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One of the wonderful side effects of home schooling your children is that ornothology can begin at age five, rather than waiting for, well, never.
One of my twin daughters has in fact been studying birds far longer than that. My wife has picture of her, age two, pasifier still in her mouth, cell phone in one hand, looking at an image a friend's mother had texted to my wife, the Sibley guide spread out before her, thumb thoughtfully tracing it's way down a page of yellow warblers. Which was a pretty good guess for what was actually a female goldfinch in non-breading plumage.
It probably helps that her middle name is Bird. Not, actually, for avians, for the intrepid 19th century British explorer Isabella Bird, but when it comes to love and namesakes intention it seems is irrelevant.
It also probably helps that we travel the country by RV, stopping off, when we can, migration hot spots. We're not Kenn Kaufman by any means, but we've been known to be on St. Georgia Island in April, summer in the Great Lakes and perhaps even spend a fall in the Chiricauhua region. And no we did not see a tk, or a tk or a trogan. The truth is we're fans of the rather less rare, but still spectacular avians. The Cardnial never ceases to cause wonder.
We spent two weeks around the Natchez Trace area watching nesting Summer Tanagers in full breeding plumage.
I write a travelogue, mostly for friends and family, but I set it up to list the birds we see, which I know puzzles plenty of relatives and other visitors.
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