Why Birding?

I haven't been very diligent in posting on my blog lately, it's been a rough summer. I blew my knee out during the week of the Great Salt Lake Bird Festival and ended up having surgery on it so I haven't spent much time birding. That and I think I lost focus on why I wanted to blog my birding experiences anyway. The real purpose is to document my birding and thoughts for my family and for me and anyone else who might be interested. I always check the comments and Dave and Catie seem to be the only ones who read and comment. Occasionally there have been others for which I am grateful, I always like feed back.

Today I remembered a line from one of my favorite movies, Finding Forrester that says, " the best writing we do is what we write for ourselves". So I am recommitting myself to writing regularly and not only post bird sightings but some of my thoughts on birding and what ever else may be on my mind.

Why birding? I think people who are not birders look on in amazement and how people can become obsessed with this hobby.
As for me I am still a casual birder, I keep a life list that is not all that impressive, after about 12 years of keeping my life list I still haven't reached 300 birds. Birding has benefited my life in many ways, for one it is a release it is a great hobby to relieve stress. It has made me much more aware of and take notice of things going on around me. It has made me several good friends, and most of all it has giving me an opportunity to share my love of nature with others by volunteering at the Nature Center at Farmington Bay.

I do most of my birding with kids that I work with at Farmington Bay to meet their Scouting requirements, I hope that by doing this I can introduce these kids to birds and the environment in a way that they will always remember and gain an appreciation for the birds and the wetlands and therefore do their part to help protect our natural resources.

Well enough for now. Next time I will post about my Hook Bird.