Birding: Let a Child Guide You

Have you ever been on a walk with a child and noted that they find coins on the ground quite often (coins that you passed right by without seeing), or that children can easily spot a bird far off in the distance, or that they notice a line of ants marching across the path carrying chewed pieces of leaves right before you would have stepped on them? Last winter my family and I took a good, long road trip from Minnesota all the way down to Grand Isle, Louisiana to escape the MN cold, but more importantly, to explore areas we’ve never been. How refreshing to see all the sights on our trip through the eyes of my children. Their excitement was contagious! Arriving at the ocean felt like seeing it for the first time myself. My kids found heaps of shells, spotted the beautiful Man O’ War, felt the push of the ocean waves as they swam toward shore, and discovered that the many quarter-sized holes in the sand were home to a type of hairy land crab. My children still get excited to tell of the treasures they unearthed on their trip.

Anyhow, when we returned home from our explorations, my father-in-law had left us a section of The Wall Street Journal on our kitchen counter with a specific article circled for us to read. The article was titled, When Children Beat Adults at Seeing the World, and was written by Alison Gopnik, an American professor of psychology and affiliate professor of philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley.

In the article, Alison discusses how adults are better at focusing their attention and learning as a result, but children are better at learning about anything unattended. In other words, adults only seem to focus on objects, ideas, etc. that are at the center of their attention, whereas children also learn about and attend to things that are happening in the background. So, the next time you think a child is not paying attention (watching a bird find worms outside the school window, staring at a spider building a web during homework, or chasing a leaf during soccer practice), perhaps that child is really paying attention to more than you know, exploring more, and learning much more than you think. Perhaps this would be a good time to ask that child what he or she was looking at or thinking about. You may just learn something new too! How about testing out this idea by bringing a child birding with you?

Birding is a great way to get outdoors, get into nature, and it doesn’t have to cost you a penny. According to the Audubon site, the U.S. is home to 47 million birders. If you think about it, birding is really a scavenger hunt. A scavenger hunt that you can partake in anywhere in the world and can last a lifetime. There are really only two things you need to do to begin birding:

1. Find a green space or water source.
2. Go on a walk.

That’s it! So very simple.

These are other things that may make your birding experience more fruitful:

1. Bring along a pair of binoculars.
2. Go to the library and rent a birding field guide.
3. Use a checklist or nature journal to record your sightings.
4. Download a free app for phones like the Audubon Bird Guide App. This particular app has data on 821 species of birds, more than 8,200 photos, and eight hours of bird sounds.
5. Do a little research prior to your outing to see which birds you should be looking for at that particular time of year.
6. Bring a child along.

I’m not much for carrying anything cumbersome on my hikes, so I don’t ever take binoculars, a field guide, or a journal, but I do have my children right beside me, and they are, in my opinion, the best birding resource. They sure spot birds, insects, mushrooms, and anything else that is different or exciting with little effort.

Last weekend, a few members of my family went out on our typical nature walk up at the cabin. When we returned, we noticed that the others who had stayed behind were intently looking up into the old basswood tree. The kids ran down to explore, and they excitedly came running back yelling “A mama hummingbird has a nest up in the tree by the deck!” We’ve never observed a hummingbird nest here in Minnesota. This nest just happened to be about 10 feet from the deck railing. The nest itself was not much larger than a silver dollar, and after closer inspection of the pictures I took with the camera, the nest almost seemed to glitter in green in black. We know that hummingbirds use spider webs to tie twigs and plant material together, which also makes the nests soft and stretchy. This particular hummingbird used tiny little pieces of sage-green lichen to weave into the silky-soft spider webs, along with a sparkly black substance, which we couldn’t identify. The tiny ruby-throated hummingbird seemed to perch regally in her magnificent nest. Definitely a sight to behold.

I do have to note that my mother was the one to spot the sweet ruby-throated hummingbird in her nest. We have often teased my mother, in good nature, about being one of the kids. Mom has always taken this as a compliment, and I’ve always appreciated her easy-going, fun-loving personality. “You’re only as old as you feel!” Perhaps she has learned the trick to not only learning by focusing, but learning by exploring too. Thanks to this, we have been treated to watching Miss Ruby tend to her nest the last couple of weeks. I hope we’ll get to catch a glimpse of the tiny babies when they emerge from the tiny, navy bean-sized eggs.

The next time you head out for a walk, bring your child, grandchild, or a friend with their child with you to see how many different birds you can spot together. You’ll be sure to see more than if you went alone. Happy birding!