One of my favorite holidays of the year is Super Bowl Sunday, the day the championship of the National Football League is decided. Why this is exactly I don’t know. I’m far from a sports fanatic, but as readers know I do love my football. To the outside observer, sports offer perspective on how deeply seemingly innocent passion can infect us. Rabid sports fans seem to live and breathe their avocation, often compromising more important aspects of their life. But sports fanatics aren’t the only ones that may fall prey to such consuming short-sightedness. I’ve heard it can even happen to nature lovers, maybe even to birders. (Gasp.)
So, as usual, I am interested in what you’ll be doing this weekend. But if you find that you’ve been birding every weekend for the last two months, maybe you should take a break and try something new for a change. On the other hand, if you haven’t been birding at all, maybe this is an auspicious opportunity to experience a potentially life changing activity (well, maybe not in February!) In any case, be sure to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday! What will you be doing this weekend and will you be birding? Share your plans in the comments below.
I hope to shovel through a few feet of snow in order to refill my barren bird feeders. Wish me luck! Corey will hopefully be birding coastal Queens one morning, though there are rumors of a Snowy Owl out east on Long Island. Charlie is going nowhere and will see nothing.
Whatever your plans this weekend, make time to enjoy SkyWatch Friday. Also be sure to come back Monday to share your best bird of the weekend!
And lest you forget that some people celebrate Super Bowl Sunday early, here’s a scene from last week’s Superbowl (sp) of Birding 2011.
Loons looking at loons under a beautiful blue sky
what a clear and bright view of the sky!
It’s that time of year, when I grit my teeth and go up north to Sault Ste. Marie for the wintering birds. I’ll be envying Charlie.
Nowhere specifically, just Heidelberg again. Which is good enough so long as Corey has yet to add Hawfinch and Long-tailed Tit to his life list. What I’ll do after he achieves this I don’t know. I’ll probably quit birding and start a stamp collection.
nice
You forgot to mention the main sport event of the week end, the first week end of the six nations tournament. This is rugby, kind of like football, but the players don’t need any padding or helmet, and they don’t need a break every 10 seconds to catch their breath. Live on BBC america!
Having said so, GO GREEN BAY!!!!
(Waiting for nikon to return my bins after repairs…..so no birding for me!)
@Laurent:
“…and they don’t need a break every 10 seconds to catch their breath.”
Best comment on American Football ever. That sums it up, sais it all, end of story.
On to real sport, like rugby & true football.
@ Jochen
It is really not my style to descriminate against sports. I think somewhere, there is certainly room for less physical, and less exciting sport. I even enjoye watching some of them on TV.
Artistic Gymnastic (one of the events also involve throwing a ball and catching it, not that different if I think about it), for instance, is really pleasant to watch. Only difference, I guess, is that the athlete has to sustain the effort non stop for a good 2-3mn.
I will be guiding at La Selva on Saturday, then heading to the Central Pacific Coast on Sunday. Should be a bunch of birds!
Ed Frost and I birded the National Wildlife Refuges near Los Banos, California, today, one of Charlie’s favoite places when BA sent him this way. The cranes and white geese did not disappoint…the only disappointment was not having Charlie with us.
@Laurent
🙂
🙂 🙂 🙂
🙂 🙂