A Passion for Birds

As a nature writer and photographer, Mathew Tekulsky has to take on some of the qualities of the birds he observes. For example, he has to watch like a hawk as he quietly waits to study and photograph birds. ‘It’s sort of like being an explorer,’ he says. ‘I go out into the field and I’m open to what I am going to find.’ Capturing the feathered friends on film is not easy. It requires patience and a steady hand. Although primarily a writer, Tekulsky focuses on photography and observation while doing fieldwork, saying, ‘If you take too many notes, it decreases spontaneity.’ The Sullivan Canyon resident is also known as the ‘Birdman of Bel Air,’ the title of his biweekly column on the National Geographic Web site (http://news.NationalGeographic.com), which receives nearly five million visitors a month. The column, written in a friendly, conversational style, features stories about birds or bird sightings, primarily in the Western U.S. Each column is accompanied by one of his own photos of the birds in question, and often includes historical and/or biological information in the sidebar. Tekulsky overflows with enthusiasm when talking about his specialty, and has a special love for the local birds that land in his own backyard. He encourages a reporter to birdwatch, supplying binoculars to spot the frequent visitors. He finds birds fascinating and friendly and likes to write about their personalities. In his seven years in Sullivan, he has created a bird sanctuary in his small backyard, which overlooks the canyon, fitting for an author whose credits include the book ‘Backyard Birdfeeding for Beginners.’ His garden includes apricot, lemon and coral trees, birds of paradise, Mexican sage and jasmine. One of Tekulsky’s most frequent visitors, and some of his favorites, are the scrub jays. He regularly feeds them whole peanuts, throwing the nuts onto the concrete around the pool, which the jays pick up with their beaks, one or two at a time. ‘The jays are hearty, but sensitive and delicate,’ Tekulsky says. ‘They live in a small area, and stay right here in the canyon. One family lives in less than one square mile. I feel like I’m seeing the same family over a period of years.’ The jays, squawking away, go through a ritual, picking up one peanut, then another, until they find one that is most worthwhile for making the trip. Then they fly off to store the peanut in a hiding spot to provide nourishment all winter. It takes about 17 pecks for them to open the shell, Tekulsky says. The jays also have a sweet tooth and go into a feeding frenzy when fed sugar-coated graham crackers. They also enjoy acorns and grapes. Other bird visitors require different food. For the little California towhee (characterized by its high-pitched peeps), more shy and tentative than the jays, Tekulsky will shell a peanut and give the bird half for a snack or meal. Through his observations, he has noticed subtleties about the birds. For example, the towhee, which at first looks like a rather plain brown bird, has beautiful brown markings on its cinnamon-colored throat. ‘It’s a much prettier bird than you think.’ Other common backyard visitors, which may be familiar to many Palisadians, are the black-hooded parakeet, California towhee, spotted towhee, mourning dove, Northern mockingbird, Anna’s and Allen’s hummingbird, bushtit, house finch, oak titmouse, California quail, band-tailed pigeon and song sparrow. Tekulsky has a special feeder set up for the yellow-and-black hooded orioles, and various other feeders and birdbaths throughout the yard. In a flash of brilliant yellow, the hooded oriole briefly flies in for a 10-second stop to feed on sugar water at the oriole feeder. Tekulsky had taken down the feeder for the winter and planned to put it back up in April, but in late March, a male oriole came back early from his winter in Mexico, whistling at him to put the feeder back. Tekulsky is concerned with conservation, and follows certain rules in dealing with his bird visitors. ‘I always feed them’it’s a waste of energy for them to come here without a payoff. They have a very high metabolism rate and must feed a lot more than we do. [But] I try not to domesticate them. They’re not pets. They’re wild animals you’re studying and interacting with.’ Many of the birds, such as the scrub jay, wrentit and California thrasher, are year-round residents of the Sullivan Canyon area; others, such as the sparrow, fly in from the Pacific Northwest and Alaska to winter here, and still others, such as the oriole, are here for the summer and spend the winters in Mexico or other southern locales. T o give his readers suggestions of places they can visit, Tekulsky also ventures out to see birds in nearby locations like the Malibu Lagoon or the Sepulveda Basin, or farther-flung national parks. Other times he visits quirkier locales such as Mrs. Paton’s Birder’s Haven in Patagonia, Arizona, a backyard which Marion Paton keeps open for any birdwatchers who care to drop by. Tekulsky sat for days there in the hot sun and is happy to have captured on film the elusive violet-crowned hummingbird. Using his old Pentax, without a tripod, Tekulsky stationed himself with his camera in hand for hours. ‘It’s a big camera, like lifting a bar bell,’ he says, happy that the digital camera he purchased this spring is much lighter. ‘I’ve gained a lot of faith in people through birdwatching,’ says Tekulsky, who recommends newcomers talk to birdwatchers about what they’ve seen and ask questions. ‘There’s a social aspect to birdwatching. People like to share their knowledge.’ While in the field, Tekulsky doesn’t use a blind tent, which some bird photographers use to hide from the birds so their presence won’t scare them off. He takes the time for the birds to get accustomed to him being there. ‘I say, ‘Here I am, deal with me.” Tekulsky, who is a self-taught ornithologist, maintains an archive of thousands of his photos and over 100 reference books. He studies the images to learn about bird behavior, and has been inspired by the great nature writers such as John Muir (1838-1914) and John Burroughs (1837-1921). He loves the sense of history in birdwatching. ‘Grinnell and Storer wrote ‘Animal Life in the Yosemite’ in the 1920s. They described the Steller’s jay building a nest in 1919. Eighty-five years later, I saw the exact same thing they described with the jay’s beak full of muddy grass for the lining.’ Tekulsky, 50, was born in Larchmont, New York, and after graduating from the University of Rochester, he moved to Los Angeles in 1977 to pursue his writing career. He immediately began freelancing for publications such as the Los Angeles Times, Family Circle, Science Digest and Tennis. ‘I came out here to broaden my horizons after growing up on the East Coast,’ he says. His writing career has included nature titles including ‘The Hummingbird Garden’ and ‘The Butterfly Garden’ as well as a series of gourmet drink titles, such as ‘Gourmet Coffee, Tea and Chocolate Drinks: Creating your Favorite Recipes at Home.’ In addition, he has written children’s stories and short stories, including an unpublished children’s series on ‘Scrubby, the Scrub Jay.’ But his bird column seems to have called him, he says. He’s having fun doing it, and it absorbs nearly all of his time. He recounts a Thanksgiving day spent photographing a blue-billed American wigeon while in Payson, Arizona and he calls the photo he took of the brown pelican on Christmas day 2002 ‘a great Christmas gift.’ After all, a holiday is just another day to be captivated by birds.