Bird Watching
1For some reason, birdwatchers get a bad rap. In movies and shows, if they want to portray someone as nerdy, they throw a goofy vest on them, a safari hat, a pair of binoculars, a bird guide and bam!... the epitome of a nerd. In fact, I think the only thing we consider nerdier than a birdwatcher is a butterfly collector, who basically dresses like a birdwatcher with the addition of a butterfly net.
2At any rate, I recently had the pleasure of meeting this nice Russian guy named Roman on a journaling website. I corrected some of his English entries, and he helped me with some of my Russian entries. Before we knew it, we were chatting all the time, and in the course of getting to know one another, the topic of hobbies inevitably came up. When he told me he was a birdwatcher, I'll* admit that I kind of chuckled to myself. Not in a mean way... more of in a How adorable! kind of way. God, that sounds condescending! Well you know what I mean.
3Now, I live in South Florida and I'm outdoors all the time. We have a huge park near my house, and I go practically every day and walk around it several times for exercise. It has beautiful ponds, lots of trees, and lots of wildlife. Florida is absolutely teeming with birds, reptiles, and all kinds of critters. And of course, I've noticed birds before. I knew there were big white birds with long, skinny necks; and that in the ponds, there were small black birds with red beaks that made a cute beeping noise. I just didn't know what any of them were called.
4In my defense, I'm not a total stranger to birds. As a matter of fact, I have a pet bird — a cockatoo named Rocco. And I've always enjoyed seeing birds in the park — especially after a big rainfall when they all jump around in the puddles. I've just never been into them. But reading Roman's posts about certain birds that nested near his home somehow sparked a curiosity in me. I started wondering how many different kinds of birds actually live in the park, what they're called, what they eat. So, I decided it'd be fun to photograph and catalog as many of them as I could with my phone. Naturally, I couldn't get too close to them, but I could zoom in and get some pretty nice shots. This was in early spring, so a lot of the birds had chicks. Within two weeks, I had photographed a good 25 different kinds of birds.
5So naturally, I was curious to know what they were called. I pinged some of the pictures to Roman, but of course he wasn't familiar with a lot of the birds in my neck of the woods. So I took the plunge — I bought a bird guide! Yes, folks, you're hearing it right! I went to the bookstore, found a good guide with lots of pictures, walked up to the counter in front of everyone and bought it. Then I went about the exciting task of identifying my birds.
6Some of them took quite a bit of searching in my guide, but I managed to find them all. Now when I go to the park, I'm always on the lookout for any new bird, and I've actually sleuthed out a few more. In other words, meeting Roman and getting into bird watching has added another dimension to my life. But more importantly, it's taught me that if we're open to new experiences, we can learn something new from almost everyone we meet. So thank you, Roman, for broadening my horizons in the short time I've known you. I'm enjoying being a "bird nerd", and, although I'm not exactly a Trekkie... yet, may you Live long and prosper!
