My Personal Birding History Urs Geiser
	Fermilab, January 1, 2001 (photo courtesy of Jim Frazier)
		Powell Marsh (Wisconsin), August 2, 2003 (photo courtesy of Dora Geiser)

People often ask me when I started birding. I don't think there is such an onset date. Rather, I eased into birding gradually, starting during my childhood in Switzerland, where my family had a field guide and a pair of old army binoculars. While I didn't exactly keep track of my sightings, there were some memorable species that I have not seen since, such as Black Grouse and Rock Ptarmigan.

In 1981 I moved to the US. When I noticed birds unknown to me flying around the campus of Washington State University, I bought my first field guide (Golden) and started my North American list. However, I was a 'poor' graduate student and didn't think I could afford binoculars. Therefore, most additions to the list came when I traveled around with visitors who brought binoculars along. A memorable trip was a loop through Washington and Oregon that also touched Tule Lake NWR in northern California and that boosted my list considerably.

When I moved to the Chicago suburbs in 1985 and finally had some spare time and a little spending money (the joys of a regular job!), I bought myself a pair of binoculars (Nikon Travelites) and started taking walks through the nearby forest preserves, where I gradually came across more and more birds. This was still a low-key activity, and I carried it out all by myself. A decisive turn-around came with a trip to south Florida in January 1989. It was meant to be just an escape from the winter cold, and I didn't have any real plans, but when I saw all the birds in the Keys and at Everglades National Park, I was hooked. With very few exceptions, the remainder of the trip turned into a birding expedition. If I'd only had a clue what Florida specialties I really should have looked for...

Another turn-around came in 1993, when I discovered the Internet and the birding community that was using it. First it was rec.birds, then BIRDCHAT. On the Usenet, I discovered that one of my co-workers in another division also was a birder, and in no time he recruited me to participate in my first Christmas Bird Count. After this experience of birding in company, it didn't take long until I joined the local birding organization, the DuPage Birding Club whose field trips introduced me to habitats and species right in my home county that I hadn't yet discovered on my own. Better binoculars, a scope, and a National Geographic field guide were soon acquired.

From then on there was no stopping me... Now suddenly every business trip and every family vacation (unfortunately non-birders) became an opportunity to see more birds. However, these occasions are still few and far in between, and I do most of my birding in the greater Chicago area. I served as an officer of the DuPage Birding Club and have started to lead some of its field trips. And last but not least, I started this WWW site.

Here are the approximate numbers of species that I've come up with so far, grouped by geographical area. Also included are the latest additions to each list:

¹ DuPage County is approximately a square area 18 miles (29 km) on a side and located in the western suburbs of Chicago. It is land-locked, with a minimal distance to Lake Michigan of 15 miles. Ca. 290 species of birds have been observed in the county.

² Cook County includes the city of Chicago, the southern half of the Illinois shore of Lake Michigan, as well as the inner belt of Chicago suburbs.

³ Lake County is located between Cook County and the Wisconsin border and includes the northern half of the Illinois shore of Lake Michigan.

⁴ The ABA area includes all U.S. states except Hawaii, plus Canada. I have only birded actively in ca. 20 states and spent limited amounts of time (not necessarily birding) in another 25 or so and two Canadian provinces. See following table for all U.S. states, which also includes the last species added to the respective state list.

⁵ The AOU area includes the ABA area, the Hawaiian islands, most Caribbean islands, and Central America. Outside the ABA area, I've visited Hawaii (3 islands) and Mexico (Veracruz) so far.

⁶ The majority of my birding observations in the Western Palearctic (Europe, Middle East, North Africa) come from my native Switzerland. Additional observations from short trips to Italy, Austria, Hungary, Greece, and Germany.

⁷ Within the Eastern Palearctic (temperate and cold zones of Asia), I have only visited Japan and South Korea.

State List Totals

Number in parentheses is rank for number of species observed.

Here I am at the Duluth Hawk Ridge hawk watch in October 1998 (Photo by Linda Kahlbaugh).

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