my quest to see it all...

In April I sought out a quest to see it all. Or at least to see thirty-one new species of birds to reach two hundred life birds. As of Christmas Eve I am at 181. I’ve seen twelve new species since the end of April. Six of those species were quickly picked up in May during my first bird-a-thon experience where I birded with people who are much better birders than I am for twenty-four hours. A seventh was picked up at my trip to Mt. Auburn that I wrote about in June. The last five I saw this fall including three over Thanksgiving weekend. All in all I’ve seen nineteen new species for the year.

The Christmas Bird Count is still to come, but I don’t expect to see any more life birds. And although I didn’t reach two hundred life birds it has been a spectacular year for birding. I got to see my first Snowy Owl. I also saw my first Eastern Meadowlark and Horned Lark that I have been searching for, for a couple years now. Interesting enough I first correctly identified the Horned Lark in early November in a farm field by its call. A month later I got to see my first Horned Lark in a different location.

The biggest thing I learned this year was understanding the size of birds better. As I began getting interested in birding and for anyone that does, one of the first things you learn quickly is to generalize the size of a bird. For example, “that bird is the size of a sparrow or that bird is the size of a robin”. They are quick general identifiers to quickly understand what kind of bird you are looking at. This year I have been able to understand that concept and use it more thoroughly. For example the Black-capped Chickadee, White-breasted Nuthatch, and Tufted Titmouse frequent together in winter. They are all a sparrow-sized bird. But when you get down to it, the chickadee is a much smaller bird and the titmouse can some times look huge next to the chickadee.

Subsequently, where can I improve? I can improve in finding the unseen bird. As a birder this is pretty common. Birds are often found high in trees or blending in with rocks, grass or trees and often can be heard but not seen. Many people not searching for birds will never see many birds that are right in front of them. For me it will be learning more about finding birds that I know could be somewhere and finding them. This year on one of our annual trips to Cuttyhunk, a small island off of Cape Cod, we did not find any warblers. And although most of the migration had moved through already the likelihood that there was at least one warbler there was good and yet we did not see one. For me it will be learning more about bird behavior and techniques to find these often quiet and overlooked birds.

In my next blog I hope to share what birds I would like to see in 2013 and a recap of the Christmas Bird Count.

There is a whale in CT

If there is anything that could revitalize my blog it would be the recent tragedy in Connecticut. It seems as though everyone has a comment about the shootings. After forty-eight hours of people’s comments on Facebook, along with every news and opinion article that ticked along websites and on the radio, I was about ready to explode. I can be thankful I don’t have cable news channels. All the commentary reminded me that for every person that wants stricter gun laws there is another person with the exact opposite opinion who wants to arm principals and teachers and, if they could, the students themselves.

Much like political elections it seems that most people, but not all, are not only sticking with what they believe about gun rights but are more ingrained in their own ideals. Of course, a week after the tragedy people are still calling this one different – that it will in fact convince law makers to do something, unlike all the other mass shooting that have happened over the past decades.  This of course is true - it is different. Twenty six and seven year olds were killed (not including the adults). Their age is what is different. It’s what makes it different than the Virginia Tech shooting or other recent shootings.

In the wake of grief in Connecticut there are the normal people coming out and saying stupid things. People like Rick Perry, a public figure, telling the public government to stay out of it and not to have a ‘knee-jerk’ reaction. As if the public shooting of twenty children and six adults is somehow not knee-jerking.

Still, what’s even more pathetic? The religious community that controls the media – the mouths of Christianity. Judgment continues to be at the forefront. The Mayan apocalyptic firestorm feels more like Christian apocalyptic judgment of all the atrocities of this world, more than a Mayan prophecy.  Of course, much like Mayan prophecy, there is that church-that-shall-not-be-named in Kansas who feels they need to assert some god’s judgment upon everyone. In reality even the biggest haters of Christianity know that this group doesn’t represent the God of Christianity. There are, however, too many Christians in the media, politics, and in neighborhood churches preaching similar judgment on this town – just as they have when earthquakes, or other tragedies have happened.

My questions is this: when will this senseless use of God’s Word be stopped and people realize that we are acting too much like Jonah - turning our backs on God’s people? When will we as Christians be out of the whale’s body and in the city of Nineveh?

From news articles I have read it seems that everyone that knew Lanza were not surprised - making him an outcast to society. Even though mental illness probably had a role in this, it rings echoes of Columbine and other shootings. The judgment doesn’t lie in government or schools not being Christian enough. It lies on Christians and churches not being Christ-like enough – not being the light, the grace, the love of Christ in this world. We’re spending too much time in the whale’s belly and not enough time in the city of Nineveh.

We’re all God’s people. Whether you don’t believe in God, or whether you do and reject the idea that non-believers are also God’s children – we all are. 

We can all make steps in this. It can be as easy as loving you annoying coworker or that rude driver. Or it can be as difficult as loving that Politician that you hate, or that group you hate, or that kid that nobody seems to talk to. We can all have our views on holding our Bible in one hand and a gun in another. But we cannot hold the truth of God’s love away. We must be the love that God intended us to be.