Everyone knows that TV dresses up the real world. Others, already down on golf courses because their manicured lawns are not bird-friendly, are more ambivalent. A few, though, are ticked off. Gaithersburg birder John Malcolm groused. Birders are fanatic list-keepers.
Lists are a way of pinning down a fleeting, sensory experience.
They are a means of collecting birds, just as some people collect stamps or antiques, but without bringing them home. For some, they offer a vehicle to compete with other list-keepers. Birds in their yards. Birds in parking lots. Birds on telephone poles, outside the office window, on the commute to work.