Idaho birder’s list focuses on species spotted from bicycle

Tom McCabe, of Boise, meets a reporter in a parking lot and offers his “30-bird guarantee.”

About 4 1/2 hours and 18 miles later, he came through with 30 species spotted.

The day included at least one Canada goose, mallard, American coot, common merganser, wood duck, pied-billed grebe, great blue heron, common goldeneye and bufflehead, among others.

None was a surprise or hard to spot for McCabe, who rides Boise’s Greenbelt nearly every day in search of birds. He’s also become well acquainted with some of the people – and dogs – that frequent the Greenbelt trails.

McCabe estimates he bikes 320 days a year and expects to top 4,000 miles for the fifth straight year.

He’s a birder with a particular environmental ethic.

He rides from his house, refusing to count any birds that require him to burn gas. He calls his hobby a “socially acceptable addiction.”

“It’s fun. That’s really what it is – it’s fun,” he said. “I see people walking around and they’re doing the Pokemon GO and they’re hoping to find some imaginary creature.

“I’m hoping to find some real creature that I’ve never seen before, or that I haven’t seen in a long time, or that isn’t where it should be.”

McCabe, a 70-year-old retired attorney, began birding in 1970 when the Army stationed him in Oklahoma. He was near the dividing line between western and eastern birds, so he’d go out with both field guides in his pockets.

But he didn’t get serious about birding until a decade ago, when a bout with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma changed his life. He used biking-and-birding trips to help his mind overcome the effects of chemotherapy. And when it was time to go back to work, he decided he’d rather retire.

“Once I started biking for birds, it was just more fun and it got me out and it got me healthier,” McCabe said.

He still makes his brain work when he birds. He rarely takes notes.

Instead, he goes home and makes a list from memory of the birds he spotted, in the order they were seen.

“I replay the ride, so I enjoy it all over again,” McCabe said.

His favorite bird is the bald eagle. One in particular impressed him as it chased an osprey with a fish before the osprey turned the tables and began chasing the eagle.

“They’re just so big,” McCabe said. “They’ve let me get really close to them and they look at me like, ‘Hey, man, you’re insignificant.’”