In birding parlance, a “spark bird” is the species that mutates one’s benign regard for nature into a seething, immoderate interest in avifauna. Do you have a spark bird story? If so, you should share it with your fellow bird watchers on Bill Thompson III‘s newest stroke of brilliance, The Spark Bird Blog? Send your scintillating spark bird story to sparkblog AT birdwatchersdigest.com.
Mike is a leading authority in the field of standardized test preparation, but he's also a traveler who fully expects to see every bird in the world. Besides founding 10,000 Birds in 2003, Mike has also created a number of other entertaining but now extirpated nature blog resources, particularly the Nature Blog Network and I and the Bird.
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Snowy Egret. First Bird I ever listed because I could swear I had never seen such a thing my entire youth growing up in Las Cruces, New Mexico. I blame my addiction on my journalism colleague Marvin Tessneer who would bore me every Monday morning with his weekend birding exploits, until I had the epiphany that I did not, at the ripe old age of 22, know the proper names of any of the species. Afree he showed me photos of the painted burnings he allegedly saw I pronounced him a fraud and a peddler of ornithology on unprepared young minds I went out and bought a Peterson’s field guide. That weekend a Snowy Egret appeared like the Great Pumpkin over the Chile fields.
The first bird I took interest in was a cliff swallow. I think I was 9. I already decided I wanted to become an ornithologist because I knew someone who was and was inspired but I had never actually took interest in them. A family friend took me by a soccer field where there were maybe 50 swallow nests. I fell in love with the way they fly. As I grew older swallows were always my favorite. Once in 5th grade on the way to school I saw a tree swallow and was so excited that I almost ran home. Since those moments I get excited about birds all the time. I really owe my love for birds to the family friend who showed me those swallows