I grew up feeding birds. It was always great fun to take bread, crackers, popcorn or other edibles to a beach, park, lake or refuge. The birds somehow knew who had food tucked away.
I vividly remember ducks and other birds gathering around me while I broke off bits of bread and crackers and fed them. I always tried to give the most to the ones I felt sorry for because of a broken wing, bent leg or other malformity.
I learned a lot about critters from those childhood bird-feeding excursions. I learned to recognize aggressive behavior because occasionally one of the birds would try to take the food from me or peck at me to get me to drop the food. My Mom or Dad would simply stomp their foot and the cheeky bird would back down instantly.
Geese were particularly aggressive, and my parents would watch them the closest. Safety was a matter of parental supervision. We didn’t expect the birds to act like anything but birds.
It is no longer permissible to feed the birds at some of our bird hangouts. The Bird Refuge is one such place. It is a great place to wander about and check out the birds, but the interaction I grew up enjoying and learning from is now considered wrongdoing. I have trouble with the reasons behind some rules.
After one recent trip there, my daughter reported a sad scene as a lady brought a lunch bag from McD’s and ate her lunch in front of the hungry looking birds.
Does anyone here think those birds don’t know exactly what a Big Mac tastes like, or which of the big fast food chains makes the best French fries? Heck, they probably recognize the fast food companies’ logos and colors on the bags.
Out at sea, rules are not so stringent. I have been chartered many times to take groups of birdwatchers out to sea. On some trips, we make the run to Santa Cruz Island to spot the island scrub jay or shore birds such as Oyster Catchers.
On most trips, we scout mid-Channel to locate local and pelagic seabirds. These winged hunters generally need to be brought into viewing range. Nothing seems to work quite as well as popcorn.
It is kinda funny when birdwatchers board my charterboat in the morning. They have their lunches, cameras, binoculars, species identification and logbooks, and huge bags of popped corn. Popcorn is the best chum for many species of seabirds.
I commonly look for an area with current breaks or upwelling, because I know from experience these are spots where birds naturally tend to forage. When we begin chumming handfuls of popcorn, birds seem to mysteriously appear out of nowhere.
It can be quite astounding how many different species of birds will wheel and dive around the boat. Popcorn is tasty stuff and this is amazing to watch.
After gathering dozens and sometimes hundreds of birds around the boat, everyone has an opportunity to log the birds new to them. Then we get underway and cruise at about 8 knots with a great mixed flock of birds moving with us. At times there are so many birds it looks like Alfred Hitchcock may have been right.
The idea behind getting underway and bringing the birds with us by continuing to toss out popcorn chum, is that the birds present a different and perhaps more dramatic photographic profile when following along with a moving boat, than when flocking to a drifting and nearly stationary boat.
One thing is for sure. Those seabirds love popcorn. Too bad we can’t make the refuge birds happier. I think I’d enjoy turning into a kid again and feeding them.
— Capt. David Bacon operates WaveWalker Charters and is president of SOFTIN Inc., a nonprofit organization providing seafaring opportunities for those in need. Visit softininc.blogspot.com to learn more about the organization and how you can help. Click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.
