People around here don’t seem to be very big fans of seagulls. One day we met a man in Blaine who was tossing peanuts under a car. He said he did so because the seagulls wouldn’t go under the car to get peanuts, but the crows would. He liked crows, but he didn’t like seagulls. I know that one of the reasons people don’t like seagulls is that they are very opportunistic feeders. They don’t mind eating human food and if they get the chance they will go through a garbage can spreading the things they don’t want to eat all around the neighborhood.

I like to watch the gulls fly. They have amazing wings and great control. The other day we saw a seagull pass our car when we were going about 25 mph. It didn’t show any signs of needing to slow down or land. I’ve seen them nearly hover approaching a post to land in wind gusts approaching 30 mph. They will even fly backwards in a strong wind, reminding me of the versatility of the Piper Cubs my father used to fly.

Neither seagulls nor crows are mentioned in the “Lets go Birding!” brochure produced by the Birch Bay Chamber of Commerce. Birch Bay, Blaine, and Semiahmoo are all places where we like to go walking and they are all great places for spotting birds. We picked up the colorful brochure about bird watching as a guide to some of the birds we are seeing. Yesterday on our walk we identified Barrow’s Goldeneye, Brants, Loons, Dunlin, Harlequin Ducks, Western Grebes, Wood Ducks, and Bald Eagles. We also saw plenty of crows and seagulls, but they, as I mentioned, are not included in the birding brochure.

When I have my camera with me, it seems as if the seagulls almost pose for pictures. They will perch on a railing or a post, facing into the wind, and sit calmly, allowing me to come within six or eight feet before flying off. That was especially helpful yesterday because I kept my gloves on part of the time to keep my fingers warm and I am not very good at operating my camera with gloves on my hands. If I pause to remove at least one glove, I am more accurate with the camera controls, but sometimes when I pause I miss the picture that I was seeking to get. If I leave my gloves in my pocket, my fingers get cold and are less responsive when I try to use the camera. Nonetheless I managed to get a few pictures of the birds yesterday. I can see why this part of the coast attracts seasoned birders along with amateurs like us. The birds are a lot of fun to watch.

I’ve never been one to see bird watching as a separate activity. I enjoy seeing the birds when I am out hiking or walking, but I don’t think of bird watching as a hobby or something I pursue with any discipline. I don’t have a journal in which I keep a record of the various types of birds I see. I have a few friends who are really serious bird watchers. They participate in regular bird counts and read all kinds of books about identifying different species. They know the names of a lot more different kinds of birds than I and can comment on the difference between winter and summer plumage and identify the gender of a bird from sight. I can usually tell the difference between a duck and a goose, a swan and a heron, an eagle and a hawk, but that is about it.

Living here combined with semi-retirement, however, has given me more time to look at the birds. We kept a copy of Peterson’s Guide to Birds handy when we lived in South Dakota to identify the birds that came to the feeders in our yard, and we’ve added a guide to Pacific Northwest birds to our bookshelf here even though we haven’t yet gotten around to putting up our feeders since we moved. At least I know where the feeders are. I’ve been working at organizing the garage and though we still have a lot of boxes to sort, I’m beginning to be able to know where some things are located. One of these days soon I will pick up some birdseed and get the feeders out into the yard. We usually feed small seeds. Even though I like crows and seagulls, I don’t think they need our support to find food. We don’t have a very big yard in our new home, so it makes sense to see what smaller birds might stop by. The water birds and shore birds will congregate in places where we go walking and we’ll see which birds stop by our house.

After Christmas we’ll take a short trip south, back to Mount Vernon, where we lived when we first moved to Washington. We were enthralled by watching the giant flocks of snow geese and trumpeter swans who live in the Skagit Valley for about half of the year and we want to load up the camera and make a trip down there just to watch the birds. I guess that despite what I wrote earlier about not being a bird watcher, I am becoming a bit of one. Maybe identifying birds is one of those retirement skills - something at which one gets better as one ages. It is good to have a few of those skills to offset the number of things at which I seem to have less ability and less stamina than once was the case.

I keep a few of my favorite photos in a slideshow that appears on my computer screen as a background. Mostly those pictures are of our family, with an emphasis on our grandchildren. I’ve also included a few travel photos of trips we enjoyed and there is a smattering of paddling pictures, including quite a few sunrise pictures with the light reflecting off of a lake. I’ve got a few general scenery photos as well. As I sort through the pictures, I am noticing that I’m including more and more pictures of birds. That is because I am taking more pictures of birds these days. I haven’t started keeping a bird journal, but who knows? There may be one in my future.