BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 17, 2024
I can confidently say that I birded Arizona without much confidence over the last two weeks. I’m proficient in Maine. I have the home court advantage. But drop me into a faraway place, and I’m just a rookie. After a week of mayhem, I started making fewer mistakes. I followed my own birding advice, using the same principles I’ve preached for years in this column. What an amusing relief to learn that my advice actually works. Here are some of those pearls of wisdom. The most common birds are the most common. I learned new species by mentally associating them with familiar ones. Focus on field marks. Get to know the common birds around home. Use what you already know. Focus on field marks. And above all, make mistakes. ~ Bob Duchesne