Self-restraint

I’m guessing that most people who think about doing big years and about what big year birders do and who big year birders are rarely think about “restraint”. If the big year is a serious big year, it’s more likely that the only restraints that the big year birder allows or experiences relate to there only being 24 hours in a day, and there only being so many dollars in the bank and allowed to be charged on the credit cards.

Although it may not seem like it to someone watching me, I have noticed that between big years I tend to put self-restraints on my bird chases. Having maxed out my budget and my energy in a previous big year, I have found that I sometimes actually ignore the possibility of getting a new bird for the state, or even for the ABA area, when I am not doing a big year. Or, as also happens, I tell myself that I just won’t chase a particularly wonderful bird if I don’t “need” it for a big year, and then I give in and try for it, often to find that I waited too long. During a big year, of course, no matter where the bird is in my big year territory, I am driven to go for it, and must go for it if at all possible.

It can be a big relief to sit back and hear about others chasing a bird that I do not need to find for a big year. Others can tell about their all-night drives, or their failures at finding a bird that they chased, and I can relax and think back to the good old days of my chases. But no matter how relaxed I get, deep inside I feel that I really should get out there and go for it. An odd sort of guilt sets in, that I am not being as fanatic about bird-chasing as I believe that I should be.

Actually, though, I do think I’m mellowing a bit. A couple of weeks ago, someone in eastern South Dakota reported a Eurasian Wigeon, somewhere near Brookings. Brookings is probably only about 4 hours from where I live in Rapid City. But I almost did not even consider driving out there, even though I had the time and even though I have never seen a Eurasian Wigeon in South Dakota. Sometimes I wish I had gone, but it was in contemplating whether to go or not that I realized that I do sometimes impose restraint on my bird-chasing. I don’t drop everything every time I hear about a bird that I’d like to see. Sometimes I deliberately allow a bird to get away.

This is my first year of doing a county big year, so I can’t relax much when someone reports a bird in the county that I haven’t yet seen for the year in the county. Thus, I did do a couple of 100-mile loops this last weekend to try for the Sandhill Cranes that others had seen in the county, even though I had seen thousands of them a few weeks ago in Nebraska. Sandhill Cranes are not rare in the county, but they don’t stay long as they pass through in migration, so I did need to find some (or at least one) of them. This year I can have moments of self-restraint on bird-chasing for birds that are located anywhere in the South Dakota area or in the ABA area or in the world, except for birds that are in Pennington County.

Is this sometimes self-restraint just a sign of (finally) becoming more mature in my birding? Or is it a sign of getting older and more tired, or a sign that I am gathering my strength (and funds) to head off to a more extreme bird-chase? Or is it just a temporary aberration in a lifetime of growing bird-fanaticism? Only time will tell, I guess.

Comments

[Walter Lamb]

I think restraint is a good thing for a number of reasons. First, it is better for the environment not to be driving and flying all over the place. Second, focusing more locally is, in my experience, a better way to improve one's skills. When I did an ABA big year in 2004, I was woefully unprepared and everything was just a function of time and money. I had some amazing experiences and I'm glad that I did it, but I have learned much more by riding my bike through our local wetland reserve than I did on that year. Third, I think that local birding lends itself more to conservation. I now have more time for bird surveys and volunteer for the board of a local conservation group. In fact, it was on a Snowy Plover survey that I stumbled up the first Los Angeles County record of Wilson's Plover.

I still always try to get in some bird watching on business trips and vacations, but I rarely chase for birds of any great distance.

[Brian Monk]

This is almost exactly my experience. I am doing a big county year this year, and missed two excellent birds within hours, for fear of missing something at home!