I started paying closer attention to license plates on cars at birding hotspots and at events that attracted birders, like the New Jersey Audubon Society annual convention in Cape May, or whenever a reported rarity would draw in eager birders trying to see it. The rarer the bird, the more plates I'd find and they'd often be from more distant places. The Ross's Gull that was discovered in Baltimore, MD, was a good example of this, and I collected many plates there - it helped compensate for missing the gull.
National Audubon published some of my photos in the March 1988 issue of Audubon magazine, with the title "A License to Bird." I wish I'd have thought of that title! Its such a good title, in fact, that another birding magazine stole the title and concept for a feature article a few years later (with no reference to my spread from 1988).
When I moved from NJ to AZ in
1994 I was hoping to find many more plates from the western
states, but it has been harder to find them here because
there aren't as many birders.
There are almost 240 plates in this collection. Some of
these show the same characters from the same state, but the
plate has changed color or design: think of these as
"alternate plumage." A few plates are repeated in two
galleries; I started setting them up before I had all the
images together so some were put in early galleies before
they should have been. I've placed them a second time to
group them as appropriate. I'll eventually get this
straightened out and drop the duplicates, but it will take
time to get to this chore.
Birders have shown a lot of imagination in picking a plate,
so there's lots of variety in species. There's also some
clever abbreviations employed to fit long names into 6-8
characters. It also helps to be familiar with the
scientific binomials for species (STRIX V above translates
to Strix Varia for Barred Owl), or to know that
Magnificent Hummingbird used to be called Rivoli's
Hummingbird. A few of plates use a word in a language other
than English.
Please note that all plates have been photographed under
actual field conditions: they show real world life, highway
dirt and weather, varying light, and often cramped shooting
conditions in tight parking lots. In many cases they were
taken in a great hurry since the priority was seeing the
rare bird that attracted the birders (and me) in the first
place. A growing number have been donated by friends who
know about my collection or by people who have discovered
this collection on the web. So, image quality varies: in
all cases it is the content that overrides quality.
Yes, I have a vanity plate as well, and it is included in
one of these galleries. Here it is on the front of my
Toyota.
I may eventually remap all the plates to make them easier
to find and to balance the size of the galleries.