You gotta say that to yourself every once in a while, in life, but especially in two-fisted birdwatching. Actually those two things have a lot in common—life and two-fisted birdwatching—but we’ll let that ride ’til another day.
For now, the point is that as you walk your trail through woods and fields, the way ahead draws with hypnotic force. You keep looking, keep walking. You remember times when that kind of forward searching yielded great finds.
You saw a Pileated Woodpecker up ahead and didn’t scare it off. That was a first. Maybe there’s another first waiting around the bend. Keep moving forward, you think, keep your eyes open and your binocs in those rugged fists of yours.
Hell, that’s how you saw an American Woodcock in the trailside leaf litter, pretty unusual but not uncommon with luck. And also, once, up ahead there was an ancient-looking Great Horned Owl on a branch overhanging the trail. You had the feeling he was waiting, and you made eye contact.
Up ahead—that’s where the good stuff is. And that’s where you’re wrong. That’s the point of this post. Look out behind you! C’mon, birdlife inhabits our environment in a sphere and you’re the center of it—a 360-degree, 3-D hunting ground, so why limit yourself?
Okay, it’s only human not to like backtracking, but the truth wisely learned (the owl can confirm this) is that after you tramp through a zone of wildlands, birds and other animals you missed seeing quickly return, filling the space behind you like a vacuum.
So turn around—look behind you—it works. The late wildlife writer and desert philosopher, Ed Abbey, (see our Two-Fisted Library) once turned behind him in an Arizona canyon and found a mountain lion tracking him. Cool.
On my trail today—on the hike that prompted all this—I remembered to spin around and, yeah, there was a bird I hadn’t seen on the way in. What was it? It wasn’t a “first,” but it was a good, colorful sighting that kinda made the day, and I’m really glad I turned around.
Also, it gave me the idea of sharing with you this simple philosophy—”look out behind you!” I’ll discuss that cool bird in another post. For that—keep looking ahead. And good birding, all around!
