Birding with Mocha

During my outdoor trips with my dog Mocha, my focus is on her while she explores, runs, swims, and whatever she likes (within reason). My birding-specific trips are usually at a slower pace, me strolling around birdy spots and sometimes staying in one location for an hour to observe and photograph warblers or ducks in a hot spot. Since I can’t resist bringing Mocha with me everywhere I go, I am learning how to combine these types of trips together. Birding with Mocha is a different experience than birding solo, but our adventures together are more valuable to me than closer views or photographs of birds. I’m juggling binoculars, camera, and leash of a squirrel-chasing dog all at once, and often enough I get blurry photos and shaky videos where I’m calling out “Mocha, wait!!” as I get tugged during my attempt to record a yellow-rumped warbler in perfect lighting that’s now flapping away. Depending on where we are, I’ll use a 50ft leash to give her freedom while still maintaining some control of where she goes, plus this lets me allocate some of my attention on the birds. With the leash tied around my wrist, I keep both my hands “free” for my birding gear, and off we go on on our adventure checking out wildlife tracks and pee-mail, rolling in the mud, and me attempting to capture some nature photography.

The dynamics of how I move through the trails when birding changes when I am with Mocha. As expected, it’s much easier to flush birds away with a dog, whether it be from fast movements or bigger presence. There’s no away around flushing some sparrows in the path or spooking ducks that were unseen in the reeds (it’s inevitable when I go by myself too), but I make an effort to maintain more distance when it’s the two of us so I end up taking photos farther away. Sometimes we get lucky and some birds stick around close-by, but I try not to linger in spots too long to minimize disturbance. These are good practices to do with birding in general, but it’s certainly easier to sit by the water’s edge and patiently wait for the birds to come to you when going alone. Mocha has been getting more patient to my sudden stops to catch a quick shot of a kinglet or barn swallow, and she’s actually been quite helpful at pointing some animals out for me. She’ll point to white-tailed jackrabbits in the distance, or notice a bald eagle flying overhead before I do, bringing it to my attention. While still a work in progress, her impulse control has improved substantially over the last couple years and this has helped me spend a bit more time enjoying the birding aspect of our trips. We’ll still come across the occasional irresistible tail-twitching squirrel enticing her drive to chase, but no longer am I landing on my butt from being caught off-guard for a cottontail rabbit sprinting behind a tree.

I could be making this all sound more complicated than it is, since really I’m just opportunistically birding when Mocha and I go on out together. It’s much more fun to share these experiences with a buddy, and she’s always up for adventure and seeing all the cool wildlife. Her enthusiasm and curiosity make the trips exciting and new, even in familiar places. Also since fewer people want to mess with a woman with a big dog, it’s comforting to have each other for protection in quiet areas far from town. She’s sweet as pie but I believe she would be a good guard dog if a situation ever called for it. In return I let her hide behind me when we pass by any cats.