Ornithology (and my experience)

Ornithology -- The study of birds

Similar to insects, I got into bird life at a young age.  It began with taking country drives in the winter on back roads to visit relatives farms and noticing these small gray birds with white bellies feeding on the side of the road (I'm going to guess this was probably in 1993)  I got quite fixated on trying to find out what they were, and as this was before the internet was available, it meant actually doing some research. 

 My dad once again pulled through (if you knew my dad, you'd realize this was a feat for him, as he struggled with some major personal issues) and got me an Audubon's field guide to the birds. There, the fixation was realized, and I found out that the little gray bird was a dark-eyed junco. The field guide became a reservoir of some degree of obsession, and I actually drew every bird in that guide (I did the same with the insect field guide I had).  I think if I was this same kid nowadays, the school system would've called me "autistic".  

That Christmas I got a pair of Bushnell binoculars. They were terrible in comparison to the extremely good birding binoculars I own now, but my child-self didn't care and it allowed me to find more birds.  I loved the process of finding a bird and identifying it to species level.  

Enter my 20's -- Realize there's entire groups (naturalist clubs) that exist that have birding trips to different parts of the province to specifically find birds. I join, and the fixation is rekindled, as the teenage years were not very bird-obsessive (thanks black metal).   

Eventually, as time progresses, and post-secondary school materializes, the bird knowledge increases. I actually had a job teaching field ornithology to college students after I graduated, as well as processing dead birds for the college collection. Even got a brief stint working for the Royal Ontario Museum in their bird collections department - Extremely interesting job that was, and met very talented ornithologists. The ROM has the largest bird collection in Canada.   

University came after college, and more doors opened. I was flown to the arctic to assist with shorebird banding; did owl banding in central Ontario; a raven vocalization study in the Yukon,  and then got my current job which (in addition to a myriad of other "nature-based" activities) has me doing a huge amount of bird-related things (breeding bird surveys being the #1 occupation).  I'm happy about that, as I get to fly all over the country to do this work, as well as locations outside of the country (Caribbean for example).  

...and now I own chickens.