By request.
1/4000, f/5.6, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
Two days ago in the mountains I had this Green-tailed Towhee in my viewfinder for quite a while and never did get any unobstructed shots of him. It was extra frustrating because he was singing for almost the entire time and I love singing poses.
1/4000, f/5.6, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
No matter where he moved to on the bush or where I moved my pickup to get a different shooting angle, my view of the little songster was still significantly blocked.
Many followers of Feathered Photography who don’t live in the west are likely unfamiliar with this species so here’s an older photo of one of these handsome sparrows where our view of him is almost entirely unobstructed.
In 1969 when I was a college student, Green-tailed Towhees became my “spark bird”, when I chose them as my field study species while taking an Ornithology class at the University of Utah. Spark birds are variously defined as “the bird that helped spark your interest in birding” or “the species that mutates one’s benign regard for nature into a seething, immoderate interest in avifauna”. I spent many days in the field with binoculars and notebook trying to document their behaviors during breeding season and even though I didn’t realize it at the time, that experience hooked me on birds and birding (at least my version of “birding”).
Virtually every time I see Green-tailed Towhees those pleasant memories come flooding back, so two days ago while I was driving home after photographing the towhee in the first two photos above I spent some time reflecting on how much I owe to the species. My life would be infinitely poorer if Green-tailed Towhees hadn’t somehow sparked my love of birds.
So imagine my surprise when later that same day, blog follower William Irwin made the following comment on my blog:
“I enjoyed Stephen C.’s message and I would be interested in hearing what bird species it was that your other followers first ‘fell in love with’. For me it was Barn Swallows and I was likely 4 years old. Maybe you can find a way to coax an answer of such out of your friends as part of a post. Thanks.”
William was essentially asking for readers to provide feedback about their personal “spark bird” experience and the more I thought about it the more I thought it might be a good idea. So in the comments below I invite readers to tell us what your spark bird was (assuming you had one) and to include a brief description of how and when it happened and how it may have influenced your life.
If you’re so inclined it should provide some interesting reading for us bird nuts.
Ron
I would say that my spark bird was a pileated woodpecker. I was living in town, and it suddenly appeared one winter day at my suet feeder. Its red color was striking against the snow. I never expected to see one in person. Now I live out in the country, and we see them more frequently, but that first sighting was very special. I, too, would love to see a snowy owl in the wild.
Sometime around 10 or so years ago, I happened upon black vulture chicks that were being raised in a dark corner room of our old, mostly unused barn. I checked in on the chicks a couple times that spring/summer as they grew to fledging. As best we can tell, the same family (probably another generation by now) of black vultures has been nesting in the room in the barn ever since (and probably before too). I’ve gotten more interested over time as we keep seeing “our” vultures and new chicks every year. Last couple of years I’ve gotten trail cam pictures of them practicing skills needed to fly (such as running, flapping, and jumping) which is quite amusing to see. Some might think they are ugly (perhaps they are not elegantly beautiful like some birds). But black vultures are beautiful in their own way and certainly have a significant place in the waste disposal arena of nature. Definitely a spark for me!
What a wonderful conversation topic! I dislike small talk and forced social pleasantries but these kinds of questions are my cup of tea!
I believe I’ve shared before about wanting to learn more about Trumpeter Swans, thanks to E.B White’s The Trumpet of the Swan which is how I stumbled upon Feathered Photography.
But my affinity for birds started back in elementary school. We had a science lab taught by (in my kid mind) the smartest science teacher in the world! She knew everything there was to know about the natural world. She could name any animal we showed her a picture of. Any question we had, she had an answer and best of all, she would direct us to books, encyclopedias, and magazines so we could discover the answers for ourselves.
We had a class cockatiel and I would spend all recess observing and playing with him. He sang, he ate bird seed like it was the best meal ever, and loved perching on your finger. If you put him on your shoulder, he would nuzzle your neck affectionately.
Then one year barn swallows built a nest in the corner of our porch at home and I couldn’t wait to tell to my science teacher what I observed as they raised their family and flew about eating mosquitoes and other pests. She always made me feel smart and never talked condescendingly to her students as come other adults would.
So I guess in short, cockatiels and barn swallows, (and my teacher who instilled a penchant for observing birds in me). 🙂
A simple robin. A baby fell out of its nest when I was a kid and my dad rescued it, fed it ground up worms and a couple weeks later tossed it repeatedly into the air until it flew. We named the robin ‘Cheepy,’ and Cheepy visited for several weeks. He liked to perch on my pigtails and peck at the round red plastic balls on them. One day he pooped on my head 😉 My dad, who did a bit of photography, memorialized that moment with a photograph.
