Looking around noticing movement
Seeing something alive there fluttering
Watching carefully to discern the details
That's how birders walk in the woods.
I take photos hoping to catch the moment
Beautiful feathers displayed in good light
Perched as if posed among the lovely leaves
A glimpse of perfection seen for a second or two.
If you go to the same place again and again
Each time is different what you will find
An almost magical unexpected surprise awaits
Rewarding the ones with eyes and ears open.
Sometimes in spring when songs are in the air
You may watch the courtship dancers making mate choices
You may see hidden away nests under construction
You may hear the nestling chicks calling to their parents.
Sometimes only the most common sightings can be found
The ones we call the loyal birds that stay all year round
Overlooked perhaps taken for granted and ignored
Though no less special if you trouble to study them.
Sometimes the migrants passing through delight us
Putting on a show appearing everywhere at once
Then all too soon disappearing leaving us behind
Unless we feel the pull and follow them where they go.
Birds are wary keeping their distance from us
Successful survivors evolved from the dinosaurs
Inhabitants of this world long before we humans
Arrived bringing habitat loss and climate change.
There are species in decline but not all is lost
As many are adapting to the Anthropocene
Finding food and nest sites in urban environs
Protected and helped by their many defenders.
