Definitely One For The Birds

comes rarely, if at all. In a hobby where the ultimate would be to glimpse all 10,000 bird species, seeing the hoary redpoll brings you one giant step closer to touching the Holy Grail. �I would have driven eight hours, 12 hours, to see this bird,�� Cosmo Bloom said. �It means that much.�� Jody Hildreth has been a birdwatcher since the mid-1980s. As the librarian at Sauquoit Valley Elementary School, Jody shares his enthusiasm for winged things with students through a bird club he started. His bookshelves at home overflow with bird-related books. His computer screensaver background shows a bird. Family vacations, said his wife, Kelly, involve bird watching. This man knows his stuff when it comes to birds. So on Jan. 7, as he trained his binoculars on his bird feeder in the side yard, Jody immediately knew an unfamiliar visitor had joined the dozens gobbling away. He noticed that mixed in with the common redpolls and finches and the occasional squirrel chowing down was a bird who looked a little different. Not so different to you or me, but different to a bird watcher. �His head is rounder and he has no neck,�� Jody said. �He has more color and a slightly smaller bill.�' Depending on what generation you count yourself in, imagine Frank Sinatra, the Beatles or Brittany Spears showing up at your house and asking to do a concert just for you. If you can imagine that, it comes close to how Jody felt. �I couldn�t believe it,�� he said. �I mean, there it was, in my yard.�� On Saturday, the men staring out the window dropped their binoculars and turned to Jody, wanting to know every detail in the chain of events that had brought them to Waterville. �Did you soil your underpants when you saw it,�� asked Isaac Grant. �It would be like finding a Ken Griffey Jr. rookie baseball card,�� Gene Herskovics said. (For the record, Jody�s answer was no on the underpants and all the men agreed they�d rather see a hoary redpoll than find a Griffey rookie card.) But one man�s sighting is another man�s skepticism. After all, according to the National Geographic Field Guide to Birds of North America, the hoary redpoll scorns joining his brethren for winters in Florida. This is one tough bird. This is a bird that thinks Toronto is too far south. So Jody took some pictures with the digital camera and telescope setup stationed at his window. He put the photos out on some birdwatching internet sites and asked if perhaps he wasn�t too crazy to think that a hoary redpoll had flown thousands of miles to eat the black oil sunflower seeds he scatters in his yard. Talk about your great restaurant reviews. Within hours, Jody received confirmation from fellow birdaholics that yes, indeed, a hoary redpoll had come to Waterville. Almost always, the next question was, can I come too? �Of course I said yes,�� Jody said. �You wouldn�t deny someone a chance like this.�� That�s why on Saturday Kelly and Jody set up chairs in front of the windows, put out the coffee and opened their door to strangers. �Coffee, I�m warm, I have a chair,�� Grant said. �This is the best chase ever.�� (Chase, in birdwatching talk, means going to a place where rumor has it there�s a rare bird. A random sighting comes when you simply pop the ole� binoculars in front of your face and see what flies by.) Birdwatchers keep various lists, including a Life Count, which covers all the different birds they�ve ever seen. Then there�s the annual list, lists by state and counties and however else a birder wants to break it down. Most of the folks who have shown up at the Hildreth�s have been men, which seems to reflect the fact that birdwatching tends to be a guy thing. After all, it contains several elements that appeal to men: driving long distances, keeping statistics and comparing breasts. �There it is,�� Pete Shen said. �It�s the one with the bit of gold on its breast.�� Looks more pale yellow to me,�� John Haas remarked. (Editor�s note. It is worth mentioning that in all the talk of breasts and boobies, no one made a rude remark. The editor also held back several witty but inappropriate comments.) Comparing breasts has helped Jody determine that there�s more than one houry redpoll visiting his feeders, where he�s already gone through 250 pounds of seed this winter. Usually the birds make their appearance in the mornings, around daylight, and stay till 9:30 or 10 a.m. So right on schedule Saturday, the hoary redpoll - one of them - made a breakfast stop at the Osborne Avenue Diner. He flew around after feeding, staying close by in the nearby bushes or leaving now and then for some flights around the neighborhood. �When you see a bird like this and especially with these kinds of looks,�� Bloom said, �It�s worth the trip and the time.�� When the hoary redpoll wasn�t in view, the guys kicked back, compared great birdwatching moments and trips and swapped recipes. Jody shared his secret for suet. �Peanut butter and Crisco,�� he said, �with some seeds mixed in.�� And, the guys gossiped about Ed, who didn�t make the trip. �He�s always waving his arms around, soon as the first sighting happens,�� Shen said. �He does it all the time and then can�t figure out why the bird doesn�t stay around.�� Mostly, though, the men gloated a bit. The houry redpoll has earned a spot on the 100 Most Wanted Birds in the United States and now, each man in the room could put that bird on his own personal list. �I�ve only seen 33 on the list,�� Grant said. �Took me 31 years to see a houry redpoll, probably be 31 more before I see another.�� Haas planned to take the long way back Downstate, through Ithaca to track down another bird he has not yet seen - a barrow�s goldeneye. �By the way,�� Haas said after twice patiently saying the name of the bird, �it�s a duck.�� For those who don�t want to make the trip to Waterville, Jody�s put photos of the houry redpoll, as well as numerous other birds, on his website, www.kidwings.com. �The houry redpoll is at the bottom�� Jody said. The bottom spot for such a rare bird? �The photos are in taxinomic order,�� he explained. �The way scientists put them in order in the book.�� As the morning went along, Kelly worked to keep daughters Tessa, 6, and Aubrey, 4, happy. While the girls have started their own bird watching lists, spending three hours watching a bird that is out your window every day carries little excitement. �This isn�t fun,�� Tessa said. �Be patient,�� Kelly said. �This is a special day for Daddy.� The Hildreths say anyone who wants to check out the bird can swing by their house. Jody snowblowed a path to the bird feeder to make viewing easier. Don�t worry about the cops coming around. They�ve been alerted to the fuss. Last week a few birdwatchers from Albany showed up during the day, when the Hildreths were at work. Sitting in their car, the birders trained their binoculars on the feeder. They had some explaining to do when law enforcement showed up; a neighbor, suspicious at a strange car parked on the street and the people using binoculars, had called the police. �I�m sure it did seem odd,�� Jody said, as he related the story Saturday. �No, that�s great,�� Bloom said. �Sounds like this is a nice place to live.�� Sure is. Just ask the houry redpoll.