Music to My Ears

I make it a habit to invite my children on every bird outing. It's always an invitation, never a decree. If birding is forced on kids, this great hobby becomes about as tempting as liver or spinach.

If they come, we will have a terrific time. If they choose to stay home, no guilt trip is given. Besides, I will be able to find, and actually watch, more birds.

In recent weeks, two requests truly warmed my heart.

A Roseate Spoonbill was found in Forsythe NWR on July 12th. When I told my daughter about this extremely rare NJ bird, she asked to go see it. (She has loved looking at spoonbills in my field guides since I returned from a trip to the Keys in March.)
Naturally, I had already decided on trekking down to Brigantine for this one.

I packed up her and her brother. Unfortunately, my wife had other plans for the evening. The kids had a blast looking at shorebirds, herons, terns, and butterflies. When she saw HER bird, she positively giddy. She was so excited that . . .

The next morning, she begged to go back so we could show mommy the spoonbill. Again, it didn't take much to convince me.

That was the first request. The next one didn't have a marguee name like Roseate Spoonbill attached to it.

I was heading out to search for migrating shorebirds. The routine invitation was made but neither of the little ones jumped on board. Shortly after my departure, my wife called to explain that our son was upset that daddy left without him. Guilt started to set in but I was past the point of no return. By the time I returned home, he was in full blown nap time - drool and all.

My wife and daughter left to visit some friends. I used the quiet time to get some work done. An hour later, my sleepy eyed, bed-headed toddler toddles over to me with his best puppy-dog face as he groans "Buhds - dada - look faw buhds - peese."

The first thing on his mind after a nap was going out with Daddy to look for birds!!!

After a short Q-n-A, I understood that he wanted to walk trails and look for big birds by the water. Our early evening outing was very nice even though we didn't find any of the herons or egrets we had his heart set on. He laughed at the swallows, loved the Fowler's Toads, and was fascinated by the dragonflies.

Birdwatching Daddydom is great!