My election

During her times of little birding, another LOL member recorded memories. I’d prefer not to let two months slip by without any posting, so maybe I should follow her example.

I've been wondering lately about when my election first came. I know I started birding last semester, but surely the interest was there before that.

Like most people, I loved feeding the ducks as a child. That can’t exactly be called election, though; it’s too common. I loved watching bluebirds and cardinals in our backyard, although I never paid much heed to the brown birds.

When I was seven, I decided that I never wanted to leave Texas. I’d made a wonderful discovery: Every time I looked up at the sky, I would see a bird. My experimentations never failed. No other place that I’d visited in my seven years could make such a tremendous boast. This was the best state EVER!

But there was another state I loved. My grandparents lived in Washington. They had built a home in Semiahmoo, overlooking Semiahmoo Bay and White Rock Canada. Their beautiful house was two stories and had a huge balcony. The entire side facing the water consisted of windowpanes.

As it is with most houses, the kitchen was the heart of the home. Screen doors near the bay window provided access to a balcony spanning the length of the house, and outdoors and indoors mingled effortlessly.

And on the kitchen counter, a pair of binoculars resided. The binoculars provided close-up views of Canada, sailboats, and, of course, birds. I didn’t know many of them, but I divided them up into two groups: The Bald Eagles were Bald Eagles, and the others were seagulls.

The eagles liked to rest in the tall pines near my grandparents’ backyard. Whenever we spotted one, the news would circulate among my sisters and me, and we would all clamor for a turn with the binoculars. The glimpses were never long enough, but I think I can credit them with my love for birds.

Of course the election calling came in other ways too. Perhaps it came from my neighbor’s house with all of its birdfeeders. Or from seeing the nest at the arboretum that one morning. But undoubtedly, it came partially from those happy summers spent watching the eagles in Semiahmoo.