- It's a good bet that few people in Wyoming have ever matched the number of individual bird species identified by Bob Hargis of Riverton.

I'm Steve Peck of Wyoming, PBS.

This is "Wyoming Chronicle".

(bright orchestral music) - [Narrator] Programming on Wyoming PBS is brought to you in part by Wyoming humanities, enhancing the Wyoming narrative to engage communities with grants and programs across Wyoming for more than 50 years.

We proudly support Wyoming PBS.

- Across seven decades of observation, documentation, travel and inextinguishable enthusiasm, Bob Hargis of rural Fremont County has seen many different kinds of birds with the emphasis on many.

I'm a person who's interested in birds, I'll put it that way.

I like them.

I live in a property that has a lot of birds on it.

We have some water and some trees and some open country.

And my parents pointed out birds to me from the porch when I was a little kid.

My mother in particular.

And because of the birds that come there, I think I can identify probably dozens of different species of birds, maybe 60 at least, which is fun for me.

How many birds have you identified authentically in your birding career?

I'm at 60.

Where are you now?

(Bob chuckles) - I think it's 6,075.

- So we're up close to 6,100.

I didn't know there were that many birds in the world, but there are more than that, aren't there?

- Yeah, there are 10,500 at least.

And of course with the genetics and splits and lumps together of species and discovery of new ones.

It's probably gonna be up over 11,000.

- I have a picture of a bird on my phone, which is the combination of the northern red-shafted flicker and the yellow-shafted called an integrade, I think is the word.

And it's got the beautiful coloring of both, which I didn't realize that's what I had, but an expert told me.

So that's the sort of thing you're talking about.

Like any good dedicated birder, Hargis always has his eyes, ears, and mind open for an interesting bird sighting, even when he's in the middle of a television interview.

- Oh, look at the sharp, excuse me.

We gotta stop.

There's a sharp-shinned hawk on the deck, landed just behind you, Steve.

You want to take.

I'm sorry.

Should we shut it off?

- Do we see him?

- [Producer] We see it.

It's right there.

- One of my favorites.

- Yeah, there he is.

And he's probably trying to.

Oh, look.

Oh, it's a nice male.

Nice-- - So you can tell the difference between the coopers and the sharp-shin.

- Well, that one was good because his head was like this.

It's kind of, they got no neck.

And a-- - And the sharpie has a little-- - The sharpie has.

But there are other ways that are all, but some are really-- - [Producer 2] Oh.

He went down.

- He went down.

He's checking a drink.

Anyway.

Sorry.

Keeping eye contact with a bird watcher you noticed is quite difficult, Steve.

- Yes, there are people in the world who have documented more bird sightings than Bob Hargis.

Not many, but a few.

But it's a good bet that no one has ever enjoyed it more than this octogenarian California transplant who with wife Suzanne, saw Wyoming in the 1990s and hurried to make it his new home.

- I think that just as exciting as it is for a birder to see a new species.

And I like to do a little lifer dance.

It's pretty creaky now.

But the joy, around the world in birding, I think that there's a joy in the local people who are keen on birds showing somebody new and their joy of seeing it.

That's much more than greed or, that's what keeps people, I think, joyful about birds.

Just beyond the fact, like your mother was talk.

You talked about your mom.

She just loved to see them and their colors and how they changed during the year.

But the joy in watching you get keen on it was probably her and what got you more into it.

- People come to Wyoming and I've heard them say to me, "Well, I came here 'cause I wanna see wildlife "and where I live, I don't get to see wildlife."

And what they typically mean is they don't get to see a deer or a moose or an antelope or a bear.

And I've thought in a very nice way of saying, you see wildlife all the time where you live, I'm sure if you just do this.

I mean, it's one of the great wildlife experiences you can have, is noticing what birds are in the trees.

And you've done it 6,000 times.

- Well, with the help of joyful people around the world who wanted to share.

- Yeah.

It's great, isn't it?

A bird that you see all the time, no big deal.

