Part I: In Search of the Glossy Ibis

One doesn’t set out to become a serious birdwatcher. No one just wakes up one day and thinks to themselves “My gosh, I suddenly have a hankering to tromp all around in ankle-deep muck behind a sketchy industrial waste site because apparently there’s a pond back there and I heard somebody saw a glossy ibis.”

No, that is not a thing that happens; you get l…