Avid birder drops everything and flies to see a rare variety

By Nat Newell. IndyStar.

Larry Peavler stood up to his neck in the Gulf of Mexico for hours watching for a red-footed booby . . . and barracuda.

Prepared: With a telescope on a tripod, Larry Peavler is ready to check out the birds at Eagle Creek Park. He is one of the nation's top birders, and has seen 872 different species in the United States. - Sam Riche / The Star

His bird-watching tour boat through Florida's Dry Tortugas National Park was preparing to move to the next island, but the red-footed booby had not returned to its nest.

Peavler wasn't leaving.

No one was allowed on the island because it would disturb the birds' habitat, so he plunged into the water, fighting off terns that tried to land on his head and thoughts of carnivorous fish gnawing on the rest of him.

"It's really rare," Peavler said with a shrug when asked why he risked battling barracuda for a glimpse of the bird. "I'd never seen it."

The red-footed booby is one of 872 different species of birds the Northside Indianapolis resident has seen in the United States in the past three decades.

Peavler is one of the country's top birders. His total number of sightings is the sixth-most since the American Birding Association began tracking such statistics in the 1960s.

The hobby has taken Peavler to all 50 states -- including seven trips to Attu, the last in the chain of Aleutian Islands off Alaska, which is now off-limits -- 124 countries and six continents. He's seen 3,413 different birds, including the fourth-highest total in Indiana (349) and Kentucky (306), according to the ABA's 2005 List Report.

"One thing that makes birding exciting is you see something new every day," said Peavler, who also touts the exercise it provides and leads regular hikes at Eagle Creek Park. "A new plumage, a new nest, something they're eating . . . it doesn't matter how long you've been birding or how often you go out, you still see new things.

"You turn the corner, and you don't know what you're going to see."

He got his start when he saw an advertisement for a birding hike at Eagle Creek Park in 1973. Peavler was immediately hooked and began to devote more and more of his free time to the new hobby.

The first bird he chased was a Eurasian curlew in Rhode Island in 1976; Peavler saw it and it hasn't been spotted in North America since.

...this birdwatching hobby keeps him on the go...

Hobby keeps him on go | IndyStar.com

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Bird watching in 130 mullion year old Forest

The Wilds of Belum-Temengor Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) 

The Belum-Temengor Forest Complex is more than 130 million years old and reputed to be one of the world’s oldest. To introduce the public to the wonders of this biodiversity hotspot experienced MNS members will be running several trips there.

Activities include forest treks, photography, night walks, floral observation and bird watching. Participants will also have a chance to interact with the Orang Asli living nearby.

For more information call: Nal Azri at (03) 2287 9422 (MNS HQ) or K.J. Mok at 016-275 8739. 

...some interesting birds would be spotted in this forest

Adventure awaits

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National Geographic Guide to Birding Hot Spots of the United States

by Mel White with Paul Lehman. All you need to start bird-watching, says Mel White, an Arkansas-based birding expert, is a good pair of binoculars, a notebook and a road map. I'd add a big thermos of hot coffee because they don't call them "early birds" for nothing.

Originally published in two volumes in 1999, one for each side of the Mississippi, this new guidebook combines both eastern and western hot spots under one cover. It includes all the National Geographic expertise you'd expect, along with detailed directions, contact information, best seasons to visit, insider's advice and 150 photographs and illustrations. I'm not a birder , but I found an unexpected benefit from this book in that it brings together many of the major wildlife areas and protected refuges under one roof, so to speak. And it tells you some things you didn't know that could add another dimension to your next trip. Such as this tip: The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel "is one of the more unusual birding spots on the Atlantic Coast." (National Geographic Society, $21.95)

...great gift idea for all those birders out there...

Newsday.com - Travel

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