Masterminx

I got my geek on, fully. I had my backpack, my bottled water, my camera strapped on...I am still too cool/lazy to carry my tripod or monopod with me. I go strictly hand-held, like MC-A. Of course, as soon as I got there, and started shooting, I regretted not carrying my monopod. My hands were way too shaky.

There just weren't many birds around. Butterflies, on the other hand: wow. They were everywhere. They were feeding from the tops of trees, and hanging from every flower. They kept faking me out when I was looking for birds. I can't even tell you how many times they landed on me. It was pretty wild.

The Wildlife Rescue folks were doing a demo for the Buzzard send-off. They had a bunch of birds of prey from the wildlife rescue, tethered to perches. It was cool to be able to take photos of them, but it was sort of pathetic to see them tied down. The golden eagle kept pulling at his ankle cuffs, and the baby owl kept trying to fly and doing a face plant into the table. I didn't hang out for very long.

There was a chick working the demo who is a friend of CB. She and I met about two years ago at the stables. She's the owner of the dapple gray mustang, Flint, that I wrote about recently. He's the cuddly one. I approached her and said hello, and we spoke briefly. She said I have a good memory, because she doesn't remember me, at all. I do have a good memory. I didn't really try to converse with her because she's very shy, and I could tell that she was uncomfortable talking to me.

I wandered the back trail, but I was very disappointed in terms of bird population. It seemed dead. By the time I got to the herb garden, I was almost ready to give up. Then I saw him--I mean, Him.

Every hobby has its stars, and every hobbyist who is serious has someone who is the paragon of the hobby for them. Someone they admire. For me, there are two guys who represent the best of birding in Arizona. One of those guys is Kurt Rademacher, who I admire for being an ornithology prodigy and for being one of the forces behind the discovery of bilateral dimorphism in birds. Kickass. The other guy--you might say he was my first hero in birding--is master local birder and photographer, Mr. Richard Ditch.

You might say that I am a fan of Rich Ditch. Or, a wannabe groupie. The man even has his own domain: www.richditch.com. How badass is this guy?! He's a genius. His personality is totally kickass, as well.

He was leading a group down the trail, coming in the opposite direction. I wandered into the small group, and listened to the man. Sure enough, he spotted and I was able to sight four different bird species while we stood there. There were four or five Western Tanagers in the tree above us. While we waited for his group to get a sufficient look at the birds, I chatted with my big hero.

"Geeze, Rich, I was just lamenting the absence of birds, here. If I'd known you were here, today, I would have been following you around from the beginning!" Damn, I'm smooth.

He grinned and said that he scares away more birds than anything. We shared our list of sightings, since we'd come from opposite ends of the trail. I felt very geeky. It was cool. He wished me luck, and I proceeded along the path. I felt like I'd been touched by greatness.

It didn't help me find more birds, though. I spotted a Gila Woodpecker and female Costa's Hummingbird from a distance. That's pretty much it. From there, I went back to where I started.

In the demo garden, I ran into a photographer I have seen before. We have crossed paths in Gilbert, though I acted as though I didn't recognize him. He's not very friendly. That probably explains his solitary hobby. Today, he was sitting where I wanted to be. We were foiling each other, but a group of people chatting nearby foiled both of us. So, we started to talk.

It was awkward. He tried to talk to me about my camera, but I don't know enough about what I'm doing with it to really converse. He gave me some advice on a macro lens. His camera gear was way more expensive than mine. He was a heavy-duty guy with one of those super-expensive telephoto lenses. He was nice enough, though.

I complained that most of my photos for the day were of butterflies and lizards--very few birds.

He said, "Nothing wrong with that! Most of mine are of plants."

He made an excellent point. There were so many beautiful things, out there. I got to enjoy them at my own pace. If I wanted to stand and stare at a tarantula hawk for five minutes, I could do that. Study the shape of a flower. Stand and talk to a squirrel who was too hungry to care that I was standing over him. It was very life-affirming--not to mention the four-mile hike that I haven't taken in way too long. I can't believe I almost didn't go. That's just crazy.

I even got a little bit of sun. That's nice! Never mind the weird farmer tan from the backpack and the camera strap.

Speaking of weird and crazy, I have to mention this. Last night, when I went to bed, I just crashed. The sheet was twisted over itself and the comforter was rolled up and hanging off the side of the bed. I just lay on top of all of it, because it was so hot in the apartment. When I woke up at 2:30, the bed was made and I was tucked neatly under the covers. It freaked me out. I can't imagine doing that in my sleep, since I'm too damn lazy to do it when I'm awake. Besides, I had only been asleep for about 3 hours. So, what the hell?

That is too weird.