STORIES ABOUT NATURE AND BIRDING
Birds, what I consider are the luckiest creatures on the earth. They have wings, and they are free. And watching them makes me luckier. We used to live in Tucson city of Arizona; I was 14 years old when I started watching birds because of my grandfather. Sometimes, he used to wake me up early morning and take me with him to the historic sentinel peak. All dressed up and excited, on the way to the peak, he used to talk about each and every bird he has seen, grey hawk, Roadrunners, elegant trogon and many others that I don’t even remember. I used to get irritated by listening to the same things, twice, thrice or sometimes four times a month. He used to say,” You know Edmund, this nature is our actual home, and we belong here…I belong here. Last time I came here I saw…” and what followed was a long recitation of the stories from his previous visits to the Sentinel. Though at that age I found his talks and those trips annoying as I grew up those words of my grandfather became more than just boring words. I was 25 when my grandfather died and left behind a backyard full of birds. It seemed strange but as he aged and stopped going to the mountain or lakes to see birds, we saw an increase in the number of birds coming to our backyard. He told me to fill the storeroom with all sorts of bird supplies and treatments so that he could feed them and take care of their health. After his death, I didn't know what to do with the birds that came to the backyard. Never wanted to take care of birds, I knew it was a good thing but who would take out time.