For Christmas this year, one of our daughters gifted us with a birdwatching day trip in Duluth, including a two-day stay at an Airbnb. Knowing we’re bird and nature lovers who enjoy feeding wild birds year-round, she thought it might be something we would enjoy.
She was right.
We headed to Duluth the second weekend in January. It was cold, and there was possible snow in the forecast, but we figured that, at the very least, we would be getting out of the house for the weekend.
Never having been on an actual birdwatching trip, we dressed for the weather with boots, snow pants, and layers of clothes, and brought hand and foot warmers in case we still got cold. I’m not a lover of winter, so although the trip sounded fun, I was still somewhat hesitant.
We arrived at the designated meeting spot and met up with our fellow bird watchers. To our surprise, instead of walking through the woods as we imagined, we discovered we would instead be driving around on the lookout for birds, only getting out of our cars when birds were spotted to admire and take pictures.
I didn’t realize how large the birding community was, how serious they were about their hobby, nor how much they helped one another. There are numerous places ‘birders’ can go to share which birds they saw where and when. Our group leader was constantly on the phone to hear where the ‘prize’ birds were being spotted that day.
We ended up carpooling with a man and his teenage son who had driven up from Washington D.C., just for this birdwatching experience. The son loved birding, and the trip was his parents’ birthday present to him. The birds he most wanted to see were owls.
I agreed with him. Although there are owls around our property, I’ve only rarely seen them. The owl I’ve always wanted to see is the Snowy Owl.
We had a great time, seeing birds we were already familiar with, as well as numerous birds we hadn’t seen before. We saw several Great Grey Owls and a couple of Barred Owls, which we were told are rare to see, but sadly, a Snowy Owl wasn’t on our list.
I’m okay with that because my husband and I now have a new hobby. I’ll spot one on my next birdwatching trip.