Acouple of years ago my husband Andy and I went on a guided birding trip in Cape May. For non-birders, Cape May, at the southern tip of New Jersey, is one of the top birding sites on the east coast. It is a great bird flyway, with millions of warblers, songbirds, hawks, falcons, ducks, and seabirds migrating through in spring and fall. I normally bird on my own, occasionally with a much more knowledgeable friend, but Cape May seemed like a good place to go with a guide.
We saw some wonderful birds, including my first killdeer! But what I remember most from the trip was the guide’s reaction when someone in our group spotted a mallard. After a flurry of excitement occasioned by the flash of color on the drake’s head, the person said, in a disappointed tone, “oh, it’s just a mallard.” (Mallards are the most common ducks in our part of the world.)