1. Red-winged Blackbird

Date          May 11, 2001

Location     US highway 23 near Chilicothe, OH

The first bird on my life list was actually added some time after I had discovered the hobby and even learned of the concept of a life list. So this entry and number 2 are a whole year apart. I'll explain in a little bit how I was able to determine such an exact date a year later.

On May 11, 2001, I was driving to a Boy Scout camp (Chief Logan to be exact) on a Friday afternoon to attend a father-son campout. For some reason on that drive, I started to notice all these cool looking birds on the side of the highway. I'm not sure why on this day it happened. It might be because I was starting to take an interest in some of the birds in my neighborhood recently. (I'll discuss that in more detail in my entries on robins and goldfinches.)

I was really excited because I thought they were orioles. Don't laugh.

Actually, I really wasn't that far off. Both orioles and blackbirds are in the Ichterid family, and, well, they're both black and orange! It really wasn't that bad a guess considering my knowledge at the time.

In my notes, I have that I was able to determine what the real identification was "a few days" later. I have no memory of how that actually came to pass. I know that at some point after this date I had purchased the Audubon field guide to eastern birds. I'm pretty sure it was at Sam's Club. I saw it on one of those big tables of books they have, and I was really excited to have it as a resource. Now I could actually identify those things flying around and not have to guess! My wife encouraged me to get it.

The next year on May 11, 2002, I was at another father-son campout and heard bird number 2. At some point after that, i started actually compiling my life list. So since I knew that it was the same weekend in 2001 that I saw the blackbird, I was able to determine the date exactly.


Cornell: Red-winged Blackbird