I would describe myself as a sometimes bird watcher and an always bird enthusiast. I don’t get out and go on bird walks much anymore like in my Master Naturalist days, but I watch them whenever and wherever I can.

We live on heavily wooded property which means of course, we have birds. We have most recently noticed that a couple of Pileated Woodpeckers have taken up residency in a dead tree and so plans to cut the tree down have been stalled for the time being as we have really enjoyed watching the woodpeckers.

We also have doves, dark eyed juncos, red winged blackbirds, and robins. We even for a time had a solid white dove living on the edge of our “forest”.

In the general area where we live, it is common to see Canadian Geese, Seagulls and the occasional Pelican. And I can never take a road trip without seeing various hawks perched in trees on the sides of the roadway. I have even seen a Blue Heron which excited me to no end.

When my husband and I were Master Naturalists in Texas, we participated in the state dove banding program. We caught, banded and set free over 500 doves in one summer. When you are involved in a project like this you get to see some of the personalities of different birds. We mostly caught doves but occasionally would find a grackle, blue bird, cardinal or blue jay in the traps we set up. It seemed to me that grackles are very high strung and nervous and the cardinals and blue jays are about as mean as they can be. Their bite hurt even through my gloves! The Doves, well there is a reason for the term “harmless as doves”. I came to love them very much and personally think its sad that there is even a hunting season for them.

I have kept birds as well. We owned a Severe Macaw for many years until he passed away, and currently I have a parakeet named Kiwi, whose cage is near my living room chair and he is a constant joy.