But someone comes from somewhere else and they've never seen it before, and suddenly you're special and then your bird is, and you've experienced that with them too.

Do you know the first, in your time that you would call yourself a birder, the first identification that you made and sort of charted somehow?

- Sure.

- Do you know?

- I think I showed them to you a while ago, but yeah.

My old trashed out bird book.

I always made a note of the first time that, at least that I noted it in the bird book, seeing the bird.

- What was it?

Do you know?

Can you think of some very early ones?

- Oh God.

Oh, my very first bird, I think I had... Well, I think a mockingbird in the desert.

And also quail, because we had gamble quail down there.

And let's see, I'm trying to think of anything else.

- Oh, roadrunner.

- Roadrunner.

- Roadrunner.

Oh gosh, yeah.

Roadrunner.

What in the heck is that?

- And that was in-- - That's a cuckoo.

- What year, roughly?

- Oh, maybe '48, when I was just five, six years old.

- What's the most recent new identification?

- Ooh.

Ah, an old college buddy of mine, periodontist from California, Barry Staley, and I realized we were getting to be old fossils.

And he said, "Let's go to Hawaii, Big Island."

I've never been to Hawaii, except Suzanne and I have been stopping over on a flight to New Zealand or Australia or something.

Anyway, we went to the big island and found a lot of birds, endemics on our own.

Hawaii is full of introduced birds that are from around the world that are successful too.

So that was all new for there anyway.

But anyway, we paired up with a local lady birding company and saw nine species of endemic birds that are only found above the mosquito level.

But that's a long story.

But anyway, yeah.

Last bird?

I don't know, a gray partridge in the parking lot of a beach hotel there.

- [Steve] So, you never know where it might happen.

- [Bob] Never know.

- 6,100 species of birds.

So you didn't see all of those here from your porch?

- [Bob] No, no, no.

- You've gotta go find them.

- But Wyoming is a darn good place to watch bird?

I think I have about 300, 299 I think.

No, no, I'm sorry, 304.

299 in Fremont County.

So it's an under birded state, and I'll explore that later.

But yeah, it took a long time to go.

But a lot of it started with a career change after teaching in California, finding out a company in Riverton, that they were interested in getting their optics out to birders.

They didn't know they were interested in birders.

But I took a look at them and said, why aren't you in the birding market?

They didn't know what birding was.

And so ironically that day, a magazine called Bird Watchers Digest came out with a list of 35 or so bird festivals in the United States.

And I said, oh my gosh, what a good way to meet local birders and work on your list.

I wasn't that greedy at the time, but it was a chance to travel on their dime.

And so we did.

And they were amazed at that in fact, that this market was as big as the hunting market, which they were aiming at and growing faster than the hunting market at that time.

- Well, you said a chance to travel.

- You bet.

- You showed me a website called eBird that I think a lot of birders are using now, and it has a map of the places you've been.

How many countries?

Do you know offhand?

- [Bob] About 65 actively birded.

Yeah.

- Every continent except-- - Antarctica.

- You haven't been Antarctica yet.

There's a chance, maybe.

- No.

- Not great birding country there, I suppose.

- Well, let's put it this way.

It would be wonderful, but it's terribly expensive for 20 species.

It's an investment that we probably won't be able to make due to finances as well as New Guinea, which is terribly expensive as well.

- Yeah.

If someone steps out on the front porch and says, "Hey look, there's a robin."

Is that person a birder or does it take more than that?

- Step one.

- Step one, yeah.

The beats not doing that, I guess.

- You talked about your mother and father having pointed out birds to you and that you caught on to their joy in it.

At least you were empathic with that.

And same thing happened with my folks.

My dad was thrilled, and mother were both thrilled when we found a baby just fledged mockingbird, that fell out of a little nest, and we brought it home in a box, which is probably not the right thing to do.

But dad was thrilled that we had thought about it and we found the nest and went back.

And he showed us quail and stuff.

- Yeah.