And…unrelated to birds but instead to backs. I herniated a disk five years ago while recovering from a partial knee replacement and have had issues off and on, more on lately and a comparison MRI is scheduled. So, I’ve been reading your story carefully!
Thank you for all of your wonderful contributions so far, everyone. I just got home from a bird photography trip and just now finished reading all of your responses. I don’t mind admitting that some of them really got to me, in an emotional way.
Ditto Ron. We relate in this special way because we have answered that call to connect.
“A great silent space holds all of nature in its embrace. It also holds you.”
Eckhart Tolle
My first “spark” bird was a male Black Headed Grosbeak. After that sighting my eyes were open to many different and beautiful birds. My world became bigger.
Probably ‘our’ magpie. Their delightful warble sings of home to me.
Blackcapped Chickadee, but a part of my story is so negative, all my doing that while I’ve shared with a couple, I cannot share it here.
It will live with me until I die, sadness, guilt, regret. Maybe that it partly why I toll at the work I do … Pentane.
Ron,
Honored to be mentioned in your post. I’m glad that I shared to “spark” todays flood of memories. That patio experience of nursing my little sparrow to adulthood was shared with my Father. He was the one that took me to the encyclopedia to learn (about my sparrow and so many other things). He was the one that had to actually talk Mother into letting the bird into the house, controlling temperatures, and cooking feeding materials. As I remember we made “mush” (not oatmeal) and then mixed that with bread and worms to feed my little buddies. It was a real bonding experience with my parents as well as the fallen sparrows.
The American Robin was a close second with similar backyard sightings and feedings. It continues today and I have spotted over 30 species of birds at my backyard feeders. Most of these I didn’t know existed until my photographic hobby started to mature and I started following your blog a number of years ago.
Thanks, Ron.
Thanks for all the other stories.
Best to all,
Stephen C.
P.S. But I still haven’t seen a green-tailed towhee. As close as I have come is a spotted towhee in your beloved Montana.
Ah, spark birds: great topic! My spark bird is the Evening Grosbeak…here’s why…
I grew up Back East in NJ, and my great aunt Eloise Bryan lived in the Pocono mountains along Swiftwater creek (and it was!). One summer, all of her young child neices from NJ, PA, and TN were to convene at Aunt Eloise’s house for a week-long camp! We had a wonderful time, and I was probably one of the two youngest there, at 9.
Aunt Eloise fed lots of birds we discovered. We all had jobs each morning when she set out her bird food. One day, we ventured with her to the feed store to buy her a huge 50-gallon drum filled with sunflower seed to bring back to the cabin. We helped unload it and roll it to the shed near the bunk house (where us kids slept) and we set it up and opened the lid so we could get seed out.
We set big pans-full out and we scattered it all over the back yard, between the house and the stream, and my job was to smear peanut butter on the trees for the squirrels. Once we had all done our jobs we headed back into the house, and then — the cacophony! Thousands of Evening Grosbeaks descended from the trees above us, down onto the “seeded floor” of her yard to all “talk” and feed at once! We could barely hear each other speak inside the house, the birds were so many and so loud! Thousands of these gorgeous birds came to her woods every year… now, sadly, we see and hear them here in Oregon, but their numbers are greatly reduced due, I think, primarily to habitat loss.
But, I will always love Evening Grosbeaks!
And for me it also always been more about how birds behave. How they interact with each other and the environment around them. Thus, my spark bird or bird that holds my attention for the longest times and consumes my research is the Common Raven due to intelligence and just plain goofiness.
What a fun question! As a kid in Alaska my spark bird was the American Bald Eagle. They are quite abundant in Alaska! As a college student and adult in Arizona I fell in love with hummingbirds. We see several varieties – my fav is probably Anna’s which are in AZ all year, but I also love watching the Rufus fight with each other during their summer migrations. And you know since coming to the AZ rim country am a fond follower of hawks 🙂
Wonderful series Ron! Thanks for sharing.
Charlotte Norton
Ovenbird! My 3rd-grade teacher (in Iowa) had a bird “unit,” and it got my entire family hooked on birding. My parents’ bedroom had a corner window that looked out on our neighbors’ wooded back yard. We had it all set up for sitting and watching. And one day, I spotted this furtive little bird… an Ovenbird. Wait… what?! A bird that nests on the ground? Would never have imagined it. That bird was just passing through, on its northward migration, but it got us all hooked forever. Thanks for the fun memory, Ron. Love the images of the towhee, singing away in its scrubby habitat!
