Early one morning, upon arriving for Grandma duty Sadie accompanied me to my car to get something I forgot. “Grandma, where are the binoculars?” “Oh, I’m sorry Sadie, your black binoculars are at my house.” “Let’s go find your pink ones inside.” “Let’s find them,” she agrees. Luckily, my own bino’s were in my bag as I have been keeping an eye on the birds that come to my son’s yard. With her binos in hand, I say, “What are we going to do?” “Find birds,” she responds. “Let’s get your stroller and go for a bird walk; I know exactly where to go.” There is an Audubon Wildlife, certified park in her neighborhood. Arriving at the park, we parked the stroller in a wooded area near the creak and walked around. I pointed out a bird house and then a nest. She was very intrigued. We heard birds and I asked her to listen to the different sounds. We walked by deer droppings. She wondered why we did not see deer nearby. She got back into the stroller and I rolled her into the middle of the open grass area; we sat and listened. We heard a variety of birds, but none in sight. Finally, a few flew high above in the sky; too high to identify. After 10 minutes of observation I pushed the stroller toward the road. “No Grandma, the other way.” So back I went, circling the area checking things out. I decided it was time to get home; Laila and Brittany would be waking up soon. “Well Sadie, we heard lots of birds, maybe next time we will see them.” She reminded me that we did see them flying up high and then said. “The birds are probably taking care of their babies today. Next time, they will come.” What a wonderful first birding experience we had! When we got home, we completed a bird puzzle and read some bird books to reinforce our learning adventure!
