couple more to the shared list before February is out; it would be lovely to hit 75. Unless we can find a few “slight oddities,” we are really just borrowing against March. So, we’ll take comfort that the birds will come.

In the meantime, we watched Listers on YouTube a few days before TMD left for Hawaii. It’s hilarious and does such a great job of amplifying the caricature of a hardcore birder. It has a decent bit of swearing and drug references – so definitely Rated M for mature audiences – but it is so funny! Even the Dear-Sweet-Long-Suffering-Wife (DSLSW) enjoyed it.

I’ll leave you with this image of a few Nene (Hawaiian Geese) that TMD shot.

*This is called a tmesis, Greek for a cutting. Tmesis describes the rhetorical device of instering a word within a word. In addition to birds (coffee, ceramics, beer, wildflowers, butterflies, wool, and a few other oddities) I enjoy etymology and random knowledge, you could say, I’m a bit of a ‘triviaphile’, and I wouldn’t complain.

But, I digress.