💾 Archived View for bjornwestergard.com › log › 2023-04-05-birding.gmi captured on 2024-05-10 at 10:43:53. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2023-04-19)
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2023-04-05
I have suddenly become interested in birding ("the observation of birds in their natural habitats as a hobby"). Each day for the last week you could have found me in a local park with a pair of binoculars and a bird guide, trying to tally bird sightings by species.
Growing up, I was fortunate to live near the Chesapeake Bay, and to regularly see blue crabs (callinectes sapidus) and blue heron (ardea herodias). I was interested in the marsh ecosystem generally, and these creatures specifically, but unlike many of my peers would not admit to an interest in looking at living things. For reasons lost to recall, I believed these were childish and/or effeminate interests.
A few friends and coworkers are avid birders, and while hardly evangelical, were happy to answer some of my questions (where do you go? how hard is it to distinguish the species? is there anything interesting to see around here?). One coworker lead a group of us on a hike, during which he lent me some binoculars, pointed out a number of birds, and showed me the basics of using his Peterson Guide. It was delightful, but the learning curve seemed steep.
Ultimately, the stress of layoff bargaining drove me to bird. I am an elected member of the union bargaining committee for a unit of around one hundred workers at my firm, and our employer announced an intention to do a "reduction in force" several weeks ago. We are still without a first contract after nearly two years, and the added complexity of reaching agreement on layoffs required me to put in extraordinarily long and difficult hours organizing and bargaining.
I needed some kind of diversion. An activity to orient me to the richness of life beyond human society. Birding has done that for me.