hmmm... don't think i can explain it to "normal" people... not sure i can
explain it to myself...

and yet, when i wander down to the park and do nothing more than pointing to
a bird that otherwise might have gone unnoticed to those who *were* walking
past, seeing their eyes light up and smiles come to their faces, maybe
that's why i bird... today, it was a huge flock of cedar waxwings literally
racing through the aspen and willows and birch at break-neck speeds this
afternoon at juanita bay park, along with several people who hadn't seen
them before.

it could be because i paid a little extra for an apartment that overlooks a
wetland, where at this moment, the sky is leaking profusely, and on the pond
is a wood duck hen with two chicks skittering across the surface like water
drops on a hot pancake skillet...

it could be because of the mallard chicklets, the gadwall chicklets, the
bufflehead that are still coming to the pond, or the canada geese (or the
northern flickers) that waken the neighbourhood at o-dark-early... or the
song of the common yellowthroat, or the american goldfinch in the birch, or
the simple song sparrow or marsh wren...

it could be because they are beautiful, or graceful, or that they can do
things we mere mortals cannot, like fly or sing in a harmonic cacophany of
several keys at once...

i guess it doesn't matter WHY i do it... what matters, at least to me, is
that i CONTINUE to do it because it gives me joy... house sparrows,
chickadees, bald eagles, european starlings, virginia rails, baikal teals,
matters not a whit to me... they are all special...

00 caren
http://www.parkgallery.org
watching the WODU family and VGSWs from above forbes creek
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