5 Questions with Bill Thompson III by Jason Frederick

I have met several of the top names in the birding world. One that I was very excited to meet was Bill Thompson III and I finally got to meet him at the 2012 Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Fest. I was truly honored when he agreed to sit down with me for this interview and then suggested a picture with him, my wife and I. The guy is as kind and humorous as I hoped he was.
Bill Thompson III is editor of Bird Watcher’s Digest, writer of several books including his newest one The Young Birder's Guide to Birds of Eastern North America that he wrote with his daughter and her classmates, a father, a great field trip leader, a musician, a husband, and many other things. You can check out his blogs at http://billofthebirds.blogspot.com/ , his magazine’s website at http://www.birdwatchersdigest.com , or check out iTunes for his podcasts under the title This Birding Life.

How did you encounter your spark bird?
I encountered my spark bird, I am not exactly sure, it was either ’68 or 69’, 1968 or 1969. In our front yard in Pella, Iowa, It was November and we were raking leaves, there was just a dusting of snow, we wanted to get the leaves up before the snow got thick, Iowa gets deep snow, and this big white bird flew up into the oak tree in our front yard. I called my mom’s attention to it and she said. “I think it is an owl.” I ran in to get these old World War I binoculars and this filed guide we had, a Chester Reed Guide, and we figured out it was a Snowy Owl. I was just so fascinated by that. So I took the field guide, in the ensuing days and weeks and I flipped through and I saw, 20 or so pages later, Painted Bunting. And it said lives on shrubby habitat. So, I spent the rest of the winter looking around  Iowa, in our Iowa woods,  for a Painted Bunting, because they had no range maps back then, so I kinda went off like that for some time and till this day anytime I get to see a Snowy Owl, which is few and far between, is a real treat. Of course all kids know Snowy Owl now from Harry Potter and Hedwig.

Who was the person to get you into birding?
The person that got me into birding was really probably, my mom. We moved to Ohio from Iowa in about 1971, she got involved with a group of women that went out every Friday bird watching, the Betsy Birders, the Betsy Mills Club, a women’s club, in Marietta, Ohio. The gal who was the leader of that group was Pat Murphy, so she was sort of the knowledgeable birding mentor, but it was my mom’s interest in trying to meet new people that got us into the bird club and once a month they would let kids come, so my brother and I would go. We spent most of our time catching crawdads and throwing rocks. Fairly regularly we would spot birds that the adults wouldn’t see, I remember once I scared up a Harrier in a field. And so, you got positive feedback for the adults for finding birds and it kinda sunk in to me that it was a neat way to interact with adults and I got more and more interested in. My mom open the door and Pat Murphy, who was the local bird columnist in the paper and the local bird expert, she was the one organized the field trips and took us out, so she was my first birding mentor, but then there have been a lot of others over the years that have helped me to get better and learn more stuff and learn how to be field craft and stuff like that.

You have an all-expenses paid 14 day trip to go birding, where are you going and why?
There are a few places on my wish list, I think Australia maybe. I have never been to Australia, I have been close, I have been to Papua, New Guinea, but I have never been to Australia.  The whole thing about Australia fascinates me; the bird life, the animal life, the history, the people. I think Australians are light hearted, easy going people. I have encountered a lot of Australians in my travels and it just a place I have always wanted to go and hope to get there on of these days. And 14 days would be just about right. You would not want to fly down there for a 3 day trip. That would kill ya, coming and going. It takes you 3 days on either day to get there.

What would you consider your greatest birding trip?
That would be really hard to pick out. There are elements of every trip that I really like. The New Guinea trip was fabulous because we saw 18 of the 36 or so Birds of Paradise and those are spectacular things that you can’t even believe they are birds. They are so ornate and almost ridiculous in their coloring and pigments and their behavior. Every trip I go on there is something really memorable. I don’t want to fink out on the answer, but I have been to Guatemala a few times and had a fantastic time there. I love going somewhere new in the states. I would love to go to central Alaska, I have never been there. I would have to say some of the exotic locations. I have been to South Africa a few times and that place is stupendous for birds and nature. It is hard for me not to pick some place that’s not in North America, because I am such a North American homer. It is hard to one. I can pick elements of every single trip I have taken that would make it stand out in my memory.

Why do you bird?
Why do I bird, you know, boy, that’s a deep one. For me, it is a healing, cleansing, almost like a spiritual thing. I love being out in nature with birds, I love being out so far out that you do not know where you are and nobody knows where you are. There is something very restorative about that, given our connections and all of our vices and constantly being wired to the world. I love being out in nature and just far, far away from everything. And that, I found that recharges your battery in your heart and soul. And I also like being out with people, like guiding. I have had some great trips here at the Space Coast Birding Festival and Florida is a great place to come to watch birds. I so appreciate that when a festival comes to a place like this, that it is making an impact on the local politicians and city planners and I hope that helping over time to encourage people that is worth setting aside habitat, that is worth preserving wild places. Because if we do not have these wild places, we do not have animals and the birds that people come to see. And there are millions of dollars; it’s all about money in the end for most of these decision makers. It’s all about money and jobs. To be able to support what Brevard County is doing here and putting away natural space and setting it aside and protecting it, I like being part of that. So that is part of it too. And of course I like getting the young people and that’s paying it forward. Somebody was kind to me when I was a kid, spent time with me; I feel a real obligation to pass that on and pay it forward, so that is why I am doing it.