It was Wednesday May 30, 2013 and Ingrid and I were driving up to Bar Harbor for something called the “Acadia Birding Festival.”

Ingrid and I had only been dating for four months, and we were still in that phase where I would accede to anything she asked; now I make a federal case when asks me to put the toilet seat down.

Anyway, the Acadia Birding Festival was (and is) a five day event where birders from throughout the country come together to see and (worst of all) talk about birds.

In the “Before Ingrid” years . . . I had bird feeders in my yard and rooted for the Road Runner on Saturday morning cartoons . . . but I knew very little about birds . . . nor did I care to learn.

So when Ingrid dragged me up to Acadia, I remember looking forward to the long weekend of bird watching every bit as much as a root canal.

Our first stop was Mount Desert High School where a half dozen Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks were feeding in a small pond.  There, for the first time, I witnessed birders racing into a parking lot, violating traffic laws and civility,  just to see and perhaps photograph a rare bird (Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks belong in Texas or Florida).

I was appalled!!!!

Five days later I was hooked on Birding and yesterday . . . a little over 10 years later . . . I was breaking speed limits to see two Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks at a Sanford, Maine sewage treatment plant.