The Essence of Birding

Virginia of the Animal Spirits blog wrote a wonderfully evocative essay in which she asked, Why Birding? In her concluding paragraph, she captured the essence of what it means to be a birder:

Why birding? Because without opening my eyes to see and to know and to understand my winged friends, I would see less and know less and smile less and be less than I am when I am a birder.