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COLUMN: For the birds

Community shows plenty of interest in birds and birdwatching
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It seems to have taken forever for spring to arrive this year.

Winter jackets were washed and put away, boots tucked into their bins and yet we waited. Last month, we had just one or two warm and sunny days to suggest that spring was actually on its way.

On one of these lovely afternoons, I rushed out to the garden, hastily raked over a small section and ran for my seed tin. (I didn’t want to waste even one minute of the sunny warmth.)

As I prepared the first rows for some early greens, my little granddaughter came out to help.

Having had her introduction to planting last year, she already knows how to tuck the seeds into their beds and cover them with a nice, warm ‘dirt blanket.’

This year, she announced she was ready to ‘put the seeds to bed all by herself’ so I got to sit back and watch her carefully plant spinach, arugula and mixed greens.

The rows are a bit ‘creative’ but she does a pretty good job for a three-year-old.

In the middle of the row, we heard a distinctive sound and both looked up.

She and I have been watching the sky since she was a tiny baby and she is quite familiar with many different birds. We strained to see what we knew was above.

“Look, geese!” she exclaimed, pointing upward.

I was delighted to follow her little finger to see that it wasn’t in fact geese but a good-sized flock of sandhill cranes making their way north.

The loose, warbling calls are usually heard before the flock is in sight so it gives you a minute or two to focus way up.

This was her first sighting of these amazing birds and my first glimpse this year.

She is a young birdwatcher in the making.

At this time of the year, we often get requests for bird identification guides and birdhouse construction books.

Sometimes people bring us nests or eggs they find in the most unusual places. Until recently, we could rely on the knowledge of our resident birder, Laurie Rockwell.

Laurie visited the library every day and was always happy to identify a nest, delight in a beautiful, blue robin’s egg shell or just to share a story about how the owls were very loud last night.

Unfortunately, we lost our wonderful patron and friend in March and feel his absence strongly.

Laurie was a true advocate for our community, the natural world around us, for children and for literacy.

He volunteered often for library programs, most recently “Hole #9” at the Father’s Day mini-golf tournament.

If you’d like to celebrate Laurie’s legacy, come to the library and check out any of these great books, sit down with a little one and read or just go outside and absorb our incredible environment.

“Birds of British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest” by Richard Cannings, “Birds of British Columbia” by Glenn Bartley and “Feathers” by Robert Clark.

Sue Kline is the Community Librarian at the Summerland Branch of the Okanagan Regional Library.