Getting ready to spend a year in the life of the Audubon Master Birder program.

It's official!  I'm in!  Accepted into the Audubon Master Birder program, sponsored by the Audubon Society of Greater Denver.  Hooray!

It's going to be so much fun!  A full year of birding, and field trips, and classes and volunteer opportunities, and record-keeping, and testing, and ......... oh dear.  It's going to be so much work!

When I first read about this program, roughly 18 months ago, I was intrigued, but I wrote it off as too big a commitment.  But somehow, big commitments seem to draw me in.  And the thing is, the more I learn about birds, the more I want to know.  The more I learn about habitat and outdoor spaces, the more I want to be there.  The more time I spend with people in this crazy field, the more time I want to spend with people in this crazy field.

The longer I do this - this thing called "birding" to serious folks and "bird-watching" to the uninitiated - things that once seemed crazy now seem.....well, maybe still crazy, but definitely worth doing.  Go out on a mountain trail in the dark and cold on a Saturday night in May, calling for owls that we just *might* barely see?  Sign me up!  Get up at oh-dark-thirty on a Sunday morning to go out and stand in frigid temperatures on the prairie, waiting for the sunrise, listening and watching in the barely-light hours for the Greater Prairie Chickens to do their thing?  I'm there!  Go walk through sandy or rocky trails where I'm likely to run into snakes and alligators and other creepy critters?  Well, I'm your girl!

Oh my.  What has happened to me.

Once I was a perfectly normal person, with a perfectly normal, non-obsessive life.  I worked out a little, played some piano, and ran moderate distances.  When a friend suggested a crazy idea like running a marathon in each of the 50 states, I very reasonably said "that's just plain nuts!" and, um, er, nevermind.

So, here I am.  The commitment is intimidating.  The schedule shows 27 classroom sessions (this will be my Monday night gig) and 24 Saturday field trips (half or full day, depending on how far we roam from the Denver metro area) and 6 Saturday test days.  Oh, those tests?  By the end of the year, I'll need to identify 100 birds by sight and 40 birds by ear.  In addition to the tests, I'll need to identify and list at least 200 bird species in Colorado.  I'll have field trips galore, including leading at least one, and participating in a couple of bird counts.  I'll have all kinds of exercises in documentation - from rare birds to breeding birds to creating field trips for at least 10 different sites along the Front Range.  I'll research and prepare a research paper on a bird-related topic, including a formal presentation to my class.  I'll volunteer for the Audubon Society of Greater Denver, and I'll take part in all kinds of birding activities, from Monte Vista Crane Festival to the Hawk Watch at Dinosaur Ridge to the Great Backyard Bird Count.

And I thought running marathons took a lot of stamina!  It's going to be a very busy year.

Whew, I'm worn out just thinking about it.  There's so much to do, and only a year to get it done.  Grab your binoculars and let's go birding!

(Nota bene:  I’m a bit late getting this blog started, so many of you will know that the program has already started  I’m hoping to catch up my entries over the next couple of weeks, then post throughout the year, closer to real-time.  Bear with me while I get caught up – and still try to stay on top of my AMB assignments.)