Birding is less fun with sweat in your eyes and a heat rash on your ass

This is the season when adding species to our Big Year list gets frustrating. We haven’t recorded many of the most common summer birds in Missouri and Kansas – Upland Sandpiper, Northern Bobwhite and a lot more – but the sightings don’t come as quickly and easily. We have to go farther afield to spot fresh feathers.

Yes, he’s gorgeous. He’s sweet and loving, too. He’s also hot as hell when he snuggles in your lap on an August evening. This is Ace. He alone is responsible for 20 percent of our summer air-conditioning expenditure.

The problem (or convenient excuse) is that we seem to have less time in these traditional vacation months than we do in the spring and winter, what with yard work, cookouts, concerts, etc. Or maybe it’s because of the energy-sucking humidity and the heat that seems to lie on you like a big, fat, long-haired cat (my wife and I have one, so we know). Bird watching is a lot more fun when it’s cooler and the air doesn’t feel like you’re the victim of a cosmic waterboarding.

We need to take a Saturday or Sunday and drive down to the Marais des Cygne Wildlife Refuge in Kansas or maybe a weekend to visit some of the refuges along the Mississippi River in Missouri. We could probably add most of the species we need to hit 200. We’re only 15 away, after all.

Will we do these things? Maybe in the fall.

Anyway, this is my annual post of shame, the one I write to admit how terrible a Big Year birder I am, lacking persistence, dedication, imagination, spontaneity, enthusiasm, creativity, moral fortitude, heat-resistance and talcum powder. This list of character absences leaves me with little except the ability to criticize myself. At least that’s something.

And yet – the summer is not over. I still have a month left before Labor Day, still time to throw the binoculars and scope in the car and see what’s happening beyond the backyard with its American Goldfinches, House Finches, Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, Blue Jays, Mourning Doves, Starlings, House Sparrows, American Robins, Black-capped Chickadees, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Downy Woodpeckers, Northern Flickers (Yellow-shafted only), stray cats, raccoons, possums, 13-lined ground squirrels, golden-mantled ground squirrels, just plain ordinary tree-dwelling birdseed-eating squirrels and Lucy, our squirrel- possum- raccoon- cat- bird-chasing dog.

Around here, there’s no shortage of animal activity. In fact, it’s a little wildlife refuge all on its own. And it can be watched through windows with a nice flow of cool air keeping the sweat at bay.

But no. Must not give in to air-conditioned comfort. Must fight temptation to nap the hot afternoon away. Must plan outing to see new birds. Soon. Very soon.