Photo: Pileated Woodpecker, Pamela Underhill-Karaz
Eileen Ellsworth
I was 19 years old when I signed up for an ornithology class that was required for the BS in biology I was pursuing. However, I foolishly took the class in the spring instead of the fall semester of my sophomore year. Big mistake. Dr. Bongiorno was famous for his weekly four-hour-long, attendance-required bird walks. It was February in Connecticut, frigid and dark at 6:00 am. I remember standing in the university parking lot that first morning, shivering and miserable, wishing I had majored in anything else and wondering if I could see it all through.
We drove to a bird sanctuary in Fairfield. Ten minutes into the walk one of my classmates spotted a Pileated Woodpecker. I had never seen one, and it was something to behold. Strangely large for a woodpecker and resembling a pterodactyl for goodness’ sake, the animal instantly struck me as powerful, ancient, and whole. It is hard to overstate my reaction at the time. I wasn’t just seeing a bird. I was seeing another nation I did not know existed. It was a complete revelation.
From that point forward, many weekend trips and vacations were chosen for birding potential. Bird feeders were purchased and tended. Family members and friends were converted. Books and field guides were acquired. What had started as an ornithology lesson in bird behavior became a massive and immediate change in my own.
Over the years birds have taught me something important about being human on the planet. They have helped me develop a more right-brained worldview that sees the connections between things. While I have spent time watching birds, I can’t help but feel that they are watching us, too, that we somehow participate with and influence each other. They seem possessed of a knowing that modern humans have lost, and yet we share a common awareness. Their lives are a simple and moving lesson in just being. To this day, particularly when I see a bird I haven’t seen lately, I feel a part of something bigger than myself.
I recently retired from a long career that ended up having nothing to do with biology or birds, but my interest in everyday nature has never faded. I became an avid gardener 20+ years ago and spend many hours these days in an ever-expanding pollinator garden filled with native plants. I became a certified Virginia Master Naturalist this spring through the Fairfax chapter. I volunteer with Plant NOVA Natives and help them with monthly updates and their website. I became a board member of the Northern Virginia Bird Alliance in July, currently acting as board secretary and chair of the fundraising committee.
It is an honor to help advance the mission of these first-class regional organizations. Through them I have met several people who also find meaning in the work of conserving and supporting native habitats and the birds that live there. Together, we are making a difference, and that is a wonderful feeling.