Hail to thee, blithe spirit!

Hail to thee, blithe Spirit! 

Bird thou never wert, 

That from Heaven, or near it, 

Pourest thy full heart 

In profuse strains of unpremeditated art. 

That's Percy Bysshe Shelley, one of the great Romantic poets, writing about a skylark, that sings so beautifully even though it is a dull plain little brown bird.  Today is the Backyard Bird Count and Daisy and I walked down to the park early this morning to count the birds we saw.  Of course, there were lots of crows heading down to the inlet to feast, from their roosts in Burnaby (in the morning, there are many flocks of them heading this way and in the evening, they commute home to the warehouse area of Burnaby, where they have been roosting since people noticed these things -- when they started to build up the area, people were afraid that the crows would be displaced, but crows are survivors and they made do with whatever they found -- not like many other animals, who suffer greatly when we stupid humans take over their territory.)  We saw seagulls, which are very hard to identify.  Of course, you can tell they're seagulls, but there are many different kinds of seagulls and try to tell the difference between a California gull and a herring gull or a glaucous-winged gull.  We saw two fine Northern Flickers, hammering away at telephone poles.  I think we saw two starlings, but it was hard to see them way up in a tree being watched suspiciously by a crow.  They are very cute, perky birds, and I remember seeing (and hearing -- they have quite a repertoire of sounds) a bunch of them at Granville Island with a woman who said, laughing, "what are those birds?" to which I replied, "they're starlings".  She was shocked because, of course, lots of people vilify starlings as invasive and pushy and bad for local birds, but to me, it's not the starlings' fault, it's ours for introducing them here.  

Out on the water, we saw mallard ducks and goldeneyes and buffleheads -- all lovely ducks.  I always am interested in birds, but I like the bird count weekend, because perhaps I am more aware of them than usual.  

There is still time for you to take part if you like.  Take fifteen minutes today and go for a walk or sit in your backyard or go to the park or along the dike in Richmond, and see how many birds you can count.  Take along a bird book or a field guide if you don't know too much about birds.  They are amazing creatures and for many of us, one of the only wild animals we see a lot.  We are very blessed to have the chance to see them flying around and living their lives among us.

They do say that people are losing their connection with the natural world and that could be one reason there is so much anxiety and depression.  When you feel like there are wonderful things around you that you can appreciate without doing a thing except looking, it makes you feel at peace, I think.

Happy Family Day!  Tell someone in your family how grateful you are for them.