Gone Birding!

"Aunt Terrie, do you think we could go birding today?" Kyle asked as he was spooning down his breakfast cereal. Doing something out-of-doors sounded like a fine idea. Besides, we were pleased that the kids were interested in learning about birding, a passionate hobby of Al's and mine. So we decided that on this lovely August day we would give the kids their first lesson in bird watching.

Al began the lesson in bird watching at our backyard bird feeders, where he helped the kids identify Scrub Jays, House Finches, House Sparrows and Chickadees. We split into two cars and headed for Crystal Springs Rhododendron Gardens, about 10 minutes from our house in Portland, Oregon.

"I see some ducks!" Kaila shouted, and she took off down the path. The commotion startled some ducks sleeping in the shrubbery, and they waddled down to the pond, quacking their disapproval of noisy children. We reminded the kids that running and shouting were on the list of things one ought not do while bird watching.

Once at the pond we began feeding tossing cracked corn to the ducks in the water. "Those are mallards," Al explained to the kids. "See their green heads? See how they sparkle in the sun? Those are the males. The brown ones over there are females, the ones that don't have green heads." Kyle studiously wrote "MALARD DUCK" on his bird list. Kaila concentrated on making sure that the small ducks in the back got their share of corn.

"What about those over there?" asked Alan. "The ones that just have a little green?"

Al explained that those were immature male mallards, probably born earlier this past spring.

"And what about those?" Alan asked again, this time pointing to a handsome duck with a white face mask and strikingly patterned body.

"That's a male wood duck. Pretty, aren't they? And that smaller duck next to him with the white diamond shape around her eyes is the female" Al explained. "WOOD DUCK" went onto Kyle's list.

We continued past the first pond to the main pond, where there were lots of other ducks. In a tree above the pond Al spotted a Cooper's Hawk, and managed to get the scope on it long enough for everyone to get a look. "COOPER'S HACK" went on Kyle's list. I figured we could work on his spelling on another occasion. "Look over there," I pointed past the bridge and into the reeds. "That mother Coot has some babies with her." Everyone admired the tiny ducklings with their downy feathers and watched as the mother duck fed them bits of grass.

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