Today is the kind of day that is normal when birding.

We started at 8 a.m. at Brighton State Recreation Area and the day seemed ready for production. We were focused! Fall migration is still pushing through so our little group was ready for a good day. By 2 p.m., our hopes diminished to being happy to see some movement in the bushes with 2 or 3 Black-Capped Chickadees and Tufted Titmice bouncing through an otherwise quiet tree canopy. While we did see a couple of cool species such as a Broad Winged Hawk and Northern Parula, the 55 total species was a bit of a disappointment on the day.

Thankfully though this was not the main focus of the day.

A few years back when I moved to my current residence, I searched for our local Christmas Bird Count (CBC). In association with the National Audubon Society, this count takes place the week before or after the Christmas holiday to count the number of birds seen in a given 15-mile circle to track the local bird residents and numbers. Thankfully there is always room for one more crazed birder to trudge through cold and snow to count birds and I found my group within a mile from home.

When you sit in a car for 10 hours with people you don’t know but are on a similar mission, you make friends pretty quickly!

Now, it may have been my odd humor or the fact that I brought with me a pair of binoculars that are suitable for children (literally….children’s binoculars…), but I made friends that continue today.

One of those people, through life’s circumstances, moved to Arizona. She returns to Michigan periodically to visit and reconnect with her friends and family. Thankfully my schedule opened up enough to get a day of birding in with her while she was here this week.

Even though we didn’t get the number of species we had hoped for, we did get what we had missed. A chance to reconnect with friends who share a passion for the birds. To joke with each other, to laugh, and to share our life stories while we were absent from each other.

This, above all else, is always the main focus.