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*In this blog, you'll see words in red. These are CONTRACTIONS — two (or more) words combined into one, e.g. we're = we are; and REDUCTIONS — forms that have a different, reduced pronunciation when they're unstressed, e.g. hăs added = [hɛz ͜ æːɖɪd] where has is reduced to [hɛz]. These forms are an integral part of speaking (and writing!) naturally. Read more about contractions and reductions.to get/have a bad rap
This expression has nothing to do with rap music. It means to be unjustly criticized or to have a bad reputation that isn't deserved. For example, in this story, I use it to express that people make fun of birdwatchers and consider them nerds unjustly.nerd
The noun nerd and its adjective nerdy, basically refer to someone who isn't "cool" in the traditional sense. It's normally someone who likes science and computers, is studious and intellectual, is obsessed with outer space, aliens, medieval roleplay, etc. In other words, a nerd is the opposite of a badass. Note that when you're really fanatical about something, it's ok to say about yourself that you're a xxx nerd:"I'm a total language nerd. I can study languages for hours."to teem with
This simply means to be full of something, to have a lot of something. Here, when I say the park is absolutely teeming with wildlife, it means that everywhere you look, you see something wild."In the summer, this town is always teeming with tourists."If you'd like to receive notifications when new blogs come out, email "sign me up!" to
to take the plunge
To plunge is to dive quickly and energetically into something — usually the ocean, a pool, etc. In this expression, we use it figuratively as a noun in the sense of finally doing something daring and perhaps risky after having hesitated for some time. For instance, deciding to spend a lot of money on that thing you've been wanting, to leaving your job to follow your passion, etc. In this blog, I decided to do something that might potentially mark me as a nerd — I finally went out and bought a bird guide. I'm using it humorously here, of course, as if buying a bird guide takes a lot of courage."After dating Karen for three years, I decided to finally take the plunge and ask her to marry me."ping
This is an onomatopoeic word that describes the high-pitched beep heard when one receives a text message or an email. As a verb, it means to send someone something by email or text."If you could pick me up after the concert, that'd be great. I'll ping you when it's done."my neck of the woods
to be into something
This means to have an interest in something, to be a fan of something. We also say that someone is into someone if they're interested in them romantically. Note that later in the blog, I say getting into bird watching to mark the beginning of my interest in this hobby. Note that in this usage, the word into is always stressed."Every time I look at you, you're watching skateboarding videos. If you're that much into skating, you should ask your dad to buy you a skateboard for your birthday."critters
A general, informal word for animals. Although this often refers to the creepy, crawly animals that live in the wild, it can also be used for animals like hamsters, rats, mice, snakes, lizards, etc. sold in pet shops, just to name a few. Also, there may be an added nuance that the speaker finds them scary, annoying or repulsive, but not necessarily. In this blog, I just use it to refer to the wide variety of wild animals I see in the park.sleuth out
Sleuth is another word for a detective and is pronounced [sluθ]. As a verb in the phrase to sleuth out, it means to find with a little investigation or intense searching. In this post, I meant that after discovering the many species of birds in my park, I did some careful watching and discovered a few more."They say Tommy hasn't been here all week because he got fired. I'm going to have to sniff around upstairs and sleuth out what really happened."to throw something on
This phrasal verb is used for putting clothes on oneself or someone else, but in a quick or mindless way. For instance, someone who overslept can throw on their clothes and rush to work. Or people who don't care what they look like will just throw on the first thing they find in their closet. In this post, I use it to humorously refer to the way writers dress their characters when they want them to be nerdy."If you're going to the supermarket, let me throw on a shirt and come with you — I need some stuff."to go about (doing) something
This is just another way of saying to start doing something — especially something that's going to take some time and effort to complete. But it's also commonly used to refer to the process involved in doing something:"If I want to stay in the US, how do I go about becoming a resident?"Trekkie
Star Trek was a long-running American tv series in the 1960s about the Starship Enterprise and its crew in outer space. Fans of this show are called Trekkies, and they hold gatherings all over the world, where they dress up like the characters of the show. I mention them in this blog because, like birdwatchers, they have a reputation for being nerds. In fact, they're probably the ultimate nerds in a lot of people's minds. My point here is that although I'm now into bird watching, I'm still not enough of a nerd to the point of becoming a Trekkie... but you never know! 😉 Note that the phrase not exactly a Trekkie is another way of saying I can't say that I'm a Trekkie."Live long and prosper!"
This is a cultural reference. One of the crew members aboard the Starship Enterprise was an alien from the fictional planet Vulcan, named Dr. Spock. As a goodbye, he would make the hand signal you see above and say Live long and prosper! Again, I used it here to end the blog humorously with a Vulcan salute to my friend, Roman (although I'm not a Trekkie... yet!)In this post, we're focusing on REDUCTIONS — shortening a word phonetically from its original full pronunciation; and CONTRACTIONS — combining two or more words into one word. I've marked all the reductions and contractions in this story in red, and as you can see, there's quite a bit of them. That's because we use them extensively in both writing and speech in order to give our English a natural rhythm. As you listen to and read the story, note how the reductions and contractions affect the rhythm of the spoken content.