A Commonly Asked Question

I am often asked, “Why do you like birds so much?”  For me, this is not such a simple question to answer. 

 First pair of binoculars - age 2.  It's never too early!

Many of my colleagues started learning about birds in college, through professors or through an interesting internship.  However, for me, this love of birds began at a very early age.  I grew up in the Rochester, NY area in a family of birdwatchers.  Before I was a year old I saw my first barn owl in the wild.  At a very young age I could identify most of the common backyard birds.

While growing up, I always seemed to find a way to make my school projects bird related.  For example, my science fair project in the second grade was about feathers and how they work, and my sixth grade conservation project was all about bird banding, just to name a few.

 Holding first Saw-whet Owl waiting for it to release age 10 or 11

Rochester is a great spring migration area for birds.  I was always going on bird walks with my family.  While on these trips I found myself attracted to birds of prey.  I can remember spending large amounts of time at the hawk watch platform, and banding raptors at the raptor blinds.  I was so into raptors, that on many occasions I remember my parents dropping me off in the middle of the woods at the raptor blinds, with the bird bander, for hours on end.  Many of you right now are probably cringing at the thought of a young girl being dropped off in the woods alone with older people.  But, you have to remember, times were different and every one of these banders knew my family.  To me this was the greatest experience ever, and I loved the time I spent banding.  I was so into it that many of the banders would let me band all of the Sharp-shinned and Cooper’s Hawks we trapped.  To this day I can still remember the first Red-tailed Hawk I banded and then released.  It was a nice looking juvenile that scratched me on release--the first of many raptor scars.  As a child, experiencing eagles, hawks, falcons and owls in the hand was just so special that it left a lasting impression.

The interesting thing that stuck in my mind when I was young was that many of the banders tried to encourage me to find a career outside of ornithology. I looked at other careers and majors.  In college I majored in Environmental Studies looking for a job as a naturalist or in the zoo field,  However, through my college internships I went right back to birds.

 Birding from the deck of a cruise ship off the coast of Costa Rica 2009

So getting back to the original question of why do I enjoy birds so much?  I guess the short answer would be I’ve had a life long love of birds and raptors, that led me to working with birds.

Submitted by Cathy Spahn, World Bird Sanctuary Field Studies Coordinator