Birders are weird.

I was out at the wetlands and ran into a couple of birders discussing a sparrow they’d seen.

savannah sparrow on bush
One of my pics of a Savannah sparrow

It looked like a Savannah Sparrow, but one of them was pointing to a picture in his copy of Sibley and practically shouting that it was a bunting.

I pulled out my phone and snapped a pic then pulled up my copy of Merlin bird ID to identify the little bugger… It was a Savannah Sparrow.

This guy’s response was that the picture was no good and it was a “fuckin’ bunting.”

I asked if he knew what kind of woodpecker this was to distract him and get him to calm down.

ladder-backed woodpecker with head in hole
According to the park ranger, this is a ladder-backed woodpecker

He insisted that it was a sapsucker, not a woodpecker. He was wrong, but I certainly wasn’t going to argue with him. I simply thanked him and got as far away as I could without actually running.

The problem with Sibley’s is that the pictures are teeny-tiny artists’ renderings, not photos. -Not that photos that small would help my tired old eyes.

At the end of the day, birders are not always calm and peaceful, some of them are as wacko as anyone you’ll ever meet.

No wonder I hate to leave the house.