Andra Atteberry

Staff Writer n andraa@nwanews.com

From the time he found out about backyard birds when he was in fourth grade, John Humphries, 31, has been watching birds. He has found his passion.

During a fourth-grade class in Ft. Worth, Texas, Humphries watched a video about bird-watching by Roger Torey Peterson. The video told about all the different kinds of birds in backyards.

"This is just bull," Humphries said about the video.

He couldn't believe there would be any birds in his backyard that were interesting, much less all the different kinds the Peterson video talked about.

So he got up at dawn the next day to prove Peterson wrong and saw the Wilson warbler. From that incident on, he wanted to know what else was out there. He was really hooked.

Humphries and his wife, Jill, spent their honeymoon in Costa Rica watching birds. Jill became a birder, but she doesn't like harsh conditions.

Harsh conditions are what Humphries is going to face for two weeks this month when he travels to southeast Arkansas looking for the ivory-billed woodpecker. The volunteers will be staying at the Robinson House in the community of Cotton Plant as well as at a research station in the White River area.

Out of hundreds of applicants, he was one of 120 volunteers chosen by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to help watch for the woodpecker.

The birders are searching for the woodpecker during the winter because the leaves are off the trees, the snakes are gone and the mosquitoes are fewer.

"Last summer the searchers had trouble spotting even a pileated woodpecker with all the leaves on the trees," Humphries said.

"I just follow my passion," is how Humphries explained his move to northwest Arkansas. He'd already managed two bird-feed stores in the Ft. Worth area for six years.

In 2001, he and his wife found out that the Wild Bird Center in Fayetteville was for sale.

"We drove up and looked at the store on a weekend trip. The next week Jill found us a place," he said. He also said he could tell a lot of stories about how not to buy a business, but it's all finally worked out well.

He and his wife are people who never dread gong to work, he explained.

Jill has found her passion, according to her husband. She's in Wal-Mart's buyer's training program for the company's toy department. "She's a fish in water in the corporate world," Humphries said.

Last September the couple moved to Bella Vista because both the property values and the quality of the homes are good, they said. They were looking for a home with a secluded, wooded backyard, and they found it here.

Their home also has a wood deck, which is perfect for all the different bird feeders Humphries sells at the Wild Bird Center. He has feeders with deck hooks that clamp to a deck rail. He even has heated bird baths that also clamp to the rail.

Last week his wife called him because she saw a pileated woodpecker eating from one of the feeders hanging on a tree near their deck.

Besides his backyard, Humphries has a couple of other places he likes to watch birds. His favorite places are Lake Fayetteville and the Centerton Fish Hatchery.

During last spring's migration, which began around April 1, he saw 70 species of birds at Lake Fayetteville.

At Centerton, he said, people can see lots of shore birds such as sandpipers and plovers.

Being president of the Northwest Arkansas Bird Society is also another way Humphries stays in touch with his birding passion.

In addition to watching birds, Humphries helps Bella Vistans attract the birds they want to their own backyards. Through telephone conversations, e-mail or a store visit, Humphries finds out what kinds of birds people want to watch.

"Do they want a lot of nut hatches, woodpeckers, cardinals?" are the kinds of questions he asks. He then recommends bird feeders and feed based on the types of birds and on the amount of money a villager wants to spend.

On Wednesdays, he delivers birdseed and other products right to village doors.

The Wild Bird Center is located at 637 E. Joyce Blvd. in Fayetteville. If people have questions about birds or birding, Humphries' telephone number is 1-479-521-1110 and his e-mail address is wildbirdcenter@cox.net