Subject: [Tweeters] why do i bird
Date: May 21 20:16:27 2005
From: Brett Wolfe - m_lincolnii at yahoo.com


Absolutely Caren, couldn't have said it better myself.

Incidentally, a friend of mine recently asked me to join Friendster, which has many groups that people can join to find like-minded folks from all over the world. I was exceptionally surprised to find that the only birders group was an Audubon one, which only had 10 members prior to me, and no discussions! So, I started my own Birder's Anonymous group, and hopefully, folks will join the group. My first discussion is also titled "Why I Bird" and after discussing my background, I finally answered the question, as follows:

Because birds are my passion. I love to watch them, I love to listen to them, I love to handle them and I especially love the part when they fly out of my hand when I release them. Birds are fascinating creatures, and of course, they have the ability to fly, which is so very cool! I also love to read about birds, and my favorite nature writer is Bernd Heinrich (he is a professor at the University of Vermont and has written many incredible books and has led a singularly incredible life, which he incorporates into all of his writings. Check him out if you haven't yet). I do all of this because birds are some of my favorite people, and I not only want to understand them better personally, I want to do everything I can to make the world more inviting to them. My favorite saying is by Sir Edmund Burke, and I paraphrase "No one makes a greater mistake than he who does nothing, because he could only do a little". So because I love birds so much, I have to go out and do my "little".

Cheers to all and good birding y'all (I love being a lame poet!).

Brett A. Wolfe
Seattle, WA (in San Joaquin Valley for summer 2005)
m_lincolnii at yahoo.com



carenp <carenp at totalise.co.uk> wrote:
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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