By April, I kept hearing that the gull was still hanging around in Portland, and that it was likely it would be gone any day.  Why don't I just bring my binoculars along on my lunch-time jog downtown?  Over the course of almost two weeks, I went out to look for the gull almost every day.  But I realized I didn't have the identification skills to find it, so I enlisted the online help of an Oregon birder who had seen the gull.  I described my sightings to him every day, and even began sending him pictures.

Each time, he emailed me in detail why the bird I had seen was not the right one.  His emails were precise, and his explanations challenged me to keep trying.  He wrote notes such as, "The amount of sun can drastically alter the Slaty-backed's appearance, so that the wet slate so evident under overcast skies can appear pure gray in sunlight."

After nearly two weeks, I decided to try one more time.  I parked my car near the Burnside Bridge and looked up at the street lights on the bridge.  There he was.  Two weeks of instruction, and I had unintentionally entered into an education about the subtleties of seabirds.

On the boat, I was surprised when one of the passengers approached me and said he recognized my name.  "I'm George," he said.  George, who had anonymously helped me learn about seabirds four months ago, explains how he came to enjoying pelagic trips.
"I will have been birding for 60 years. That's when, in 1949, I looked out the window of my parents' farmhouse east of Lebanon, and saw a covey of California Quail. The species became number one on a life list that now totals 556. My mother later gave me a copy of Roger Tory Peterson's A Field Guide to Western Birds. My passion turned to a near-obsession. I'm still obsessed."

George and I stand with our binoculars on the back of the boat, looking out at the water. Each time he raises his binoculars and follows passing birds, he seems to revel in awe.

"Pelagic birding came later for me. I was crossing the Bay of Fundy on the old Bluenose ferry that ran between Bar Harbor, Maine, and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, and saw my first Sooty Shearwater. I was captivated. We saw an estimated one hundred and fifteen Sooty Shearwaters today. I am captivated all over."