200th Bird!
Not the best picture, but enough to identify my 200th bird, a Semi-palmated Sandpiper
I logged my first bird on February 9th, 2020. It was an American Crow. Then the pandemic hit and this little hobby of mine really took off. By July 1st I saw my 77th bird (House Wren), and by October 26th I had hit my 100th bird on a family trip to Walt Disney World (Brown Pelican). Identifying my first 100 birds took exactly 260 days.
My 101st bird was on that same family trip to Florida (a Magnificent Frigatebird), and I figured that if I kept up at the same rate, I would surely hit 200 birds in the next year. Unfortunately I totally overestimated my dedication (or capabilities), and 691 days after my Brown Pelican I finally hit my 200th bird. It all happened this past weekend in Newport, Rhode Island while celebrating my brother’s bachelor party. Birding may not have been the purpose of the weekend, but as we hung out on the beach I couldn’t help but notice a group of small birds at the edge of the water. I took out my iPhone, snapped a picture, and identified the zoomed in bird as a Semipalmated Sandpiper. 200th bird, nice.
These arbitrary numbers make for good moments to stop and reflect back. In those 691 days, I’ve done a lot of birding, but there were also months where I did none. There have been months that come with different excuses, like “I’m too busy”, “I’m too tired”, or “I don’t think that's really a hobby of mine anymore, I’m going to start running” (a particularly short lived excuse). However those were outweighed by the months of intense birding, like January of this year when my family all got covid and I had nothing to do BUT go birding. I know I shouldn’t take them for granted, but I can’t help but think “the birds will always be there”, so it's an easy hobby to pause, then start, then pause again.
I’ve always liked math (although if you look back at old report cards, you wouldn’t know it), and so when I make lists and count the days between milestones, I can’t help but project forward also. If I think about my pace and the prospect of hitting 300 birds, the most simple calculus I can come up with is that I’m on track for number 300 on September 27th, 2027*. There’s a multitude of reasons why it could be shorter. For instance I might take a trip to Asia, or South America, or Maryland, and make a huge amount of progress in one week. I’m also constantly getting better at birding, and my experience may result in finding more birds near my own home. The fun part is that I have no idea what, or where my 300th bird will be, and I like the hopefulness that comes with imagining a date and wondering how life will be. If it does take me 1,836 days to hit number 300, I’ll be 42. I wonder where I’ll be living, who I’ll hang out with, and if I’ll finally own a small boat? Maybe the small boat will be how I spot the 300th bird? Of course it may just be hanging out on a beach with that same brother I was with this weekend, and maybe with children of his own that don’t exist today. By that point we might be on iPhone 19 that comes with a built-in 25x zoom, and something may catch my eye. “Hey is that a Glaucous Gull”? 300th bird, nice.
*My bird calculus: 100 birds took 260 days in year 1, the next 100 birds in 691 days. That means it took me about 2.66 times longer to see the second 100 than the first. If I take 691 days and hold the 2.66 multiplier as a constant, 691 x 2.66 = 1836.5 days, which brings me to September 27th 2027 (right about at lunchtime actually). This of course is “hogwash” you could say, because holding the rate of 2.66 as a constant in the equation isn’t really fair. As the birds get more difficult, the rate itself should increase as well, maybe in some sort of logarithmic scale. If you’re in agreement, or disagreement, I’d love for you to leave a comment and start a debate with the “correct” answer.