North Dakota, 2012. Do It!

By now you may have discerned that this is a stealth attack on your personal inertia. Maybe you've been saying, "I've got to get out to that Potholes and Prairies Birding Festival one of these years." Maybe you've been saying that for

A DECADE.

Which is how many years Bill and I have been working this festival. So I am here to tell  you that it is time to stop talking about it and DO IT.

Here are some reasons why.

 Give me land, lots of land with the starry skies above...don't fence me in.

Let me ride through the wide open spaces that I love. Don't fence me in.

Give me rails. Sora, Virginia and maybe a yellow. Hey, it could happen. Bill of the Birds tries his hardest. And Liam's mighty good at spotting those little slippers-through-the-reeds.

Give me the easy companionship of other winter-weary souls who just want to soak up some sun and the burbling song of western meadowlarks.

Give me blue-eyed grass

and Brewer's blackbird eggs, shining olives in a grassy martini.

Give me duck hatch, and blue-winged teal springing from every roadside ditch.

I have more reasons.