With a four-day weekend to enjoy, I was determined to make my way to a serious birding location to bulk up my life list. A marshy area about an hour away is known for its water and shore birds, and reports from there have included wonderful migrants such as a little blue heron, sandhill cranes, a peregrine falcon and more, so I headed out there Friday morning despite threatening storms.

I arrived later in the morning than I had hoped to and floods had wiped out some of the best shore bird habitat, but IT WAS A GOOD DAY. Another local birder there gave me some tips about navigating the area and what to look for, and in just under three hours, I collected 11 life birds, including the white-crowned sparrow, which had elluded me all winter.

Birding isn't all about life birds, however. Four or five great blue herons were probably my favorites of the day. These beauties were soaring low over the marshes, from pool to pool, wary of me and completely unconscious of their own majesty. They were not good poseurs for my photos like the sandpipers, but it is impossible to doubt the world when a bird like that sweeps by.

Three days later, with more yard work than birding having occupied my long weekend, I woke up on my birthday, looked out at my feeder and got a nice gift from god of flying things: a lifer house wren sorting through the safflower seeds.