I‘m Philip, and I’ve always had an interest in birds growing up. Birds have always amazed me, and I loved just watching them around the yard. I was 29 when I started really birding in late 1997 and recording the birds I saw and where I saw them.
From 1997 to 2000, I birded consecutively, but then life started to get in the way, and my birding became sporadic from then until 2023. Some years had lots of counts, but most did not. In late 2024, I really picked it back up, and as I got back into the field birding, I started wondering how I let life get in the way of something I love doing so much.
I like my counts, and I keep good records, but I keep them to myself. I’m not into competing with anybody over numbers. For some people that kind of thing is perfectly fine, but it’s just not me.
Mainly I bird in Northern California where I live, but I’ve ventured out of the state now and then and increased my counts and added more to my life-list. A couple of the bird privileges I have in my area are the Yellow-billed Magpie and the California Scrub Jay.
Growing up around those two birds, I took them for granted until I learned they are California only birds, and most people don’t get to see them unless they come here. Sadly, over the years, I’ve noticed a decrease in Yellow-billed Magpies, and their numbers are not good. The last time I looked, December 2024, their estimated population was around 90,000.
One thing I’ve come to realize is that birds that are local to areas where you live are a privilege in that others have to come from far away to see them. I’ve only seen a male Northern Cardinal once when I was really young, but I still remember it when my family was traveling out of state. Never having seen one before, I watched it for quite a while on a wintery day as it hopped around in a tree. I would love to see lots of them. One bird I’ve always wanted to see is a Vermillion Flycatcher. I will travel to see them one day, and they are a bucket list bird for me. Among all the birds, I really enjoy watching flycatchers.
I bird mostly around the Sacramento Area, including the Consumnes River Preserve and a lot in Capay Valley which is full of bird species. I really also like places you really have to hike into in order to see birds you may not see in “civilization” though I’ve seen some pretty interesting things in the city.