Take Me out to the World Series... of Birding

摘要

May 7, World Series minus 8 days and counting: Oh, for heaven's sake. I'm not threatening to kick down the locker room door and interview anybody naked. I do admit to trying to set up interviews with a World Series team, but we're talking about the World Series of Birding. I'm negotiating by phone with John Fitz-patrick, director of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. A scrub jay and flycatcher specialist, and the discoverer of several South American bird species, he's a key player on that World Series powerhouse the Sapsuckers. In a week plus a few hours, Fitz-patrick and four lab colleagues will match wits with 57 other teams in the oldest and most famous birding contest, sponsored by the New Jersey Audubon Society.