So, you know the HOW of what I’m doing with A Big Year in a Small Town.

 

Now, here’s the WHY.

 

When you have a lot of life behind you, there aren’t very many things that can

make you feel fresh and new. Birding, from the first moment I spotted that

Greater Yellow Legs, has done this for me. It feeds my need to seek and find

and understand the world while amassing a Life List I can be proud of – another

life goal achieved.

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And then there are the birds – those beautiful birds. 

 

When I spot one of these magnificent creatures it never fails to make me smile,

the way their legs work (mostly backwards), their wings, their songs – I feel like

I am being let in on a secret as I sit on the side of a road, gazing in wonder while

the guy in the car behind me honks his horn impatiently, wondering what the

heck I’m up to, or a kind police officer stops to ask if I need help. “I’m just fine,

I reply, pointing at the bird I’m watching. Ain’t nature grand.”

 

Like I’ve said, I’m a relative newcomer to birding, and there’s so much more I

don’t know than I do. Can I tell you with certainty that I know the difference

between Sharp-shinned (aka Sharpie) vs. a Cooper’s Hawk when I see them?

No. but I can try. Birding isn’t like doing math or a puzzle (crossword or jigsaw)

when you know the right answer exists; you just have to find it. There IS a right

answer in birding, but it may elude you for a long time, sometimes the mystery of the bird wins. 

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Just when I think I have all the local ducks in a row (sorry) some new aspect comes into play and I feel like a novice again. It forces me to be patient – as much as I’d like to think I’m chasing these birds, it’s more like they are allowing me to find them. I have most luck at that when I sit still and stay open to listening, watching and becoming part of the flock.

 

This all really started, actually, as a daily sunrise beach meditation. I wasn’t looking for birds when I set out, rather for inner peace and quiet and that moment when the sun bursts from the sea in all its fiery glory. Each morning, on my way home, I passed an amazing flock of what I thought were egrets on a salt pond. I stopped to watch them for a bit before I went to work, and, along with watching the sun rise, this soon became a habit. Amazingly, and almost immediately, I realized that egret watching was better than any medicine or meditation I had ever experienced. One day, I don’t know why, I took a closer look at the salt pond flock and I realized that the egrets were not alone. I wanted to know who their other feathered friends were. Turns out the salt pond flock included herons, ducks, gulls, greater yellow legs, dowitchers, sandpipers, the list goes on.

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                                                                                             And that’s when my list started.

 

                                                                                             Who knew there were 22 types of gulls, 9 sparrows,

                                                                                             22 warblers and 29 sandpipers?  Not me. The variety

                                                                                             of Westerly ducks alone is astonishing, and I’m                                                                                                       finding new species every day. I realize, of course,

                                                                                             that I’m not the first to find them; still, it’s hard to

                                                                                             describe the joy of sighting a new bird for the first

                                                                                             time. Perhaps it’s impossible.

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                                                                                             Maybe you just have to be there.

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                                                                                             Or here.

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                                                                                             Thanks for stopping by!

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                                                                                             You can find more tales of my days on the birding

                                                                                             trails on my blog page :

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