My casual bird-watching days ended when I got particularly hooked on the sport. Ever since the Kachemak Bay shorebird migration festival, I've been a hardcore birder. Birding has lots of different aspects that make it enjoyable. Perhaps it's the unmatched thrill I get when I observe a bird for the first time ever, far away from its home in South America or Siberia. It can be just as exciting seeing the bird on its home continent, or even in a local park. So far In my birding career I haven't seen the mega rarities, but that is certain to change as time goes on. My passion for birds started in Alaska (see link above for my Alaska Life List) and carried on to Arizona. Because I got both the North and South of North America to bird, my lifelist includes a pretty high number of birds, for my age of course. Living in Alaska for 11 years has been an amazing experience. The wilds of the last frontier are stunningly beautiful, and I would say that hiking or driving through the vast wilderness in Alaska, is one of my favorite aspects of Birding there. Chasing birds was a lot of fun in Alaska, having to trudge through foot-deep snow for Hoary Redpolls, looking for the magnificent Gray Gray Owl in the dense fog, or running freely about in an Alpine Meadow with a family of White-tailed Ptarmigans. My days of AK birding have not ended, however, as I will continue to visit Alaska's serenity and beauty to bird there once again. I currently live in Glendale, Arizona, and birding here always holds surprises, often pleasant and exciting. We all have spark birds that got us in to the passion of birding, and mine is the Great Frigatebird. They have a wingspan that is almost as tall as the tallest basketball players, a hunger for thievery, and a menacing physique. None the less, they are a spectacular bird, and a great addition to anyone's life list. My favorite color is green, it used to be blue, but green is the predominant color in mountains, alpine tundra, and coniferous forests, which in my opinion, are the three most spectacular ecosystems.