For The Birds | By Lisa Ballard

For me, bird watching happens as a result of being outdoors, high on a mountain, deep in a forest or alongside a body of water. I don’t keep a life list or spend 14-hour days staring through a high-powered spotting scope, but I do have a 600mm lens permanently affixed to one of my Nikons.

I’ve taken thousands of bird photos. If one pauses for more than a nanosecond, I snap a frame of it wherever I might be hiking or paddling. The rarer the bird, the bigger the sense of joy and accomplishment when I get the shot, similar to reaching a summit after a challenging ascent.

The birds are often in high places, too. Once a gray jay landed on my hiking buddy’s head on top of Mount Jackson in New Hampshire. While backpacking in Canada’s Jasper National Park, a crazed hummingbird dive-bombed me a dozen times, obsessed with my dark red pack.

I saw my first harlequin duck on that trip, too. I saw my first trumpeter swan while backpacking in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park in Alaska. An Andean condor once buzzed me at 12,000 feet on a mountainside in Chile. Imagine my amazement seeing a white-necked raven at 16,000 feet on Kilimanjaro!

Birds are everywhere, and there are so many kinds, which is part of the fascination. They are also an indicator of an ecosystem’s health. Where there are lots of birds, the other flora and fauna live there happily, too.

When I purposely want to look for birds, a wildlife refuge is usually a good spot. Two of my favorites are in Florida, the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge near Palm Beach and the J.D. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island. There’s no elevation gain, but one can easily hike a half-dozen miles looking for feathered fliers.

My big lens is at the ready as I trek along because I never know when a cool bird might appear, and like in the mountains, I’ve got a pair of LOWAs on my feet. Supportive footwear keeps my feet comfortable and dry and allows me to be stealthy near a spooky bird. Lately, my go-to boot is the versatile Ferrox Pro GTX Mid because it’s lightweight and water resistant yet breathable.

My most recent sightings include a purple gallinule striding across some water lilies, a black-crowned night heron hiding in the reeds, a newly fledged screech owl perched inside a birdwatching blind and an anhinga spearing a fish with its beak.

What’s the most memorable bird I’ve ever seen? A whooping crane standing beside a river in Wisconsin. Whooping cranes were once down to under 20 birds. How lucky to see one! Or maybe it’s not just luck, but a reliable footwear that helps me get to birding hot spots further afield.

Photos and content courtesy of Lisa Ballard.