nytimes.com reports that Kai Victor, a high school senior at the Dalton School, as well as the president of the New York State Young Birders Club and a founder of the birding club at the Dalton School, where he is a senior. He says about birding, “It’s an obsession, but it’s a nice obsession to have,” he said, adding that while he has lived his entire life on West 84th Street, “I’ve never felt like a city boy.”
Kai logs a morning and afternoon bird count by simply walking across Central Park, to and from school, regardless of the weather. His fascination with birds began in infancy and continued, to the amusement of his parents, both nonbirders. Birds were the theme of his toys, children’s books, and family excursions and vacations. Weekends were spent at local zoos and at the American Museum of Natural History, a few blocks from his home.
Kai has trained his ears to identify more than 50 species by their calls. Of course, Central Park on a weekend is no serene bird sanctuary. Kai passed tourists, a wedding party being photographed and a group of visitors smoking marijuana. But despite the booming disco music nearby, the sirens from nearby roads and the helicopters overhead, Kai’s attention rarely wavered from the avian action taking place in the foliage. “I tune it out — I’m so used to it, I don’t even hear it,” he said, making his way through the wooded section of the park known as the Ramble, a favorite spot for birding.
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