[pct-l] PCT's birds and other critters]

[ftclp at uaf.edu (Christin L. Pruett)]

Aloha Jean, are you really in Hawaii or do you just want to make me feel
bad freezing my rear off in the frosty north?

I did the painful thing you mentioned.  I bought a new Sibley guide to the
birds of the west (might have been for all of North America?) and cut it
up into sections.  The reason I chose sibley was that it had all of the
info on a single page - bird picture, map, some info about habitat etc...

I normally use a National Geographic guide but it has this info on 2 pages
and thus more weight.  I think my total weight was about 6 oz plus the
binocs which were 8 oz.  As I went along I bounced the cards that had
birds that I was less likely to see (desert endemics) or learned how to
identify.  I also tried hard to learn the birds before I went.  I already
knew most of the stuff from so. cal because I'd been birding there before
but there were still some hard ones that I kept the guide for the whole
trip such as empidonax flycatchers - which I still had a very hard time
iding.  Maybe someone will come up with a newer guide that is lighter but
I doubt it as most people who buy those guides are not going backpacking. 
Too bad because backpacking and birding are a natural fit.

Christy

> Did you take a field guide with you?  I usually hike with a field guide
but I expect to be a little more conscious of my pack weight when I make
it out onto the PCT (hopefully in '06) and have been looking for a book or
more than one that is smalier than my usual guide but is still
useful.  I considered buying a new general guide and chopping it up (take
out the sea birds, etc) but it seems like there's gotta be a better
answer.  If you are aware of any good one's I'd sure appreciate a tip.
> aloha,
> Jean