A story about ... birds

If you aren't a birder, you can't understand the obsession with birding. But I will try to put you into the birding mindset through this post. 

(Trust me. If Wendi-the-non-birder is writing it, you will find it enjoyable even if you barely know what a bird is.)

I am married to someone who loves birds. And I am a mother to two kids who love birds. (My other two children join me in the non-birding camp making us a 50/50 family. Although my husband is still hopeful he can sway our seven-year-old little girl over to the dark side.)

Birding is a culture. It's a wonderful community of people that meet online  and in person to see birds. It's a whole underground network of flying nature.

If you are interested in learning more, I suggest the book: The Big Year or if you aren't a reader, try the movie which stars a legendary cast of Owen Wilson, Jack Black, and Steve Martin. It's a fun movie and will teach you plenty about the culture.

On Friday evening, John started talking with our two mini-birders about two interesting birds. They were the 

1. Bullock's Oriole

and the 

2. White-Throated Swift

JB and our two bird-lovers: Sidge (age 12 next week!) and Abigail (age 9) have a few birding goals. 

1. See as many different birds in Greene County that they can.

2. See as many different birds within the state of TN that they can.

3. See birds anywhere in the USA that they can.

(A side note, while JB most likes to just see the birds, my kids love to photograph them.)

They aren't in a hurry to see all the normal TN birds. But all of a sudden, they got an alert (Yes! There are pages online that alert you to these things!) that there were two birds in Chattanooga, TN that are very unusual to the State. 

The Bullock's Oriole hadn't been reported within the TN border in 25 years! And the White-Throated Swift has only been recorded East of the Mississippi three times ... EVER.

And suddenly, both birds were just 2.5 hours away from our home in Bulls Gap/Greeneville within 9 minutes of each other. It would be one thing if they had been spotted in Western, TN. That's too far to drive (as you can see on the map below). Tennessee is a long, wide State. But Chattanooga .... that's not far at all from us!

However, our weekend was packed with ballet. So John and Abigail and Sidge sat around talking about how cool it would be if they could see those birds but not seriously entertaining the idea. They had been spotted regularly, in the same spot, over multiple days. One of them was on a pond. The other was in a woman's backyard. She had made it easy for people to park, walk into her yard, and see the bird! So they were sort of just pow-wow-ing about how cool it would be ... but not thinking they could do it. 

Enter their amazingly-cool-but totally-clueless-about-birding Mama. She pulls John outside for a pow-wow and says: "Why don't you go see the birds?"

It isn't easy to surprise/shock/excite John Kitsteiner. He's an even-keeled guy who makes a living staying calm (or pretending to on the outside even when he feels very uncalm.) 

But his face was totally bewildered.

(And I love bewildering him!)

I could take some liberties and tell you that he said: "This may be the nicest thing you have ever said to me." However, while he didn't really say that, his face definitely indicated that is how I had made him feel. 

Was this his not-interested-in-birds-wife who is feeling very post-COVID-worn-out telling him to drive five hours round trip to see two birds?!

(It was. Major Brownie Points for me.)

We figured it out. If they left right after ballet practice on Saturday evening, they could drive down, grab a hotel, wake up, see the birds, and drive back in time for the Sunday ballet rehearsal. (Extra points to the ballet director who figure out how to get them out of rehearsal a little earlier so buy them some extra time.)

In the end, they got to see the Bullock's Oriole but did not find the Swift. However, they managed to score another rare bird thanks to some birders who filled them in on a Pacific Loon hanging out not far away.

While I may never understand birds, I certainly can appreciate the looks on my kids' faces detailing their adventures. I especially love that JB said I must come with them sometime just to see Abigail, our shy little girl, turn into a totally different kid when surrounded by other people who get birds like she does. John said she talks unencumbered and simply is blooming in her element. (Normally, Abigail does not speak to people she does not know, like, ever ...) 

And Sidge, on our way to ballet practice, could not stop GLOWING as he showed me photos and told me about each bird he saw and ignored my ignorant questions ...

I love their passion.

Even if I don't really love birds.