I'm Just Here for the Bird: Helping the Next Generation of Birders Become Obsessed Like Me

I was out birding down at Humber Bay East in Toronto. Not really looking for any bird in particular, but just maybe seeing what birds were around. Unexpectedly, I found a Greater Scaup hiding in the reeds at the edge of a hidden pond. I guess it was hiding because Scaups are not supposed to be hanging out in southern Ontario in the summer. Either it never left last spring or it's just an early arrival.

Either way, it was a fun bird to find in the heat of the summer. As I was walking across bridge leading to the north part of the park I spied, not a bird, but a young birder and his mom. He must have been just 8 years old and had his own binoculars. I asked him about the birds he'd seen and he told me about Starlings and Blackbirds and even a Great Egret and Red-necked Grebe's with babies. I was happy to hear about baby grebes, and wanted to return the favour so told them about the Scaup. Neither mom or the young birder had ever seen one, so I took them over and set up my scope low to the ground so the young guy could see his first Scaup. It was a cool feeling, having spent the early part of 2012 being guided to birds and looking through other birder's scopes. Afterward I headed over to the north water cells and found the Red-necked Grebes, including the babies, for whom it was lunch time.

Now I am less than a week away from a road trip that will take me through Michigan for work,(unlikely to see any birds), before I head to Florida for both work and birds. Just like last year when I was hoping not to be too late for the Fork-tailed Flycatcher,(I was in late July last year and almost died looking), I will be hunting for an American Flamingo for a photo, a Purple Swamphen, new this year on the ABA list,(it would be a lifer), and Brown Booby, a bird I chased and missed on a few occasions last year, in the Clearwater area, along with Common Eiders and, up in the Orlando area, and a Fork-tailed and Grey Flycatcher. I'll head down to Miami and hope for some rarities along with photos, I hope of White-crowned Pigeons, and I would really like to return to the Dry Torgugas, this time by sea plane, rather than the vomit comet they call the Yankee Freedom.