On the Wing #18: Nemesis Bird
I was recently poking around the Mass Audubon Bird Conservation staff page located here and was reading over Matt Kamm's blurb when I read the final sentence and had a thought. The sentence goes as follows.
"He has been an enthusiastic birder since the age of eight, and his nemesis bird is the Short-tailed Hawk."
The first part of that sentence isn't important. The concept of a "nemesis bird" hadn't really caught my imagination since I already had a list of likely species I hadn't yet seen and was using that as a benchmark in my quest to reach the 300. However, this new concept has intrigued me and made me wonder what species have seemed to elude me. However, the answer to that has changed so many times that it hardly seems worth it to determine what it is. For most of the summer my main target was the Black-bellied Whistling Duck (Dendrocygna autumnalis) spotted at Great Meadows NWR in Concord, MA. When I did finally sight it (with pictures as illustrated by On The Wing #5b) I focused on rails briefly before switching to the many warblers that I had been hesitant about seeking and identifying on my own.
For the past few weeks, I was constantly annoyed and bewildered by the almost insane number of Song (Melospiza meloda), House (Passer domesticus) (although I really could just ignore them, but that wouldn't be honest in a bird count, would it?!), Chipping (Spizella passerina), and Swamp Sparrows (Melospiza georgiana) that are present in the many weedy fields and community gardens that populate my area and that as such, I was unable to come up with the shier, quieter Lincoln's Sparrow (Melospiza lincolnii). When I finally connected with one this morning at Lincoln Meadows in Sudbury (slightly ironic, given the name of the place), I understood then the true driving force behind the "nemesis bird" concept. The idea that one species could be elusive enough as to prevent one from being able to see it and having the simultaneous effect of mentally affecting the observer in such a way that makes them absolutely manic when they cannot find one. This is especially true when it seems like everyone else is.
For now, I'm left to find a new "nemesis bird" that will thwart my every attempt at finding it and appear only to those worthy enough of its presence. I might have exaggerated that a bit, but you get my drift. Looking through my list, I can't really see any that sticks out. Northern Saw-whet Owl (Aegolius acadicus) is hard enough to find given its small size and vast distribution, but it hasn't been on my mind so much as it has been a character in some of the work I draw. Others such as like Bay-breasted (Setophaga castanea) and Wilson's Warblers (Cardellina pusilla) were already in the broader category of warblers which caused me anxiety in the first place, so they weren't going to be my nemesis anyway. Not in the searching sense at least.
No. The "nemesis bird" has to have the same feel as when a fisherman describes "the one that got away". The one bird that has eluded you for years and years before you hopefully connect with it. Maybe I'll come up with one soon. Maybe not. For now, I'll bird and bird and bird until I can reach that magic number of 300. Happy birding ^_^
"He has been an enthusiastic birder since the age of eight, and his nemesis bird is the Short-tailed Hawk."
The first part of that sentence isn't important. The concept of a "nemesis bird" hadn't really caught my imagination since I already had a list of likely species I hadn't yet seen and was using that as a benchmark in my quest to reach the 300. However, this new concept has intrigued me and made me wonder what species have seemed to elude me. However, the answer to that has changed so many times that it hardly seems worth it to determine what it is. For most of the summer my main target was the Black-bellied Whistling Duck (Dendrocygna autumnalis) spotted at Great Meadows NWR in Concord, MA. When I did finally sight it (with pictures as illustrated by On The Wing #5b) I focused on rails briefly before switching to the many warblers that I had been hesitant about seeking and identifying on my own.
For the past few weeks, I was constantly annoyed and bewildered by the almost insane number of Song (Melospiza meloda), House (Passer domesticus) (although I really could just ignore them, but that wouldn't be honest in a bird count, would it?!), Chipping (Spizella passerina), and Swamp Sparrows (Melospiza georgiana) that are present in the many weedy fields and community gardens that populate my area and that as such, I was unable to come up with the shier, quieter Lincoln's Sparrow (Melospiza lincolnii). When I finally connected with one this morning at Lincoln Meadows in Sudbury (slightly ironic, given the name of the place), I understood then the true driving force behind the "nemesis bird" concept. The idea that one species could be elusive enough as to prevent one from being able to see it and having the simultaneous effect of mentally affecting the observer in such a way that makes them absolutely manic when they cannot find one. This is especially true when it seems like everyone else is.
For now, I'm left to find a new "nemesis bird" that will thwart my every attempt at finding it and appear only to those worthy enough of its presence. I might have exaggerated that a bit, but you get my drift. Looking through my list, I can't really see any that sticks out. Northern Saw-whet Owl (Aegolius acadicus) is hard enough to find given its small size and vast distribution, but it hasn't been on my mind so much as it has been a character in some of the work I draw. Others such as like Bay-breasted (Setophaga castanea) and Wilson's Warblers (Cardellina pusilla) were already in the broader category of warblers which caused me anxiety in the first place, so they weren't going to be my nemesis anyway. Not in the searching sense at least.
No. The "nemesis bird" has to have the same feel as when a fisherman describes "the one that got away". The one bird that has eluded you for years and years before you hopefully connect with it. Maybe I'll come up with one soon. Maybe not. For now, I'll bird and bird and bird until I can reach that magic number of 300. Happy birding ^_^
Comments
Post a Comment