Nice New Neighbors

The origin of my bird nerd era

Scholastic book orders were one of the highlights of my grade school experience. I loved everything about it from pouring over the newsprint order sheets full of tempting options to taking home whatever new treasures my parents agreed to purchase. One of my favorite early acquisitions (circa 1^st grade) was the book Nice New Neighbors by Franz Brandenberg. I think what I loved best about this book was that it came with a record I could listen to when there were no adults available to read to me.

That’s not to say that I didn’t also enjoy the fun story about kids who moved to a new neighborhood and had some challenges becoming friends with the children who already lived there. And it’s never too early to learn a lesson, or two, about how to be part of a community.

One of the small joys I have experienced this spring has been getting to know some new, or at least new to me, neighbors. I’m not talking about the people I have lived near for the last 10-ish years. I am talking about the non-human neighbors that share the same geographic space. Specifically, I’m talking about the birds that hang out in my backyard.

Top: Tufted Titmouse (Jocelyn Anderson Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported); Carolina Wren (Dan Pancamo Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic); Eastern Bluebird (Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic); Downy Woodpecker (Noël Zia Lee Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic)

It all started innocently enough. I decided I needed a new Lenten practice and joined Courtney Ellis and her Bird from the Lord posse. The premise is simple—just sit outside for 10 minutes and wait for whatever bird the Lord sends you. On days when the weather is nice, there are usually several birds out and about. But on not-so-nice days (most days during March and April in Ohio), birds tend to sit back in the trees and use their unique calls to make their presence known. Of course, I wasn’t content to just know that some kind of bird was present, I wanted to know the names of the birds I was and hearing. This led to my downloading the Merlin bird identification app so I could identify birds by their calls. The next thing I knew I was the proud owner of a Life List that includes 40 birds. I guess you could say I have entered my bird nerd era.

I’m pretty sure many of these are just passing though as they migrate north for the summer. But the American Robins, Northern Cardinals, House Finches, Eastern Bluebirds, Carolina Chickadees, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Blue Jays, and Tufted Titmice (titmouses?) are permanent residents. I’m looking forward to getting to know more about these new neighbors who are part of my backyard community.