Lettuce Share

The activity of watching birds is not called bird watching in the United States.  We’re way too cool for that; we call it birding.  I know this, not because I’m a super cool birder, but because I borrowed A Supremely Bad Idea: Three Mad Birders and Their Quest to See It All from a friend.  The book’s author, Luke Dempsey, puts to the page what most of us are probably thinking about birdwatching birding…that is if anyone is thinking of it at all…     

Birdwatching in England is part of that proud heritage-the word birdwatcher is a synonym for ‘completely unshaggable’-and it is generally thought of as an exercise for older folks who aren’t physically able to play sports anymore, or else never did…Here in the United States, the pursuit of birds is not considered much sexier, though the use of the word “birder” instead of ‘birdwatcher’ connotes a more active participation, I suppose, a veneer of science and perhaps adventure.

Adventure?  When John and I vacationed in Costa Rica, we went ziplining and white water rafting.  Standing in the middle of the rain forest listening for the squawking of a Great Green Macaw seems like a bit of a bore in comparison.  To be completely honest, I couldn’t even finish the book about birding.  I loved being introduced to Don and Donna Graffiti, Dempsey’s fellow mad birders, but even birding adventures bore me.  But when you don’t have to find your passport, hop on a plane or drive in your car for hours to see birds, birding earns its -ing action status.  It can even be exciting.  A cardinal had my heart racing just yesterday.  It came flying out of the Surinam cherry tree and scared the bejesus out of me!  And I was thrilled to have finally gotten a picture of this Blue Jay in our yard.