Today is National Bird Day! And I am home sick, unable to celebrate the birds' special day with them. Yesterday, I went out into the crisp air and filled my hummingbird feeder with sugar water, added aluminum sulfate to the soil of my Japanese holly tree {whose name is Archibald, very important}, and added water to my bird bath, although I have yet to see a bird bathe there....One can hope! Even if I should not go out to the birds, perhaps they can come to me if I make my home and plant life hospitable and welcoming enough.
I first really noticed the beauty of God's birds as a child living for sometimes a week at a time in my family's tiny cabin in northeastern Arizona. I would wake up in the mornings to peer out the window and see fluffy bluebirds sitting along the wire fencing, or to see majestic blue jays foraging for breakfast. There were also goldfinches and purple finches and chickadees, as well as a cardinal every once in a while! This cabin was a lovely place to birdwatch.
Through high school and college, after the cabin was sold, I focused on my studies and really lost track of this old interest in observing bird life. GPA and assignment deadlines and church involvement crowded my mind, and I really lost touch with the simple enjoyments of life. I graduated, started working, moved out of my parents' home, and lived deeper and deeper into the city suburbs. And yet, every so often, I would go on walks in my neighborhood to the "lake," which was actually a man-made pond down the street, and would find these goons:
Somehow, I have come back alive to my enjoyment of birds. My Dad gave me a pair of Nikon birding binoculars (shown in first photo above) last year, and I was able to take them on a birdwatching day at the Tres Rios Wetlands:
This place was really green and pretty. I did not take many photos of the birds I saw there, but there were many water fowl, herons, and at least one hawk. I did see the Common Moorehen!
I also started volunteering for a library branch, and at one of the libraries within the branch, there is a peacock habitat! They so casually will walk near/next to you, like they own the land.
Also, on a somewhat recent camping trip, a friend and I spotted one of these guys {below}! A Painted Redstart!
He was climbing a tree and flying from branch to branch, as happy as could be. :-)
Okay, so now that I have given my own brief history of loving birds, let's move on to some reasons why they should be appreciated!!
First of all, God talks about them in the Bible!!
"Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?" {Matthew 6:26}
"I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine." {Psalm 50:11}
"Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father." {Matthew 10:29}
God repeatedly draws our attention to the birds to remind us both of His care of them and thus His profound care for us. God takes care of His creatures day by day, knowing the intimate details of their lives, and so how much more is He acquainted with us, who are created in His very image??
Second, one can gather much of the imagination and humor of our God by seeing just how many birds He has created and how very different they are from each other. From the color of their feathers to the placement of their feathers (think: quail with the one feather sitting atop their heads!), birds can be both beautiful and downright silly. Birds have such a confidence, a swagger, about them as well, as if they have not a care in the world and are happy to show off their attributes--no self-consciousness there!
Third, they wake the dawn with singing! Without coffee, without any coaching, the lil guys open their eyes and decide to send out their melodies with all that is in them. There are some scientific studies that back the thought that birdsong sound frequencies actually help plants thrive, opening the plants to more water and nutrients in response to the sound. And this is no surprise that our Creator would so intertwine His creation that He would cause one thing to affect another. Glorious.
Becoming an amateur birder basically means saying "yes" to the game of bird seek-and-find wherever a person finds himself or herself. There are birds in almost every climate throughout the world, and therefore there are always new creatures to be found and observed.
One thing that has been helpful for me to better understand the birding community in Arizona: I tune in every so often to the Arizona Bird Call podcast with Mike Ameigh, where he talks about current events in the birding world as well as offers information on birdwatching excursions for anyone interested in that sort of thing. Would recommend!
As I continue to voyage out into the land of birding, I hope to continue to capture what I see in photos as well as possibly in watercolor. In the meantime, happy National Bird Day to you!!!
xoxoxo, reb
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