by Don Torino

This is a beautiful time of year for nature lovers, and for birders in particular.  It is a time for us to reflect on what was, what is, and the birds we have yet to see.  

After spending so much time in the field, birders cannot help but to have a spiritual connection with nature.  A connection with the special birds that we have seen, the ones we missed and the people that we have spent cold mornings and hot afternoons with enjoying what we love best.  These experiences bond us forever to the forests, fields and friends that we have enjoyed as far back as we can remember.  That is what makes us who we are. 

This time of year, I think back to first person that gave me the love of birds, my fourth grade teacher at Jackson Avenue School in Hackensack, Miss Henderson.  She would get us kids to run to the classroom windows to watch a Chickadee feeding on the schoolyard shrubs.  That wonder she instilled in us never left me.  It is that childlike sense of curiosity that keeps all of us looking for that next bird no matter how old we get.  

It might not be that easy for some of us to get out anymore - the old back hurts, the knee is stiff, a job takes up more time.  We all need to set aside more time to get out birding, introduce a kid to nature and call on that old friend who doesn’t get out much on their own.  Don’t let the childlike love of birding wane; we owe it to people like Miss Henderson.

Do you think back to your first Bald Eagle?  Or your first Bluebird?  You never forget the first.  I remember seeing my first Northern Harrier on a windy morning in the Meadowlands.  I walked a narrow path through the phragmities that came to a sudden opening.  There was a gray ghost on a dead snag looking right at me.  Beth Goldberg, President of Bergen County Audubon, remembers her first pileated woodpecker at Schiff Nature preserve in Mendham.  You just don’t forget things like that.  Just like you don’t forget leaving your binoculars on the roof of your car, or accidentally stepping on a yellow jacket nest.  Some things just stay with you, like old field guides.

I have a real old favorite field guide, which was one of my first.  A Peterson’s to be exact.  It probably should have been thrown out a long time ago as the pages are wrinkled and faded mostly from being dropped into Waywayanda Lake, but I can’t part with it.  When I hold it in my hand, I can remember the friends that were with me and have gone their separate ways and a brother that is no longer with me.  I used it to show my two sons what their first Downy Woodpecker was.  I think I will keep it and bring it out with me to those special places that we used to bird together.  Maybe take it to some new places too, with some new friends to see a new bird for the first time.

…………………Thanks Miss Henderson!

Previous birding exclusives: