Though I enjoy the outdoors, I've often associated bird-watching with AARP cards. I've had a copy of Birds of North America on my bookshelves for years but I don't know if I've opened it more than once or twice. This spring's splurge trip to the Cloud Forest in Ecuador gave me a wake up call.
My lodge had birding activities in the morning and evening and an open invitation to "Hummingbird Garden." Ninety-six photos and three videos later, I became a fan. The guides could quickly distinguish varietals of Tanagers and finding a Toucan to photograph through a telescope was more exciting than any of my dates in 2015. I saw more species of Hummingbirds in three days than I have in my entire life.
Of course then the above, combined with my sabbatical-ing, drew me to Neil Hayward's Lost Among The Birds: Accidentally Finding Myself in One Big Year. Neil went birding for his Big Year in 2013. We have biotechnology in common and I wonder what else I'll find as I get ready to open the pages (again on a plane). I just might have to bring the binoculars out of storage for the next journey.
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