February 2, 2006

Friendly rivals search for birds

By Vickie Aldous
Ashland Daily Tidings

Birdwatchers Gwyneth Ragosine, left, and Dennis Niebuhr, right, frequently help each other by pointing out species they spot during Wednesday birding and doughnut-eating forays, or by calling when they had seen an unusual bird in a certain spot. Photos by Orville Hector | Ashland Daily Tidings

It was a year for listening for owls in the mountains with stars blazing overhead, waiting around sewage ponds, hoping to spot migrating shorebirds on a lay-over and rushing to a Central Point parking lot on news that a blue jay had been spotted there.

Ashland resident Gwyneth Ragosine, with sightings of 214 bird species, edged out fellow Ashlander Dennis Niebuhr, who tallied 212 species during their friendly competition in 2005 to see who could spot the most birds in Jackson County.

But Niebuhr thinks Ragosine may have resorted to underhanded moves to beat him.

“Did you count that one last year?” he said, pointing to a glass bird figurine from Finland on a shelf in Ragosine’s home.

“No, because it’s a European bird,” she said.

Someone broke into Niebuhr’s house last year, stealing a computer and a camera. His bird list also went missing about that time before eventually turning up again.

“I suspected Gwyneth,” he said. “I think she broke back in and put it there —”

“— having deleted two birds,” Ragosine added.

The contest was joined by several other local birdwatchers, with the winner, Norm Barrett, recording 228 bird species. The rules were simple: only birds spotted in Jackson County counted and the contest worked on the honor system.

The birdwatchers frequently helped each other, by pointing out species they spotted during Wednesday birding and doughnut-eating forays or by calling when they had seen an unusual bird in a certain spot.

Ashland resident Ragosine, standing, with sightings of 214 bird species, edged out fellow Ashlander Dennis Niebuhr, who tallied 212 species during their friendly competition in 2005 to see who could spot the most birds in Jackson County.

That’s how Ragosine found herself contemplating what to do when she got a hot tip that a blue jay was at the Albertson’s parking lot in Central Point. The bird, common in the eastern United States, is rare in Jackson County.

“Am I going to drive 45 miles round-trip to Albertson’s to see a bird I’ve seen 100 times before so I can put it on my county list?” Ragosine asked herself. “Yes.”

She estimated she has logged at least 100 miles a week looking for birds, while Niebuhr pegged his weekly mileage at an average of 150 miles each week. But it was the trip to Central Point that made her think she might have crossed a line.

In England, where Ragosine grew up, there is a term for birdwatchers who will drop everything and quiver with excitement over the prospect of spotting an unusual bird. The unflattering appellation is “twitcher.” Niebuhr said Ragosine may have recently become a twitcher.

However, he is not immune to the syndrome. Although on first impression he seems calm, cool and collected, he has lost three birding books and dinged a pair of binoculars after stopping his car at sight of a bird, setting things on the car roof and then driving off again with the items still on the roof.

“We will go up to Lost Creek Lake to peer through a telescope at a black dot that’s reputed to be a scoter,” Ragosine said. The two did end up finding two different species of the sea duck, a black scoter and a surf scoter.

They have clambered over fallen trees on densely forested slopes in the August heat behind a spotted owl researcher, slogged through wet, tussocky fields and endured January snow.

The law of diminishing returns also applies to birdwatching.

Niebuhr checked off 166 species during the first four months of 2005, but only 12 during the last four months. The contest is on again this year, and he had spotted 70 species as of early this week.

But despite the cost in gas and lost bird books, Niebuhr and Ragosine said they have enjoyed the camaraderie that has developed with other birdwatchers and have learned even more about birds and their habitats. Additionally, it’s a good way to stay active, as proven by some of their more senior birdwatching friends.

“It’s so encouraging to see people in their 70s so active, so bright, so alive. I think it’s partly because of what they do,” Niebuhr said.

Even people in declining health can enjoy birdwatching by looking out a window or from a car, Ragosine said.

And it beats collecting knick-knacks.

“This is like a collecting hobby, only you don’t have to dust it,” she said.

Staff writer Vickie Aldous can be reached at 479-8199 or vlaldous@dailytidings.com.