Today is my birthday. And it's not just any birfday. It's my 50th. Funny I don't FEEL 50, and I'm not even sure how the time flew past so dang fast. But here I am, teetering on the brink of my second half-century.
I've spent quite a few of my recent birthdays in some far-flung birdy place: several in Guatemala, one in the Philippines. This year I'm happily staying at home on the farm in southeast Ohio (though there is some planned merry-making in the offing). In thinking about my best birthday bird ever, there is one that jumps to mind: the bat falcon I got to add to my life list in Guatemala on March 3, 2008. You can read my account of this experience in this post and this post.
My 2008 bat falcon in Flores, Guatemala. My best birthday bird ever.The funny thing about that bat falcon sighting was that bat falcons are not that difficult to find in Guatemala, yet I'd been skunked on seeing one over the course of multiple visits to that exceedingly birdy country. I'd seen the much rarer orange-breasted falcon several times, but no bat falcon. Thanks to my buddy Jeff Bouton for spotting that 2008 bat falcon for me. It was starting to get both weird and a bit embarassing not to have seen this common falcon.
If you're still reading, and you can't wait to learn more about my odd birthday obsessions, you can read about my favorite birthday food (my mom's cherry-custard pie) in this post from 2009.
I guess the bat falcon could be replaced at the top of the birthday birds list. But it would take something like a whooping crane flying over the farm, being chased by a gryfalcon, which was being buzzed by a Xantus' hummingbird. Now THAT's a birthday birding experience!
March 3, 2008. Lake Atitlan, Guatemala.