AMB: The Entrance Exam

How did I get myself into this AMB (Audubon Master Birder) thingy, you might ask, now that you know what a fun year it’s going to be?  

Well, first there was the information session.  In marketing terms, we’d call this the loss leader.  A fun evening at the Audubon Nature Center, replete with so many goodies that it’s a good thing that I arrived hungry.  Lots of current AMBers and other Audubon luminaries to share with you how grand (and daunting) the program can be.  It was all going too well until somebody said, “of course, that’s all after you pass the test”.

Test?  What test?  I’m getting into this thing to learn about birds.  I’m barely a hatchling myself.  And I need to know something to get in?  Yikes!

But I’m not one to let something like a little test keep me away from something I want to do, so I duly show back up at the same Nature Center a couple of weeks later.  Tonight:  no goodies.  Just a few AMBers to administer the exam.  The pool of applicants has dropped to a total of eight (I will learn later that some other folks with conflicts have set up separate testing sessions).  Nobody standing around chit-chatting;  everyone sitting in two rows of tables set up in parallel, answer sheet and pencils at our ready.  The mood in the room isn’t exactly somber, but it sure isn’t the party vibe of that information session.

We’ve been told the test will be a photo test only, and that’s calmed my nerves some.  Twenty-five birds that are common in Colorado.   In truth, going in I’m only worried about trick questions, or the need to differentiate between similar species.  Sparrows scare me.  Gulls scare me.  Warblers scare me.  Swallows worry me. Female ducks baffle me.  I’m also worried about the quality of the photos.  One AMBer told me that when he took the test many years ago, the photo quality was not very good, and he missed a Mountain Chickadee.  And he sees Mountain Chickadees every single flipping day:  he lives in the mountains, surrounded by trees.  If he could miss a bird so basic…….  Oh dear.  Maybe my nerves are not so calm.

Dave*, a Master Birder whom I’ve met on several occasions in the Beginning Birding Class (more on that to come), runs the test this night.  He tells us that we’ll go through the slides once, then we’ll have a chance to see particular photos that we might have questions about.  Is everyone ready?  Then alrighty, let’s get started.

American Robin, Crown Hill Park, Denver, CO 3/20/12

Bird #1 is up on the screen.  A Burrowing Owl.  It’s an easily recognizable bird, so not at all a problem to ID.  But this is not a bird you see every day.  Holy Smokes.  I thought they might allow us a gimme or two, say start out with an American Robin or an adult male Mallard in breeding plumage.  Cripes.  I write down my answer, but feel just a little uneasy.

Mallard, Drake Park, Bend, OR 11/23/12

Bird #2 is easier and I breathe a quick sigh of relief.

Ring-necked Duck, Belmar Historic Park, Denver, CO 3/25/12

Then Bird #3.  Yikes.  Oh crap.  It’s a duck, and I think it’s a Ring-necked Duck, but I get Ring-necked Ducks and Scaups mixed up.  They are in the same family, with similar coloring, and oh crap!  Is the ENTIRE FREAKING TEST GOING TO MAKE ME CRAZY?  I write down my answer, worry over it, and then we’re off.

Greater and Lesser Scaups (maybe), St. Vrain State Park, CO, 3/31/13

Lark Bunting, Pawnee National Grassland, CO 6/15/13

The next birds seem easier, but my confidence is in the toilet.  We have an Osprey, and a House Wren and a Horned Lark and a Lark Bunting.  That Lark Bunting just happens to be the state bird of Colorado, and I just got some fabulous views of this species a few weeks ago.  So I’m rolling along.  That is, until Bird #10.

Uh oh.  I have no freaking idea what this thing is.  It’s a bright yellow bird with a bunch of black on it too.  I think, “I don’t know my warblers!”  But then I don’t really think it’s a warbler.  Everyone around me is writing.  This has been true for every single slide that comes up on the screen:  everyone immediately writes.  This is no exception, except that I don’t write a word.  I’m stumped.  But Dave is moving on to the next slide, and I need to put something here, so I write “American Redstart” and then (as if to qualify my bad guess with more details) I add “female” ever so lightly, since I somehow think the female that species has yellow and black plumage.  The truth is, it’s a wild-assed guess, pure and simple.

Blue Grosbeak, Cherry Creek SP, 5/23/13

The next birds roll by, and I hit a stride.  There are no gimmes, with the possible exception of a Northern Flicker.  There’s a Sandhill Crane and a Western Meadowlark and a Blue Grosbeak, a bird that a lot of people will struggle with. I’ve seen it recently and recognize it easily.  And then around Bird #20, a slide comes up, and we all stop in our tracks.

Not a single person writes down an answer.

What *is* this bird?  I scan through the possibilities.  It’s yellow with a gray hood.  It is not a bird I have any experience with.  Still, nobody is writing, and I timidly write “Warbler” with a space before it.  Still we sit and stare at the photo.  I’ve been watching the birds reported around the state on a daily basis, and have been trying to find some of the warblers that I haven’t yet seen.  One of those is a MacGillivrays – a name that is easy for me to remember since Dave MacGillivray is the long-time Race Director of the Boston Marathon – and I think I remember that the drawings I’ve seen look like this bird.  Maybe.

I write it down.

Finally, we’re in the home stretch.  We get a Snowy Egret and a Great Blue Heron:  consolation prizes for making it this far.  There’s a Wilson’s Warbler and a Stellars Jay, and finally we’re done.

Great Blue Heron, Grayton Beach SP, FL
10/10/12

Wilson's Warbler, Echo Lake, CO 6/23/13

Stellar's Jay, Deer Creek Canyon, CO, 7/8/12

We get a chance to review birds that we have questions about.  I want to see Bird #10 again, but I wait to see if anyone else struggled with it.  People start to call out slide numbers, and I start to feel a little better.  They have questions about birds that seem like slam dunks to me.  Well, that’s encouraging:  I’m not the only person here who really needs this class.  I ask to see Slide #10 again, but I’m still stumped.  I leave my lame guess in place, and we hand in our tests.

Then somebody says, “Hey, can we go through the slides again and get the answers?”  Dave and the other AMBers in attendance oblige.  I’m hugely relieved to have gotten the Ring-necked Duck (a duck that I think should be a Ring-BILLED Duck, but bird names frequently confound and confuse) correct.  And I’m thrilled – THRILLED – to have gotten the MacGillivray’s Warbler right, too.  We walk through the slides, and – with the exception of my own true mystery – I think I’ve gotten every thing right.  But the nemesis bird?  Stay tuned for next time…………..

*I plan to use first names only in the blog, unless I’m given explicit permission to use full names, in an attempt to allow the mentors and my classmates a modicum of anonymity