Birdwatching is Funnier Than You Think

Author, editor, and birdwatcher Luke Dempsey brought a fine sense of humor with him Wednesday night to the Katonah Memorial House. That sense of humor has stood him in good stead ever since he became obsessed with bird watching, or birding, as it is known to aficionados.

Dempsey, an import from England, prefaced his lecture by noting that birding isn't particularly popular in his native country. "In England, it borders on train watching or having no friends," he said.

He fell into birding by accompanying two friends (for whom he uses pseudonyms, either to protect them or to protect himself from them) out to watch birds one day. He then became a fan and then he became a convert. He now spends large amounts of time looking for birds, anywhere from Central Park to Central America and often attends the World Series of Birding (Yes, there is one.) in Cape May, NJ.

He chronicled their adventures looking for the rarest birds in the United States in his book, A Supremely Bad Idea: Three Mad Birders and Their Quest to See it All (Bloomsbury, 2008). He found himself falling in love with birds, falling in love with birding, and falling in love with America.

Birding has taken Dempsey to many states of the union, some many times. "I was in New Jersey more often than the NYPD racketeering squad," he noted. He recounted how he and his two friends ended up interrupting what may have been a smuggling operation on the Rio Grande in Texas, with him having to explain to the smugglers that their cameras were just to take photos of birds while his friends were oblivious to the danger because they had just seen a ringed kingfisher.

The lecture was illustrated with slides, both of the birds the trio saw and the equipment they needed to see them. One slide showed Dempsey wearing a very large hat and a very large set of binoculars. "I love this shot because I look educationally subnormal," he said.

When he is not birding, Dempsey is Editorial Director for Ballantine Books, a division of Random House and the father of twin daughters. A Supremely Bad Idea is his first book.

Dempsey's talk was presented by the Bedford Audubon Society. He was introduced by Carol Gracie, the chair of the society's events committee. The society holds program every month except July and August, said Tony Ianniello, the society's board president. "We hold walks or field trips two or three times a month," he said.