Wayne County WTF (...With the Feathers...)

 Something incredible has happened. Something that has not happened for a long, long time...

It wasn't an Ent Moot, and the point is also likely moot, but I have now been out birding, on at least 1 occasion, for at least 1 hour, for 3 weekends in a row! That is borderline serial; that qualifies as a spree!

And in truth, it has been pretty humdrum stuff. A species count of 54 after 9+ hours in the field (albeit is mostly similar habitats) would make young Butler's Birds look awkwardly sideways and try to change the subject. Some of it is rust, some of it is timing, and some of it is a dearth of big ticket area outside of our county's state park (and hereto unvisited water treatment plant).

Why does any of this matter? Why am I talking to myself about it on the internet?? Why am I psyching myself up??? Because I feel it, man. The fingers of desire, and not just cholesterol, wrap around my middle-aged heart. I want to make a county birding run this year.  

I can divide my favorite birding memories into a few categories:

1) Days when I found a nemesis or tough bird and had great looks, like Elegant Trogons or White-tailed Ptarmigan.

2) Days when I got to team up with someone else and help them find great new birds, getting to relive that sweet satisfying succor of discovery vicariously and directly, and getting to give and receive a good crisp High Five.

Since those are not so available for my current time and place, that leaves the other option:

3) Goal-driven days, enjoying the sights and sounds (and smells) of nature, highlighted by the dynamics of birds, while chasing something measurable. This is the best way, especially, to enjoy local birding and county birding when the species and even the sites are familiar. Then every new movement in the brush excites again, every weather front brings new possibilities. Every dark silhouette must be unmasked (unless it calls and you know it's an Eastern Towhee).



Because during the fallow times of year, or when the birds just are not around, one can only stare at non-birds for so long before the lake of color, the dimensional movement, and the nonexistent vocalizations wear you down. 

There was a time, back before Covid and TikTok, when using AI meant you were getting elbow-deep in a cow, not elbow deep into plagiarism, before America was so socially fractured, when Butler's Birds reigned supreme for bird species seen in Wayne County, NC. 

Alas, such is the shame that rests upon the rafters of my house that Butler's Birds has now fallen to a meager 8th place in the All Time Standings, and and even less boastful 15th place for 2026.

This must be corrected. 

I will follow the tracks and the trails.

I will...err...leave behind the dirty laundry of the past?

I will go where the universe guides me...

and guides me...and guides me...and guides me...

And I shall seek the common and the uncommon, the vocal and the silent, the retiring the and the retired.

This is my declaration, come whatever else may (and especially in the month of May), that Butler's Birds is going to build on this momentum, that the warm embers of birding love are now rekindled into blazing flame, and I shall conquer all to see...288 species in Wayne County !?!? 

What h*ly f*cking sh*t there is no freaking way. That's crazy. 

Might needa start counting all those junk escapees from my redneck neighbor's yard. 

At any rate, best bird found so far in 2026 has been this Anhinga, digi-binned by an old quarry run-off along a random strip of highway while lifgted pick-up trucks honked at me.

Whatever it takes. 144 and counting.