I first started noticing birds (I had of course always seen them, but really noticing them) in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. In an effort to make staying inside my apartment slightly more interesting, I set up bird feeders on my fire escape. At first, I only attracted what I considered to be unremarkable birds, like house sparrows and mourning doves.
Soon though, my fire escape was attracting visitors more beautiful than I could have imagined--from Northern Flickers to Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, to an American Kestrel devouring one of the aforementioned Mourning Doves. I began making a list of the birds I saw, a project that I continued as I began venturing further and further from my house, first to Central Park and the Brooklyn saltmarshes and eventually to other states and other countries. The list is a project I plan to continue, as it has provided me with a new and more thoughtful way of looking at the world around me, as well as providing me with a tangible record of a period of time in which the days often seemed to pass with little demarcation.
© Celia Coan 2022