Welcome to Ann’s Bird Ventures

When I was two years old, I was shipped off temporarily to my Grandmother’s house while my brother was being born.  My dear grandmother was an outdoor woman, showed me my first American Robin, and started me on the road to a love of the natural world and a life of bird adventures. I’ve recently been putting my field notes (and some of hers) and journals on my computer, and decided to share some of them with you. I hope you enjoy them.

Several years after my first robin sighting, my grandmother took us all on a walk in a woods somewhere in Ohio. We never hiked anywhere, since the whole idea was to look for things – birds, butterflies, wildflowers, rabbits – and the best way to find them was to amble or stroll or just wander around. It was an old forest as I remember, tall trees (well, I was pretty short), leaves covering the ground, and shrubs here and there. I was still young enough that my father’s warning, “Don’t hit the bushes with that stick!” went ignored and sure enough, I stirred up a hornet’s nest. They came after me – fast and stinging – with me screaming and running around, and everyone else yelling, but my wise father grabbed up a wad of mud from a damp area and slapped it on me. And boy did I swell up – not from the slapping – from the stinging. Anyhow, for several days I looked pretty weird – all swole up!

I still amble and stroll and just wander around the woods, but I do not beat the bushes anymore.