On a lark, I tell my friend Ben I want to go birding with him sometime. It'll be worth the effort looking for this guy. Thus begins my initiation. I start picking Ben's bird-addled brain. Ben says you put it on your life-list.
All real birders keep a life-list of every bird species they've ever seen.
Ben's got over 300 on his, including some rather exotic breeds he gathered on a guided Costa Rican birding trip. Sure, Costa Rica. But not this far west, this time of year. We enter the Baskett Slough National Wildlife Preserve and stop near an old barn to scrutinize a blackberry thicket for sparrow action. Golden-crowned ones, to be exact.