For the birds!

I have a friend who is a birder. He can identify I don’t know how many species by song. He takes his binoculars with him everywhere. He is a bird geek. If I am being honest I was always intrigued and impressed by this ability although never really understood it. I have always been an outdoors guy spending my life enjoying nature, but have I really seen it? I would hike and nature walk taking in the different wildflowers in bloom but secretly embarrassed I knew what very few actually where. Birds all around singing and doing the things birds do, whatever that was. I knew Eagles and Canadian Geese (being Canadian as a rule you have to know these). I knew Crows and pigeons, Gulls and Herons. All the big ones that fly right in front of your face. So recently, for whatever reason I’m not sure I picked up my binoculars and began to look.  I suppose I wanted to show my friend I knew at least a few species beyond the elusive Robin. Then something strange happened, I got interested. I began to really look at the birds, notice their behavior, listen to their songs. I went to the library and checked out a few bird identification books, then purchased my own. I read and looked more. I went on nature walks with my binoculars and field guide. I searched. I hunted. I listened. Did I find that rare species that only shows itself for twelve minutes a day on the third day of the second month in early spring? No. But I found something else, a new world. A world where I can get lost in the beauty of nature. A world where I can really appreciate what is going on around me and begin to understand it. A world where I can if only for a short time, forget the daily stresses that affect us all. So I am beginning to identify more birds, some even by song. I now take my binoculars everywhere. I am becoming a bird geek.

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