Birding

Crows heading home at sunset.
 Some days I suspect that a thousand or more pass over the farm.

Why do we love it? For me there has always been the treasure hunting aspect. Looking for amazing things right around us, at no great cost in anything but time and attention. Such a delight to find something interesting.

And it is something that brings us close to nature, which is, well, natural. Soothing. Right and healthy for mind and body.

And then there is the endless learning. Once I thought I knew common sparrows, Tree, Song, House, (Ecch) White-throated, White-crowned. And then I found out about immatures. The obscure little brown birds that defy me even with a fresh photo and field guide in hand.

I love to learn and never want to stop. Birds give me an opportunity to partake in personal education every day without ever leaving home.....we have so many.

I was saddened today though, after months of trying to accrue enough money to pay the taxes, to think about when the time comes that we can no longer work all year just to hang on to the place and eat, what will happen.....this place is ripe for development with housing on all sides.

When we are gone or unable to hang on, and the developers swoop in and plop down dozens of ticky tacky houses and cut all the trees and fields and put in lawns, what a terrible loss of birds there will be!