Birders beat the bushes for birds and bucks

VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY

Now that the annual Sea and Sage Audubon Birdathon is over, maybe I

can get my husband back. Every year in the spring I lose Vic to week

after week of bird-scouting trips and late-night owling forays. He

spends endless hours plotting strategy to lead a team in identifying

as many bird species they can in Orange County in 24 hours. The

object is to raise money for north Orange County’s Sea and Sage

Audubon chapter by getting pledges for each species spotted.

The rules of Birdathon are simple. Birders travel in teams of

three or four, going from the exact time of sundown one day to

sundown the next, or from midnight to midnight, team’s choice. In

order to count any given bird species, at least two people on the

team must identify it by sight or sound. If only one person sees or

hears the bird, they can’t count it.

Team members are expected to raise money by extracting pledges

from friends, families and businesses. The funds help support

Audubon’s Starr Ranch Wildlife Sanctuary adjacent to Caspers Regional

Wilderness Park and the children’s educational program that Sea and

Sage operates at the San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary in Irvine.

You wouldn’t think it, but birding requires real skill. Top

birders can identify a bird by a mere glimpse of movement in the

brush or a spot on the horizon. They can pick out the one rare bird

in a flock of thousands of shorebirds. And they can distinguish

literally hundreds of birds by call alone, which is essential when

birding in dim light or heavy cover.

Birding can also get pretty competitive. At one time, I was one of

Vic’s birding team members, along with Phil and Judi Smith. I was

thrilled to be able to identify 100 species in 24 hours, but the best

teams were finding between 150 and 180 species. Phil, Judi and I

viewed Birdathon day as a fun social activity more than a grueling

bird-identification marathon. What was even worse from Vic’s point of

view was that we liked to stop and have lunch.

As Vic became more and more competitive, Birdathon became less and

less fun for the rest of us. We finally bowed out and let him find

more serious birders for his team. Tom Benson and Peyton Cook were

the kind of high- caliber birders that Vic needed to compete with the

“big boys” of Orange County birding. OK, Tom and Peyton weren’t just

more serious; they were much better birders than we were.

With his new team, Vic has moved up in rank the past couple of

years. This year he hoped to finish in the top third.

Finally the big weekend arrived. Vic, Tom and Peyton began at

Peters Canyon Regional Park near Orange. They hoped to see or hear a

least bittern there. They arrived before sunset and scouted out the

area. At 7:30 p.m. they could begin birding. At precisely 7:29 p.m.

and 10 seconds, the least bittern called. But it called 50 seconds

before the team could officially begin. They waited and waited but

the bird had said all it intended to say for the night. They had to

move on without adding a least bittern to the list. I must admit,

that’s more honesty than I’m capable of.

The team birded until well after midnight, listening for

poorwills, nighthawks and owls. The great horned owl eluded them in

Orange County’s wild lands, but they weren’t worried. They found one

in Central Park at 5 a.m. the next morning, after getting a mere

three hours of sleep.

Tom and Peyton had wised up to Vic’s predilection for not stopping

to eat on Birdathon day. They brought coolers with sandwiches and ate

in the car while Vic dashed from one birding location to another all

day long. Vic’s strategy is to spend as little time as possible

getting from place to place to maximize the time spent birding.

Unfortunately, this turned out to not be the wisest strategy. We’ve

commented in times past how law enforcement types tend to notice

birders because birders behave oddly. Well, this time it wasn’t

oddness that got Vic into trouble. It was speed.

Yep, Vic got a speeding ticket going up Laguna Canyon. Some people

might have tried bribing the cop. Not Vic. He turned the tables. He

explained what they were doing and asked the cop to donate to his

Birdathon team. Nice try, but no pledge.

The team continued nonstop all day long, furiously racking up one

species after another. As sunset neared, they found themselves on

Pacific Coast Highway on a little-known side road that leads a short

way into the Seal Beach Wildlife Refuge. There they found several

Pacific golden plovers just a minute before sundown. The haunting

bugle call of “Taps” wafted over the wetlands from the Navy base,

signaling the end to their day.

Over dinner at Woody’s Diner, they tallied up their total species

list. The plovers put them at an incredible 177 species, only eight

species short of the Orange County Birdathon record of 185 species.

The next day Vic learned how the other teams had fared. His group

was the top team both in number of species seen and amount of money

raised. Way to go, honey.

* VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and

environmentalists. They can be reached at vicleipzig@aol.com.