ONE MAN’S YARD BIRD IN ANOTHER ONE’S LIFE LISTER

A few years ago as I sat musing at the birds flitting about my house in Colington Harbour where we lived on one of the larger inlets in the conclave of the Harbour itself, I recollected that one man's rarity might be another's jaded commonness.

When we lived in Sweden in 1980, I would marvel as a Mew Gull strode by right outside my office window, not an unusual sight there at all, but I have yet to see one on this continent. Similarly, Fieldfares were hopping everywhere as I walked to work each day. They were as common as American Robins were back home and indeed Robins are the New World counterpart to the Fieldfare.

Then during another work-related sojourn in the Chicago suburbs in 1983, I used to take weekly field trips to a nearby wildlife preserve and I always could count on seeing a common, but noisy fellows on my ambles, Yellow-headed Blackbirds. To see one at Mattamuskeet would be the occasion of many postings on Carolina Birds and to be sure, several birders would drive great distances just to add this to their life lists.

What occasioned these musings was the sight of a Double-Crested Cormorant sitting on my dock post, not uncommon here, but one I imagine not counted as a backyard bird by much of a percentage of American birders. At other times, I have had an Osprey sitting right outside my window on the porch railing feasting on a small bass freshly caught from the nearby Albemarle Sound. Once, during the big winter whiteout of ’03, I was entertained by Juncos at my feeder (the first in 7 years), a flock of about 80 Lesser Scaup right off my boat dock, and 7 Ruddy Ducks a little further out navigating amongst the ice floes.

BACKYARD BIRD ON OUR PORCH - COLINGTON HARBOUR MC

Now none of the Colington Harbour birds are considered unusual here on the OBX, but they might be considered great treats by an inlander not living around water. In West Virginia, my primary residence for 35 years, we would have Wild Turkeys in our front yard and depending on the time of year White-throated Sparrows and Wood Thrushes serenading us right outside the kitchen window. These are species that urbanites would drool over to have around their homes.

Now that we are back in West Virginia, it is not uncomonm to see Great Blue Herons, Green Herons, and Kingfishers in my backyard creek. A couple of seasons ago, we had a female Baltimore Oriole visit our back porch often to collect nest-building yarns Elaine would hang out. And who has Pileated Woodpeckers and a Yellow-throated Warbler visit their suet feeder regularly?

Yes, we have all the more common species as well, but I ask myself, just what is common? Depends on where you live.