Tag: Roseate Spoonbill

Bird Loving

Birds are special. There is something about birds that fascinates and inspires our curiosity. Songs from birds in the trees can spur the urge to stop a few minutes to listen to the happy sounds. The sight of an unusual or uniquely marked bird brings up the birding app on the phone or google for identification. You don’t have to be a bird enthusiast to enjoy moments of pleasure from a bird encounter.

There are names of various levels of bird enthusiasts. Wiktionary says a person who loves birds is an ornithophile. Thayer Birding says there are different types of people who watch birds. An Ornithologist is a studier of birds and likely has a professional degree in biology. Clinton Atkins for Thayer Birding, describes the rest of the bird watching types as:

  • Twitchers
  • Birders
  • Listers
  • Dudes
  • Protobirders
Bluebird

From this list, my shortened description is that Twitchers are knowledgable bird chasers, while Birders are people who simply love watching birds as a hobby. A lister does exactly that, make extensive lists of birds from birdwatching. A dude just likes to watch birds but doesn’t go out of the way to watch. The newest term, Protobirders, is someone who enjoys watching birds and may have some bird knowledge.

After studying the list, I’m puzzled as to whether I am a Birder or a Protobirder. I love watching birds. I take a lot of bird photos. And I paint cute little birds. Definitely not a Twitcher, as I don’t chase them. Probably not a lister, but I count my photos as a list of sorts. I think I’ll go with the Wiktionary description of ornithophile. I am a lover of birds.

If I did decide to become more of a bird watcher, like maybe a twitcher, Clinton Atkins has a great list of items that are helpful to have on hand:

  • Birding Vest
  • Brimmed Hat
  • Bird Song App
  • Birdwatching Journal

Several years ago, I went on a couple of Bird Watching tours at the Saint Marks Wildlife Refuge in Florida. Most of the people on the trip could probably be classified as either Twitchers and/or Listers All of them had the above listed important items. I had only camera and binoculars. I definitely could have used all of the things on the list. The group was wonderful to me and were enthusiastic about pointing out various birds and letting me look through their telescopes. If some were a little condescending about my novice status, the others made up for it with their joy in sharing their knowledge. I came out of the adventure with many lovely photos, a whole lot of knowledge and a terrible sunburn, (no brimmed hat).

Roseate Spoonbills at St. Marks

Jeff Mann of Because Birds says, “Nature has a way of surprising us, and birding is no exception.” That pretty much sums it up. Birds are a constant surprise so I’ll go on painting them, casually watching them and taking the occasional birding tour. With that, I’ll refrain from typing myself and just say, I love birds!

Roseate Spoonbill

Roseate Spoonbills are quite beautiful until you get a close up look at the bald head and long flat bill.

Driving through the St Marks Wildlife Refuge in Florida, my eye was caught by a group of pink birds standing still in the marsh water. I had never seen pink birds before outside of flamingos in the zoo. At first I thought they might be flamingos until I stopped the car and got a good look through the camera lens. A friend had painted a painting of a one with its head turned completely around and resting on its back. That’s where I first heard of Roseate Spoonbills. There were so intriguingly beautiful until you get a good look at the unfortunately ugly spoonbill.

Maybe that ugly snoot is what made this spoonbill bury his head underwater. Can’t blame him. All About Birds says “The flamboyant Roseate Spoonbill looks like it came straight out of a Dr. Seuss book with its bright pink feathers, red eye staring out from a partly bald head, and giant spoon-shaped bill.” Audubon describes the spoonbill as “Gorgeous at a distance and bizarre up close.” Both of these descriptions are very accurate and maybe that explains my immediate fascination with these unusual birds. For a couple of weeks, I drove through St. Marks checking up on the flock of spoonbills. They moved around through out the Refuge for those two weeks. Every time I saw them they were in a new location sometimes with just their flock and sometimes with other wading birds.

The first day I saw the spoonbills, they were standing very quietly in the late afternoon. Not moving, just standing. In a post on her blog, Audrey Oxenhorn describes the spoonbill as a reminder of the “importance of being weary.” In this photo, the spoonbills certainly looked weary as they stood unmoving in the still water. Another blog, Auntyflo, says that spoonbills like silence and they are a reminder of how silence can be the best form of communication. These birds certainly looked like they were enjoying silence but how do you really know? Do Spoonbills talk? They were standing in a marsh with no wind or waves, no trees or grass. not interacting with each other. Some were grooming themselves otherwise they were unmoving. Maybe they do like silence.

Whether Roseate Spoonbills like silence maybe a little hard to prove but they definitely have a Dr. Suess like bizarre look. The spoonbill’s beautiful pink color keeps them fascinating despite the strange bald head and long spoon shaped bill. I looked for them every day for about two weeks. They never failed to fascinate. One day I watched one walking through the waterway swinging the that bill back and forth through the water very methodically. I couldn’t tell what if anything her was catching but it must have been something. He looked quite content as he moved on down through the water.

One day I went looking for the spoonbills and couldn’t find them. They were gone. Moved on to someplace more quiet apparently. I was sad at the loss of my game of spotting the flash of pink lurking in the marsh or behind the tall grass. I wasn’t happy with the first painting, so maybe its time for another go at a spoonbill painting. I’ll try the silence thing while painting to “communicate” with them. That could help the painting process. Worth a try!

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