Richard Crossley is on a mission to make birding cool
While birds of exotic or colorful plumage always attract “ohhs” of admiration, it takes a real bird lover to find joy in the common grackle, a bossy, pest-infested blackbird that bullies smaller birds and eats just about anything, including garbage.
Meet Richard Crossley of West Cape May, a real bird lover.
“For me, the grackle is a stunning bird,” raves Crossley, author of the new “Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds.” “It looks mean and ugly – sinister I think is an appropriate word – but this is a mind-blowing bird that does all sorts of funky displays, cocking its tail and bowing it … If you see it in the right light, it isn’t black at all, but an iridescent purple-green-blue. These birds just have incredible character.”
First introduced to bird watching by a schoolteacher in his native England (“I think many of the most obsessive birders usually start at kids”), Crossley has gone to extraordinary lengths – and distances – in pursuit of his interest. As a young man, he passed on a dual career in soccer and cricket to study birds. He has hitchhiked some 100,000 miles around the globe to watch birds, capture them in photographs, and learn their behaviors. He even moved from Great Britain to Cape May because, he says, it is “the greatest place in the world” for bird watching.
Birding “is not a passion,” says Crossley. “It’s life. It’s everything.”
With the knowledge of a scholar, the zeal of an evangelist, and the optimism of a press agent, Crossley is now on a mission to make birding cool. If he has anything to do with it, the image of the meadow-dwelling nerd with backpack, bifocals and binoculars will soon be extinct. He has only to look to his homeland to see the possibilities.
“In England, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has more than 1 million members, including 170,000 in the youth division,” Crossley says. “In America, that would be the equivalent of 5 or 6 million members. We are in the next few years going to make a conscious effort to really change that old image, make it younger and more trendy” to be a bird watcher.
While keeping details of his master plan under wraps (Crossley hints he will recruit some “fashionable” people to spearhead the birding-is-cool movement), he continues to educate the public about birds, both through his books and through workshops like “Learning to Look,” a two night-three day experience at the Virginia Hotel Oct. 2-4. Crossley also offers self-guided packages under the same name.
This weekend, he’ll teach fellow birders to fine-tune their bird-spotting, and identify species more easily through a number of indicators, including behavior and habitat.
“We simplify everything – birding is not complicated, but it has been made complicated by all the talk about field marks and different plumage and colors,” says Crossley. “Really, identifying birds id just like identifying people” – which is done as much by voice, posture, gait and environment as by facial features.
“The people we know really well we can identify in the pitch black, based on their size and shape as they walk away, based on their behavior and where they hang out.
“So for example if someone were to describe me, they might say, ‘A white guy with red cheeks, not too tall, quite broad, a couple pounds overweight with a funny voice – that crazy passionate white guy who’s always out on the beach.” When it comes to birding, says Crossley, “We make it more fun and use words that people can relate to.”
He will take his team to several prime locations including South Cape May Meadows, Higbee Beach, Beach Plum Farm, and Cape May Point State Park where they are likely to see hundreds of varieties of migrating birds.
“One of the beauties of this is I’m a local, I know every blade of grass down in this neck of the woods,” says Crossley. “We’ll see ducks and shorebirds, warblers, sparrows and bluebirds – we’ll be keeping our eyes up in the air for raptors, for hawks, for peregrine falcons.” He says those falcons are the fastest creatures on earth, and have been clocked at 250 mph in a dive (“You don’t want to get hit by one.”)
A review in American Scientist of Crossley’s new birding guide, which includes his photos and impressions of 600 species, says the book is “ruffling some feathers” among more staid members of the birding community.
“It is a book that you will either love or hate,” the reviewer continues, “depending on whether you like to have nature presented to you in an idealized way or whether you can tolerate some of the messiness of reality.” Crossley concedes his desire to bring birding out of the traditional rock-ribbed formality and make it accessible to more people has vexed those who have always rules the roost.
“Birding is very competitive – it’s a business for a lot of people and everyone wants to keep his share of the pie. But if the pie gets bigger, it’s better for everyone. Part of what I do is encourage people to look at things slightly differently and see them in a different light. Hopefully it will open up a new world for people and perhaps close a few doors as well.”
Asked if he has a favorite bird, Crossley says no. Then he pauses.
“While I don’t have a favorite bird, there is one I relate to. If you go to the beach this time of the year and in winter, the sanderlings are chasing the waves into the water, and the waves chase them back.” He says he shares “lots of similarities” with the birds: “To start with, they’re short and chunky, and they migrate long distances, traveling the world. They’re hyperactive and always on the run. I love the sanderling. They have such great character.”
For more information about the Learning to Look workshop, visit VirginiaHotel.com or call 800-732-4236. For more about Richard Crossley, visit www.crossleybooks.com.
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