Date: 4.25.24

Time:  12:30 pm – 3:30

Location:  Old Main Dike Road, A Boat Launch and The Palmatory Overlook

Birds Spotted:  Tree Swallow, American Pelicans, Greater and Lessor Yellowlegs, Trumpeter Swans

Animals:  A single leech – Let’s not talk about that okay?

Number of Pictures Taken:  227

Keepers:  58

It happened. I’ve spent enough time identifying and photographing birds that I’ve fallen into a rabbit hole. It all started with a pair of Yellowlegs. I wasn’t sure if they were Greater Yellowlegs or not. One was bigger, one smaller, but I couldn’t make a definitive call. So, I turned to Google, which also couldn’t give me a clear answer. That’s when I headed to the subreddit r/whatisthisbird, posting the picture for help.

The answer was the rabbit hole. A Redditor identified a Greater and a Lesser Yellowlegs in that one picture and added that it offers a useful side-by-side comparison. This prompted the question: how do you make bird pictures useful? Enter the rabbit hole.

To skip over hours of research, I found eBird.org. It’s a free website where birdwatchers share sightings and expertise through bird checklists. Launched by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Audubon in 2002, eBird helps archive and share information for scientific research, conservation, and education.

How deep is this rabbit hole? I’m now taking photos, recording GPS coordinates, and capturing sounds for each bird sighting to upload to eBird. I might even link to it in future blog posts so we can all see if this is a good way to make bird images more useful. I’ve entered my first batch. The real issue is integrating this into my workflow since it does take some time.

Falling into a rabbit hole is always a sign of a great project. The point of no return is where the idea grows bigger, better, and all-consuming. We’re there. Should I do video too?