What pushed you over the threshold from that to beginning the path that you've been on now for 50, 60 years?

- Well, after college, dad passed away.

I had to go back to home while my brother was still in college.

And I needed a job so I found a science camp that was teaching outdoor education to sixth graders.

And they needed a teacher with a degree in science.

And so I got hired and the principal was an avid birder.

In fact, a legendary birder of, had studied at Cal with Grinnell, written a master's degree on the Bushtit in California.

And he found that I had had an interest in birds.

And we went out with him.

I went out with him for a number of times.

It was in shock at how in the heck have I missed all this color?

And eventually I became good enough to teach a special bird class for the kids on Thursdays.

And it was kind of fun.

And then I noticed the seasonal changes in migration, and that's the addiction where it started.

And then we joined a local bird club, which is another good thing.

We had a tremendously active bird club.

And then Suzanne and I stuck around as a young guy.

If somebody asks you to be president of the club and you think, oh, what an honor.

And they realize you got sucked into something.

But anyway, I was president of the club for a couple years.

Suzanne was the event secretary.

- How old were you then do you think?

- Oh I was 28, 30.

- Twenties.

It's a great thing.

It strikes me that one of the fun things about getting involved with, being interested in birds is something you can start when you're a child if you want to.

- [Bob] Absolutely.

- And you can keep doing it, then, forever.

There's always more to learn, isn't there?

More to find out.

- Well, let me tell you.

If you ever want to be humiliated and think you know something about something, I think that in birding, there's never a day or a time goes by that you don't learn something from somebody else's field of expertise and notice something different about it.

But I think it's true of anything else.

The more you know, perhaps the less you know, which keeps you going because you need to know more.

And you're saying, oh.

That, ooh.

- If you had to define a birder, let's look at it from that angle.

What would you say?

- Well, a birder is where you were, where you are now.

But just-- - [Steve] So I count?

- Absolutely you count.

If you decided to, somebody told you that there was a sharp-shinned hawk that showed up, or let's see, a rare bird that showed up in Lander and you said, "Well, I like, maybe a lesser gold finch."

And somebody's got them at their feeders.

And you said, "Well, let's take a trip "over there and stop by."

Yeah, you're a birder now.

You're a birder.

- What are the characteristics, if there are any?

Is there a list of what makes a good birder?

- You just get better at, just feel more comfortable, I guess.

I don't know what to say.

You notice things.

Your eyes are different, even though mine are not as good as they were as yours are.

But I just notice movement.

I know what's may be there, but I think there's an implication that birders don't get excited about seeing yard birds out here.

I still just am as excited.

I still derive joy from seeing local birds.

Yard birds!

- [Steve] He's now well into senior citizenhood.

But Bob Hargis not only accepts higher technology aids to birding, he embraces them.

A favorite online resource is the aforementioned birding website called eBird.

- You talked about eBird.

I think that's the best tool that's been invented in the history of birding, I think.

- You've practiced, obviously.

You get in the habit of keeping your eyes out and then you a shape or some movements or something.

And then through sheer experience and repetition, you can recognize a shape-- - Oh, I still make mistakes.

Oh, believe me.

Oh, don't.

(chuckles) eBird is really wonderful for that.

- [Steve] Pointing out your mistakes?

- Pointing out your.

They have cops, eBird cops.

I shouldn't use the word.

They're called reviewers.

- I wondered about that.

If you make an ID, it's not just automatically accepted then.

- Oh, absolutely.

Especially, when I enter a picture that is of the wrong bird into eBird.

"Thank you for being a part of eBird," they'll say, "Bob, thank you."

But the bird here is not that species.

It's another one.

And of course, I... At first, you know ego, we talked about egotism.

No.

But the first impulse now is, "Thank you "for your help keeping eBird records accurate."

And I've changed my list because those people are experts.

They know their stuff.

- Do you ever participate in that process yourself?

- Oh, I've done a few of them.

I've done a few reviews.

I'm on the record committee or have been on the bird record committee for the state.

