Birding Blog

Did you know I was an avid birdwatcher? Probably not. As a child, I thought I was perhaps destined for a career in ornithology. I don't know when, exactly, this dream was deferred, but I think it might have occurred sometime during my accursed years of junior high school. The drastic switch in career plans probably had something to do with the covert sexism that existed in the public schools I attended...you know...girls are so good at communicating...why bother with keeping up with math or science? For more on this subject, I recommend Susan Jacoby's "When Bright Girls Decide Mather Is 'A Waste of Time.'" I'm sure countless other Feminists have written on the metamorphosis that the more mathematically minded young women go through...maybe you can leave me a note if you have any specific essays in mind.

At any rate, I have indeed shed any notion of studying my little aerial friends for a living, but I can't help but break out my old binoculars whenever I bust out of the ghetts and head to my northern Michigan bunkhouse. The binoculars were a gift for my eighth birthday. Funny how certain material possessions manage to make it through, childhood...and even through a series of dirty dorm rooms and shady, single-girl apartments.

This last weekend, I had several sightings including: the Black-Capped Chickadee, the Downy Woodpecker, Barn Swallow, Nuthatch, Cedar Waxwing, Ruby-Throated Hummingbird, Bald Eagle, Wood Duck, Mallard, Great Crested Flycatcher, and some sort of Warbler that has yet to be identified. (All the other usual suspects were en masse as well... American Robin, the Grackles, Crows, etc.)

I love these birds...but I keep thinking of that book Silent Spring and how our (human) materialism may ultimately wipe out my birds for good. I had a dream about a Raven and a Flicker while I was in the north. Wonder what that means....