Is taxonomy even that important?
I've written half of about four blog posts so far. These seems to be a consistent thing for me, where I'll raise the bar for something until I can't consistently meet it anymore. Here's what I wrote earlier this week:
I love how birding is really a few different things combined:
- Learning to identify birds and going out and doing it
- A game to see how many species you can see
- Observing and appreciating wild birds in their natural habitat
- Hobbyist-level ornithology and study of all things birds
Sometimes people who like one or two of those things more than the others will irritate the people who like different ones of those things because they have a different focus. This was a small thing I noticed in the social dynamics this past weekend as I was at the 61st Annual Wenas Campout near Yakima, WA, at the feet of the Cascade mountains. There was an owl researcher there who started as a birder and she said she hated how people talked about their life lists, or calling a bird they saw a "life bird" that they "got." They said it felt like it made it less about the birds and more about yourself in a way that centered you and humanity rather than the birds. She also said, "Is taxonomy even that important?" My reaction was, "Yes these are important points and we should maybe dial it back if we're getting a bit crazy with it when it comes to the gamified part of birding." My reaction was also, "Idk man, let people have fun." Turning bird appreciation into a game has gotten huge numbers of people into it. That's more people that care about conservation, more people becoming researchers, more people investing in habitat restoration because they spend so much time thinking about it, visiting it, etc. But I think as we saw in the documentary Listers, the whole listing thing is can get a bit much. Highly recommend watching that even if you don't care about birding, it's a great doc and super cool that they released it for free on youtube.
I met a lot of people there, and saw a lot of birds. I saw my first owls (a Great Horned Owl family) and saw some very special woodpeckers like Lewis's and White-faced Woodpeckers. I saw Eastern and Western Kingbirds, Lazuli Buntings, a Lark Sparrow, and many other central/eastern Washington specialties that we just don't have out here on the Puget Sound. It was dusty and I had some of the worst sleep I've ever had in my life, waking up confused and freezing cold and feeling like all joy had left the world. BUT. It was worth it.
More bird pics to come!