Never seen one of those before. Now I feel the need to hit the road…
Mine is the American Kestrel. I named her Angel. Was the first bird I flew (under a California F&G falconry license). This was a typical first bird for apprentice falconers, and it was a way of testing your ability to properly care for a bird. Could never get her to hunt, but that was not unusual for this species. Didn’t matter. I would take her to the top of a high bluff where she would soar back and forth on the updraft. I had her for the summer, and then released her back into the wild in perfect health. For a while afterward I would return to the bluff to visit with her. She was doing well. I am forever grateful for that daily and intimate experience with such a marvelous and beautiful creature. It made for a treasured and memorable relationship. That was over 40 years ago. From there on out I was hooked. Not just on raptors, but all birds. No matter where I go, I always wonder; what kind of birds do they have here? And I am never without a camera, binoculars, and a field guide. To this day, I still get a very old and familiar warmth in my heart every time I spot a Kestrel.
Green-tailed Towhees are always a treat to see but I have to go east of the Cascades to see them as they’re not here on the west side. As a kid I always loved all nature (still do ) and I spent hours looking at the illustrations in the books about birds that my grandmother had. Actually seeing a Lazuli Bunting made me want to see more in life. But the real “spark” came later when a friend pointed out a Chestnut-backed Chickadee by voice. I couldn’t believe he could tell the difference between that song and the Black-capped Chickadee song we heard earlier. I was determined to learn the difference. I soon was able to tell them apart myself and I just never stopped learning as much as I could about all birds. Eventually, I went on to teach Ornithology at the University of Oregon for over 35 years. I retired several years ago and I still have a lot to learn and it’s still a source of great joy.
Red-tailed Hawks. In the 70’s, in my early 30’s, I drove to work thru Laguna Cyn & wondered what those soaring birds were. My husband worried I’d drive off the road, when I told him about it. Finally, took my little old binoculars with me & pulled off the road so I could really look. So, I bird-watched while driving. Great Blue Herons, Cattle Egrets, flock of Swans in a plowed field. The swans were there several days….I finally made a special trip & stopped, to figure out what they were….an amazing sight! I’d rather bird watch than anything else, I think!
Probably Chickadees or Titmouse. This is mid 50’s, my grandparents had a picture window with a shelf feeder and suet feeders. They are the ones that inspired my love of birds and wildlife. In fact, their farm is now the Chaplin Nature Center owned by the Wichita Audobon Society.
Broadly, any bird! My high school had an outdoors club and I fell in love with birds simply because they could fly, and I could watch them no matter where we were backpacking, cycling, kayaking, or camping in the hills of Western Pennsylvania. But when I moved to St. Louis 25 years ago, I went to a nature festival and saw a poster of a Cedar Waxwing at Wild Bird Rehabilitation’s information table. I told the volunteer manning the table how much I loved Cedar Waxwings, and she said “if you can identify a Cedar Waxwing, you should volunteer with us!” Three weeks later, I started my first shift. I only knew a handful of people in St. Louis, but my love of Waxwings helped me find my “flock”.
Without a doubt, the snowy owl which I finally got to see last year…and the American bittern whoch I am still searching for.
Connie – I envy you your Snowy Owl. If you ever visit Florida, I’ve seen them in my favorite Green Cay Wetlands & Nature Center in Boynton Beach, FL . They are hard to spot – but it can be done. You can goggle it – it’s a very special place.
Good Morning,
My spark bird was a red headed woodpecker. When I was 4 years old a tree with a woodpecker nest was cut down in our backyard. We took care of the birds until they fledged.
I always loved nature and enjoyed hiking but one day in 2014 I decided to bring some binos with me. As my dog and I wandered through some piney woods I noticed a movement on the bark of an older tree. Looking through the binoculars I saw a tiny, perfectly-camouflaged, brown and white bird darting up and around the tree. I thought it was the most delightful, magical jewel-like creature!
Later, I found out this bird was called a Brown Creeper and it was fairly common in these parts. Amazing! I had spent my whole life walking through woods like these and had never seen one before. That’s when it struck me that there may be a whole world of jewels such as the Brown Creeper waiting for me out there, if I only slowed down and watched out for them. Since then I look and listen for any small movement or rustling when I’m out walking. And I haven’t been disappointed … Oh the things I’ve seen!
15 years ago I was taking a stroll in a local nature conservancy in the middle of our city and came across a cluster of people with cameras all pointing up into a large tree. At the time I only had a small point and shoot camera, and could barely make out the tiny baby Great Horned Owlets that someone had spotted. Eventually I asked the guy next to me if I could look through his giant rig (he had a Nikon 300 with a 500mm lens, as I recall) to see what he could see. The sight blew me away. I asked him to send me one of his shots via email and he did. I finally understood equipment envy! He said if I bought the gear he had, he would teach me how to shoot. I did; he did; it changed my life for the better. Photography has taught me how to see and appreciate nature. Even at 82 I remain an avid bird photographer, and my 15 years of photos are a constant source of pleasure.
