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One Little Spark
I haven’t always been obsessed with birds. In fact, for most of my life I hardly noticed them. Most of my brain power was spent collectively memorizing my favorite tv shows and movies or whatever ADHD filed hyper-fixation was hitting right that day. I came to birds through the only logical path for a woman in her late 30s. Dinosaurs.
Post Covid was a weird time. For everyone I think. I had gone from thriving (well, enjoying some success) with my small business that had me attending comic conventions and being rather social, to stuck inside with the rest of the world. When it was finally safe to return to something near normality I decided that I needed to get out of the house. I wanted to do something I was passionate about so I started volunteering for the Arizona Natural History museum. It was a fantastic time and definitely filled a hole in my soul at the time. And for a woman full of random dinosaur facts provided an outlet to share that info and I am so grateful for that time.
After having my son and leaving the museum I knew I needed a similar shake up to post 2020. I missed having time to myself, I missed being outside, I missed having something that was mine, but knew I needed to find something that could fulfill those needs but still fit into my life as a mother. Then I remembered my favorite fact to share with the kids that would visit my booth: “Did you know that dinosaurs are still around? Birds are the remaining survivors of the dinosaurs!” Yes! Those birds!
I have always been a photographer- scratch that I have always tried to be a photographer. I read the books. Marveled at the art galleries and wished that I too could capture something beautiful. Every five years or so I would buy a fancy rig saying this is it- this is when I really “do the thing.” The problem? I didn’t enjoy photographing people. So no weddings or senior portraits for me. Originally I was drawn to landscapes and still take a mighty fine landscape photo if I do say so myself but I always felt something was missing. Something alive. Enter my spark bird.
The first time I took my camera to the Riparian on a rare Saturday morning where my husband told to go out and do something for myself I felt odd and oddly guilty. That is the reality of being a mom. No matter how much you understand your need for autonomy and time to decompress you will just never not feel guilty about being away from your child. I was determined to make the most of it though. So, I brought my camera to the Gilbert Riparian knowing that I loved photographing the bunnies and ducks and walking around the beautiful foliage. Then I saw it. A shockingly red blob sitting on a tree branch. It was so vibrant it instantly caught my eye. I was barely in the riparian still on the cement path that rings the duck pond and borders the Gilbert Public Librarian not exactly natures wildest terrain. Yet, there it was. That blob of red sitting on a branch. I raised my camera (this was well before I bought my first very expensive zoom lens) and I fired off my first shot. It was stunning. This bright red feathered beauty against a sea of green shrubbery. I didn’t know it at the time but the bird I was seeing was a male Vermillion Flycatcher. He was the first of hundreds I have seen since then. In fact, I see one pretty much daily in my neighborhood now that I am looking. Taking that photo in that instant taught me how truly blind to this wonderful world of birds I had been. Birds the perfect photographic subject. I spent the rest of that morning looking for more birds and an addiction was cemented.
Once my passion grabbed hold I dove in head first- books, podcasts, movies, any and all information I could glean about birds and birding. Since that first day with the Vermillion I have seen hundreds of birds most that I can identify on sight or by sound. That one bird completely changed my entire world view.
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