I never thought of birding as an aerobic activity. As a matter of fact, getting exercise and birding are diametrically opposed. Ask anyone. When I arrived at Washington College’s Foreman’s Branch Observatory outside of Chestertown the mist nets had been open since an hour before sunrise.
I barely made the boat trip with Anne Arundel Birding Club to join Naturalist Greg Kearns in searching for one of his two focal research species, the secretive Sora Rail (Porzana carolina). Fortunately for me the pontoon boat was still at the dock when I arrived at Patuxent River Park, ironically home of the historic hunting grounds of the Sora Rail. Greg’s reputation as a passionate researcher and conservationist preceded him…
As I was reading one of the many environmental magazines that arrive in my mailbox each month I came across a sentence describing the demographic of a typical birder as a ”50-year-old white woman living in the U.S.” Wait a minute! That perfectly described me! I thought a stereotypical birder was a 70-year-old British guy in a khaki vest! How did this happen?