There have been many surprises on our unlikely journey to becoming “birders”.

 The first surprise came when I opened the housewarming gift – a bird feeder? I was so confused.  Why did my dear friends get me a bird feeder of all things – do they know me at all?   Do they really think I know anything about feeding birds or really, anything outside?  But I decided to give it a go and put up our shiny new Wild Birds Unlimited feeder outside my home office window to see what it’s all about.

When the first birds started to come, I experienced my second surprise – how engaging it is to spend moments watching birds fly in for a snack.  I catch myself on phone calls and in moments of thought truly enjoying the peaceful Zen from visits by a growing variety of birds.

My third surprise is in how this new hobby has become a family affair.  To find my three teenage boys trying to identify different species on Google, shouting out the window at the squirrels that sneak too close and enjoying the photos I text them of the latest new bird to stop by are all truly unexpected.  In the morning when I make my first cup of coffee and I see these guys already up watching and talking about the birds, I just shake my head and smile. Didn’t see that coming.

My final and biggest surprise is realizing that my dear friends knew me and our family better than I thought.  Turns out they understood that the welcoming of the birds and the experience of learning something new would make a bird feeder the perfect house warming gift for us – bringing us all closer together and making our new house feel a little more like home.

Thank you to Jayson Pearl for providing this guest blog post. To learn more about how you can get started feeding the birds, check out your local WBU store.