Excellent post. I like your point about not wanting to be that birder that passes by the more common birds in search of the rare. This is something that hit me especially hard last year. I'd been birding and counting on and off and back on again. I was trying to search for different sparrows and this group of several Black-capped Chickadees would folllow me curiously looking for seeds. After looking past them a few times, in search of different sparrows, I caught myself. I stopped and spent some time just appreciating some moments appreciating those chickadees. Nowadays, they're my constant trail companions on mnay of my hikes in Nature. I look forward to seeing them the most.
Meanwhile, I am gleefully imagining the array of wildlife that is now able to use the once-golfed land. "Just nature," indeed!
Excellent post. I like your point about not wanting to be that birder that passes by the more common birds in search of the rare. This is something that hit me especially hard last year. I'd been birding and counting on and off and back on again. I was trying to search for different sparrows and this group of several Black-capped Chickadees would folllow me curiously looking for seeds. After looking past them a few times, in search of different sparrows, I caught myself. I stopped and spent some time just appreciating some moments appreciating those chickadees. Nowadays, they're my constant trail companions on mnay of my hikes in Nature. I look forward to seeing them the most.
Thank you, Richard – not just for featuring my words but also for toning down my intemperate language.
“There’s nothing here. Just nature”. 😡 Thanks for this brilliant essay, though - it was all fascinating!