My father always had an opinion that if you just sat in one place, eventually the whole world would pass in front of you. Of course, it’s not entirely true, but sometimes it does work out.
I think his outlook partially came from shopping malls. When he and my mother would go to a mall, they would go their separate directions with the plan that he would simply track her down a bit later. But his idea of tracking her down was to go to a central location, find a bench and sit down. I would ask if he was going to go looking for her and he would simply reply that she would be coming by before long, so there was no need to go searching. And before long, sure enough, she would come by.
He claimed it worked every time. And not just in shopping malls.
Now, I don’t think the entire universe will parade by me any time soon, but I did have a rather similar experience last weekend.
I did a bit of bird watching last weekend. In fact, I added two new birds to my list. Not bad… for not moving.
I know there are people who put on their hiking boots and grab their spotting scopes and wander for miles looking for birds. I sat on my deck. And it was hot, so I wasn’t moving far at all. In fact, I was reading a novel and sipping a cool beverage. Like I say, it was hot, so I was trying to expend as little energy as possible.
At one point I looked up from my book at a nearby tree and thought, “that’s a weird coloured nuthatch”. Then I looked closer and realized it wasn’t a nuthatch at all. It was a black and white warbler. First time I had ever seen one, to be honest. And I didn’t have to go looking for it. It seemed to have come looking for me.
A bit later on, a common yellow throat made a similar visit.
So I saw two new birds, and never moved from my chair.
As I say, I know not everything will simply walk or fly by in front of me. But there’s a lot that do. I’m sure both of these birds were close enough I could have hunted them down without too much problem. But I like this waiting for them to come to me. Especially on hot humid days.
Now if I can just get them to bring me another cold beverage…
