Bewicks wren

I love to bird watch. I’m not very good at it. You would think with a Master’s degree in biology (I studied birds), that I would be a descent bird watcher. This, however, is not the case. My excuse was that as a graduate student there was no time for bird watching. Ultimately, I named this as one of the reasons I did not pursue my PhD. Why study birds if it ends up making you unable to watch them? I can tell you about the intricacies of bird respiration, the current theory on why parrots mimic, why male bower birds build towers that they dance around on the jungle floor, why yellow breasted chats… you get the hint. But ask me to tell you the difference between a Tennessee and a Connecticut warbler and you’ve rendered me speechless. So, I left the academic world of avian biology in exchange for a chance to do a little bird watching. However, my next career didn’t afford me any more time for watching birds. Good grief. But, now my life is a little less hectic (whew!) and I have a wonderful window. That has made all the difference. Just this week Larry and I added a new bird to our “life list.” We didn’t have to travel to distant places. We sat at our kitchen table with our bird book and our binoculars in hand (we admit it’s nerdy, but we love it) and we identified a Bewicks wren on our deck. Life is good.

They are actually endangered (and relatively rare) east of the Mississippi river. Some might dispute that we actually saw one. Although I may have lost some credibility in admitting what a poor bird identifier I am, really, it couldn’t have been anything else….

http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/135/_/Bewicks_Wren.aspx
http://www.50birds.com/BPBewickswren.htm