When I turned 40, through confluence of factors I became interested in watching birds. The variety of birds that come through Tacony never ceases to amaze me. I saw quite a few varieties from my porch on Passmore Street, but the backyard of the ranch is even better.
Last year I finally saw male and female cardinals. Last week, I finally saw a blue jay. Today I was standing outside, between trips from the garage unloading groceries, thinking that the variety of birds wasn't especially interesting a the moment. It was a great day for loitering in the beautiful spring morning, so I did, interesting birds or not. My loitering paid off though in more than just pleasant loitering.
My Peterson Field Guide to Birds of East and Central North America is pretty good at helping to identify various species. Google Images helped to confirm that today I saw a prothonotary warbler, which would seem to be about 1/2 mile from its preferred habitat. Wow is it yellow. I'm not used to seeing birds this vivid here in the city, but maybe I never really looked before. Who knows what I missed the first 40 years.