When I was young the family vacationed in Minnesota the spark bird was the haunting call of the Common Loon as it surfaced close to the boat and eyed us. Oh, to recapture those moments!
Pretty sure it was the Bald Eagle. I saw my first as a child in the early 70’s in the Everglades, and at that time, they were quite rare. As the National symbol, there was a certain mystique about them, and I think the excitement of just seeing one did the trick. Viewed through the park provided tourist binoculars on the deck at Flamingo.
My spark bird is the Great Blue Heron. I seen him standing in a local river where I live in the mid 80’s . I was like what is that? Did it escape from a zoo or somewhere….lol To my amazement they were everywhere if I had been looking. My eyes were open and now I am definitely a bird nerd. I have opened this world to my grandkids .
When I was eight, I came down with mumps, one gland at a time. I was in bed for four weeks. My mother put a bird feeder on my window sill. It was autumn, and I saw many “visitors.” One day I saw a tiny green bird among the titmice and chickadees and Cardinals. It came early, seized a very small something from the tray, maybe even an insect. The second day, it flashed a red crown. My mother had given me a bird book, Peterson’s I think, and I found my visitor. A Ruby-Crowned Kinglet. My second big “spark” was a Red-tailed Hawk that a science teacher had. The teacher was a falconer and had his hooded hawk leashed to a perch in his back yard. It took me 60 years to become a falconer, but meanwhile I worked with the California Raptor Center for many years.
❤😊
Interested in general all my life as my parents were birders, but as my eyes no longer let me go out to see the birds, I get my fix by learning more about their behaviors. I love to just watch turkey vultures soaring or roosting (though only once have I seen one at a roadkill and hope to see more of that) and I love reading about corvids. And learning about everything that you teach us, Ron!
For me it was an image of a Great Blue Heron in a small creek. I had my first digital camera with me and was close enough with the 55-250 lens to almost get it full frame. I showed my mother and she really liked it so I printed and framed one for her. That set me off to find more birds to photograph. It was not a great image but the memory will last and many thousands of images later I am getting a bit better!
My first favorites were the California Valley Quail, Ring-neck Pheasants, and Mourning Dove, all of which I chased around the hills, valleys, and fields of far-Northern California when I was a kid (yes, with a shotgun rather than a camera — please don’t judge too much…I enjoyed chasing the birds and learning about nature and I seldom actually hit anything, but we don’t get to choose how we are raised). Both the Quail and the Pheasants still make my heart race when they flush from a bush right under my feet. Wow, what a rush!
These days, I love to cohabitate with these birds and many others. Current favorites are Western Tanagers, Evening Grosbeaks, Cedar Waxwings (all for their lovely looks) and Song Sparrows and Black-headed Grosbeaks for their wonderful songs. I have a very short attention span, so my focus changes regularly. Eagles one day, Falcons the next, Tanagers every other day.
But, I also enjoy a getting good picture of a newborn Black-tailed Deer fawn.
This is fun! Thanks for doing this post Ron!!!
I remember this excellent photo of the Green-tailed Towhee. I have seen one here a couple times, but our most common is the Spotted.
I never had any real interest in birds till we moved here to Prescott when I was 68 years old. My spark bird is our American Bald Eagle. Seeing them here sparked a serious interest that is still with me 16 years later.
Wood thrush. Its ethereal song was the actual ‘spark’ and then learning about their incredible migration to Central America. That is a ‘wow’ bird for me.
I have a fascination with anything that flies, Mother Nature’s creatures or man made. To me it is magic and my passion is hummingbirds. I don’t remember when it started and I still always look up when I hear or see something flying overhead. It grew to an interest in learning more about birds and all wildlife.
Hi Ron. Spark birds! After college, I had a summer job in 1969 (!) cooking for Bowdoin Scientific Station on Kent Island, New Brunswick. Everyone there was researching birds, and there was an ancient petrel colony there. They were enchanting and strange, coming from S.America, chattering in their burrows. Maybe your readers will enjoy this little haiku they inspired at that time: As if the mist and waves/had kissed and made gray butterflies/you can’t describe them otherwise.
I know you won’t be surprised by mine. Ron. Facebook was the source. I’d seen a post about a Bald Eagle nest at Berry College in Rome, GA and checked it out & was hooked. I started watching it in Feb of 2014 watching for the eggs to hatch through the fledge. Now I consider myself an “Ornithologeek!
In my case it’s more like spark life events: retirement, involvement in local environmental organizations and issues, which led to getting involved in bird surveys, which led to meeting excellent birders, one of who recommended FP, which I consider an important Continuing Education course.
Beautiful. I’ve been struggling to answer this question, but you inspire me.
Waterfowl, but more specifically, the Green Wing Teal. Marvelous looking birds!