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| Detail of Satin Bowerbird from "After the Rain" by Susie Hamlet. |
For a number of years now I have been running ‘themed years’, eg. 'Year of the Boat' (2013), 'Year of Geology'(2016). Themed years started as an activity with my young son, who now thinks he has out-grown such things. So this year I am running with a theme of my own, “Year of Birds”. Like the years with my son the years have challenges based on my age,
- 53 bird sightings per week
- collect 53 coins with birds on them
- collect bird postage stamps from 53 nations
- read a number of books about birds (53 seemed too ambitious). The first on that list is Tim Low’s (2014) Where Song Began.
- write some bird poems
I am now in the second month of #YOB2020. I have managed the 53 bird sightings per week - with a little bit of organisation and discipline. I am using eBird to catalogue my sightings and really enjoying the experience (there is a blogpost coming about some insights from eBird). As I neared the end of the month I realised I had nearly observed 100 species in the month … an intentional drive south clicked me over the century mark. Ticking the species box is like finding a hidden treasure in an RPG (role playing game)... and I am observing a decline in my interest in online games :-). I will probably aim to have 100 species every month from now on.
I notice that birds are bringing me much joy. Stand out moments from this month have included leaning on the water tank while a grey butcherbird spent several minutes experimenting with a new tune; a morning walk when a male superb fairy wren scattered dew from the green grass it was pouncing on; and watching a group of seven little black cormorants working the edge of a pond like synchronised swimmers.
Last July, we camped near a billabong in the middle of the Dubbo Western Plains Zoo. Among all the other waterbirds there was a black swan cygnet with its two adults. Watching it interact with its parents, or pivot on its chest to stick its bum in the air was entrancing... like falling in love. Here I was in a park filled with magnificent African animals - cheetah, rhino, hippos - yet I became charmed by a common, fluffy grey bird. But that is the joy of birds, many of them are so accessible with a look out of the kitchen window, a wander in the local park. They have infiltrated our zeitgeist so much so that it would be hard to go to an art gallery and not find some bird reference.
For me at least there is a correlation between watching birds and good mental health practices. The scanning back and forth for the feathered treasures is like ‘forest bathing’. The use of multiple senses, where sight is often directed by hearing, and things in the periphery get brought into the centre, how a shadow can cue you look in a different place and find the shadow maker … these skills feel very similar to mindfulness exercises I sometimes use in the classroom. As my practice becomes more regular there is a satisfaction in linking sound to sight, and gaining the ability to see just a glimpse of a species in flight and identify it from the way it holds its wings, or the scoop and flap pattern of its flight. I think the phrase in mental health speak is ‘islands of competency’.
I am also finding islands of incompetency, a sound I do not recognise, a fleeting glimpse that does not trigger recognition, and I am treasuring the frustration … using it inspires me to dig a bit deeper. I am also using it to remind me of my students who are learning to count forwards and backwards, add simple numbers together, identify their letters and the sounds that go with them. They too will transform their frustration into islands of competency.
Having a year creates community. Already a month in, people have shared postage stamps, sent photos or links to articles, lent me books to read. My wife is even enjoying a renaissance in her painting and bird themes are emerging there too.
So the ‘Point of Wonder’ is the birds themselves, but also the therapy and community that observing them has created.