And that's challenging, but good.

- If you were thinking about your own abilities as a birder, are you really good at one part of it, do you think?

What's your best?

- [Bob] Oh boy.

- Or maybe we could look at it the other way.

Is there something about birding you wish you were better at?

- Oh God, yes.

Field note.

All my career life, I wish I'd taken better notes.

And I remember Roger Tory Peterson, I think everybody's mentor back in the day.

And the guy that wrote the first field guides said the most important thing.

And even the new field guide people, David Sibley and Ken Kaufman and all these people around the world say the best thing to do is develop a skill of taking a field note and just being able to draw what you see and note the feathers and keep better record.

No, that was never my long suit.

'Cause everything I drew in my book looked like either Daffy Duck or Tweety Bird.

- You've mentioned some of these names.

Peterson, a generation older.

- [Bob] Oh God.

Two generations.

- Two.

Did you ever encounter him?

- My wife surprised me for my birthday when he put out a book in '70, his 14th book or something.

And had a book signing in San Francisco.

She got me that book.

And I think I saw him on a boat trip once out of Monterey Bay.

- And I'm not trying to get you to drop names, but someone who's traveled as much as you have, has made as many identifications as you have and has the sort of the way that you are, an outgoing person, a curious person, likes meeting people.

Do you know Sibley, for example, have you met him?

- Oh, I've met him.

Met him several times.

At bird festivals.

Bird festivals are the greatest thing in the world for a new birder to try to get better.

- Where's the most out of the way or farthest place from your home, whether it was in Wyoming or California that you ever went to see birds?

- China.

- China.

- New Zealand.

The tip of New Zealand.

Tasmania.

- Did you go to Tasmania because you wanted to see a particular bird or just to see the birds that were there?

- No, I think Suzanne and I went in 2012.

We were house sitting a friend's house in New Zealand while they were skiing in British Columbia.

And they were old friends.

Anyway, we got a chance to take off after they came home.

And we flew to Australia, to Melbourne, and we rented campers.

That was fun.

But we went to Tasmania, which has about 15 or 20 birds that exist, nowhere else.

- There was a famous birder-- - [Bob] Oh!

- Who died just last week.

- Victor Emmanuel, yeah.

- Victor Emmanuel.

And he was an author and he organized bird travel and of course had a tremendous list.

And someone that you knew.

- Oh yeah.

Suzanne and I were down in Texas in '89 at High Island.

And the migrants come up from South America, warblers and cappers and cardinals.

And oh my God.

Every birder has to be there in the first week of April.

Well, I was there groveling around along a trail.

They have wonderful little trail.

Houston Audubon has done a wonderful job.

Anyway, I was looking at a bird and I'm trying to get on him and it was a new bird.

Black-throated blue warbler.

I realized that there was a fellow sitting next to me and he's saying, "What are you looking at?"

I said, my 400th bird.

And he said, "Congratulations."

He was just so thrilled.

He just really, you could tell he was just a nice guy.

It was Victor Emanuel.

So we got up and talked about it.

He said, "Boy, you're 400th."

He said, "That's a good... "You're young.

You're gonna get more than that."

But he said, "I'm Victor Emanuel."

But he also had just started VENT tours, Victor Emanuel Nature Tours, and a lot of friends have gone with him.

And he's got a very renowned guides working with him.

And they never have left him because he's he was such a kind fellow and brilliant birder.

- There's some competition.

I'm sure you've experienced it.

I want to get more birds on my list than you have.

Or I want to see something before you see it.

Were you ever motivated by that?

I'm sure you saw people who were.

- Yes.

Yes I have seen people that way.

And perhaps I've got a little of it myself in a sense.

It's wonderful to see a new bird species.

But there are people that I have experienced that when they go to even New Guinea or say Borneo, I'll give you the example, on Kinabalu, they see the bird, they get excited and they say, "What's next" to the guide.

What's the next bird?

And I remember one time just cooling, saying, let's just enjoy this bird.

