This one's for the birds

Yesterday I went to see the movie The Big Year.  Believe it or not, this is a movie I had been looking forward to for quite some time.  In an interview with Jim Parsons (the oh-so-funny Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory) that I had read about a year ago, he mentioned that he had a part in a movie about bird-watching.  I don't know what percentage of Americans would be anticipating a movie about competitive birding, but I was certainly in that (probably very small) demographic.  The movie stars Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson, all very funny comedic actors.  They really did an outstanding job portraying the fun and the hilarity and passion of serious birders.  
So, why was I so interested in this movie?   Let's take a trip back to my college years to explain that.  (Husband has still had no time to try to make the scanner work, so still no photos of College Martha to share with you.)
As a biology major, I took a lot of diverse classes for electives.  I spent a semester taking Wildlife Management.  I know, right?  You just can't imagine GrandMartha wearing a green uniform and wandering through the forests!  (Especially with my aversion to being hot!)  Anyway, Wildlife Management was not my calling.  But when I took my Ornithology (the study of birds) elective, I found something I really enjoyed.  Some of our classes were inside, where we studied the biology of birds & listened to recordings of bird songs, trying to commit them to memory.  But at least once a week, we went into the field to find real birds.  Class started at 7 Am on those days, which was no problem for me;I've always been an early riser.  We'd pile into a couple of the Biology Dept. vans and head out into the fields and forests around Natchitoches.  (By the way, there's a moment in the movie when Stu (Steve Martin) was asked about his recent birding in Louisiana.  He replies that he saw a Loggerhead Shrike in Natchitoches.  I saw my first Loggerhead Shrike in Natchitoches!  It thrilled my bird-loving heart to hear that mention in the movie!)  Anyway, back to 1975ish.
Those birding excursions into the field were so much fun and often more exciting than you'd think.   One day we had trekked through a cow pasture that didn't have any cows (we thought!) toward the tree line to see if we could get a better look at a Red-Tailed hawk that had flown that way.  That winter, I had a bright red coat, and when the formerly unseen bull started chasing us, I was sure he was coming right for me.  We all hopped the fence just in time.  When parents imagine the worst happening to their kids at college, "Co-Ed Gored to Death During Bird-Watching Tragedy" is not the headline that comes to mind.  (Also,  "Co-ed Lost in Unexplored Cave in Arkansas" is another thought they probably don't ponder...and yet...well, that's a tale for a later post!)
On another day, when we were done with our birding, we went to get back into the vans.  We opened the van door and it opened until it rested on the fence as we all piled in.  When I grabbed the door handle to close it, a searing pain shot up my arm.  The fence was electrified, and the current came right through the door and into me.  Tragic birding death narrowly avoided once again!
But my most infamous birding tale involved no such risk to life and limb (unless you count dying of embarrassment!)  My mom, frugal woman that she is, was still sewing much of the clothes I wore, even in college.   On this particular day, I was wearing one of the shirts Mom had made.  I remember the blue cotton knit with tiny red flowers that buttoned up the front.  As the sun was getting higher in the sky on the warm spring day, our group was standing in a circle talking about the birds we'd seen and other plans for the day.  I recall that I was saying something and pretty much had the attention of a group of maybe about 8 people, both boys and girls.  One of my best guy friends interrupted me by saying, "Um... Martha" and pointed to my chest.  I looked down and to my horror found that my binoculars had unbuttoned most of the buttons on my shirt!  As I had trekked through the field and the binoculars swung free, the little homemade buttonholes just didn't quite hold.  I wanted for the earth to just swallow me up whole right then!  I really should have died of embarrassment.  But in an instant God sent to me the knowledge that IF YOU ACT EMBARRASSED IT WILL ONLY MAKE IT WORSE!!  I calmly said, "oh." Scarcely missing a beat, I continued what I was talking about while buttoning up my shirt in a nonchalant manner.  As if exposing my undergarments to a group of people in the great outdoors was just an everyday occurrence for me!  The group mercifully didn't even mention the incident at the time.  Though, for quite some time this anecdote was routinely re-told around campfires during Biology Club camping trips.
Those Tri Beta camping trips were always such an adventure.  Most of us were working on our life list of birds during those years.  So a Spring Break trip to the Florida keys or to the Big Bend area of Texas was an opportunity to add birds we would never see in Louisiana.  I remember how happy I always was to add a new species to my list. 


  I wish I still had my life list.  It's probably gone the way of so many of the keepsakes from high school & college that get lost in moving & cleaning out old things.  


I still have my Peterson's Field Guide to the Birds.  It has my maiden name & my dorm room number written in the front.  It's cover is worn.  It's on a shelf in the den next to a twig birdhouse & a little feathered nest.  I refer to it occasionally now when  a bird flies into the yard & I can't quite remember what it is.  But it used to be a constant companion during those years when I always had an eye to the sky, looking for that next new bird!