Skyward-looking members of the Big Country Audubon Society need no such explanations from Packer. We enjoy having him with us. Now, a lot of us are in it for the fun, to enjoy Saturday mornings with other people who like watching birds. He's really out there to see how many different birds he can count. Although Packer has other interests, birding does seem to override all else.
Birds vary even within species and the idea here is to identify each by species.
For instance, there are over 30 species of sparrow. But the most fun of all is to go out on a day like today and find some species 300 to 400 miles from where it's supposed to be. Therein flies something in which to truly marvel, he says. Packer's knowledge of birds is dispensed not only with ease but a certain amount of glee. Consider his recollections of spotting a jaeger, a sort of cousin to the gull, a bird that sometimes winters in South America and breeds in the Arctic Circle.