Feathered Friends

As an Alaskan, I love nature. Birding is a major part of that. Like most people, I didn't always know that. Before I started birding about six years ago, I knew only about 15 birds. Now my life list is looking healthier with more than 50 birds on it. Of course, it will take a lot to catch up with my mother-in-law's list that has 150 birds since she has been birding all her life. Even a classmate of my daughter Sara has 70 birds on his list.

So what is so important about birding? Birds are the most abundant and accessible wildlife in God's creation. So much is missed when we don't notice the birds everywhere around us.

Birding has created so many memories for our family. Abby, my middle daughter, and I seeing a vagrant purple martin once in Selawik. The Yellow Warblers trying to distract us from the nest that was somewhere nearby on the tundra. Watching the sandhill cranes graze with my mother-in-law. The Sabbath afternoon we saw the loon through binoculars. The boat trip with the Arctic tern flying over our heads. The Canada geese family we saw with my sister and her son. I could name so many more.

Sharing a love of nature with children is such pleasure, they catch your enthusiasm so easily. Abby is especially absorbed in it and Miriam isn't far behind. Abby is often at our dining room window watching the chickadees, nuthatches, and other birds at the feeders we have in a tree just outside. She also enjoys getting up close under that tree. She knows difference between a boreal and a black-capped chickadee at least as well as I do. Sometimes she will point out a bird I hadn't noticed.

Recently we are working on a birding project that requires the girls to have know 30 birds and me to know 60 birds. In my research, I found more benefits to bird-watching than I had previously thought, particularly for children. Here are some activities for very young children that I wish I had thought of.

Two tools we use to help us are National Wildlife Refuge Bird lists and iBird Pro.

Now all we want is a new bird. (On our life lists, that is.)