- Savor it for awhile.

- Savor it for a while.

And the guides, of course, are happy with that.

But some guides, of course, are pressured by that sort of person who, "Oh, what's next?

"What do you got for it?

"I would sure love to have seen that.

"Why didn't we see that?"

That's a rare, very rare.

- Really?

- Very rare.

And most of the people are enjoy.

That's why I would go back, Suzanne and I in South Africa.

We would go back to the same place day after day after day after day after day, we had the chance to do it.

- You live in Wyoming now.

How is Wyoming as a bird state?

- Wyoming is probably the most under birded region in the lower 48.

- [Steve] What does that mean?

- That means nobody has been out here to write the book.

But when you used to read "Peterson Field Guides" and the early field guide, even the early National Geo, they would have the line for where the species is.

And they would go around the state of Wyoming.

They'd make a little notch in the place because it was unknown if the bird appeared there.

- Not that the bird wasn't here, it just hadn't been documented.

- It just hadn't been doc.

There were no good records at the time.

But that's been fun.

And that's certainly changed with Game and Fish hiring non-game biologists that are permanently affixed to keeping records.

Plus the university.

Dave McDonald at the university.

- You showed me your bird books.

And the way you've done it is you take the book right out in the field with you, you open it up.

You're not there to preserve the book, you're there to... And you've circled things and you've written in it and-- - Oh, I know.

I've tracked them.

- You can look back and that's what it's for.

- Yeah.

My wife is much more coddling a bird book and I just keep saying, well, we can maybe buy another copy later or get a used one.

But this is a tool.

- Yeah, a tool.

Exactly right.

Do you have a favorite bird ID that you've ever made that you think, boy, this was something I've always wanted and I got it.

- Sri Lanka in '19, knowing that there was a bird called a Serendib Scops-owl.

A villager had found it and told me where it was.

And he didn't speak much Eng, but it was on a muddy cliff, and I'm an old guy.

When I crawled up that cliff and the mud and fell down, but photographed it.

- [Steve] There it was.

- [Bob] That was exciting.

- [Steve] Worth it to you?

- Oh, well, I was sweating bullets, but yeah, it was definitely worth it.

For me a surprise.

Oh yes.

For me, the surprise of the century was in '22, we got a call in March, which is very late, from Wyoming Game and Fish.

A bird watching friend said, "Bob, "I know it's your dream bird and you've never seen it.

"It's a snowy owl.

"There's one showed up over at Ocean Lake."

And I went, oh my God.

I was shopping at Smiths with my cart, and I abandoned it.

I did a good-- - You abandoned the cart.

- I abandoned the cart in the middle of produce section and ran out to the door and came home, got Suzanne.

And we went up to the place where.

And one of the bird biologists there, or wildlife bio was named Amy.

She was out there with her eye on the bird.

She was from North Dakota.

So they occur there.

And I got off and I saw this white spot and yeah, that was cool.

But I didn't ID it.

She did.

But that was my last North American bird, in continental bird.

- Really?

I'm gonna ask you about something I hate to ask you about.

You're about ready to leave Wyoming.

- Mhm.

Sadly.

- I wish that weren't true.

- Well, yeah, it's tough too.

But we're getting to the age where, the altitude is, and the taking care of this huge piece of house and huge piece of property and doing stuff.

It's time for us to downsize.

- Where are you going?

- Well, we're going to my niece and her husband are prominent in Las Vegas in the hospitality trade, and they have a little condo and then they're moving to a bigger place to rent.

And so they offered us to live there and we're gonna rent from them.

- How's the birding down there?

- Oh, it's great.

We've got desert species that are rare.

Gray vireo comes to mind that I haven't seen.

So you asked about a bird I haven't seen.

There's one.

- That might be your chance.

I had a feeling you'd be a good interview guest.

And you are.

I'm sick that Wyoming's losing you.

That's one of the reasons I wanted to have you on the show.

Bob Hargis, thanks for being with us on "Wild and Chronicle."

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