Snowy egret and me

I’m not sure I’ll ever be a serious birder with all the right gear and knowledge and obsessions. But I do know that being outside and watching birds makes me happy. When I get a good photo, I feel like a crow taking a shiny object back to its nest.

I live near Stuart, Florida in the town of Sewall’s Point, which is located on a peninsula between the St. Lucie River and the Indian River Lagoon near an inlet to the Atlantic Ocean. This region is nicknamed the Treasure Coast.

From the hammock in my backyard I can watch osprey, wood storks, and pelicans fly over.  Carolina wrens perch on our backyard fence, fish crows flock in winter and pair off in summer, warblers visit the neighborhood banyans and live oaks during migration, ibises aerate our lawns, and egrets snatch lizards from the shrubbery.

I wrote the short tale of how I got started watching birds when we lived in New Hampshire, after being contacted by an editor who found this blog. It was published with some of my photos in Watching Backyard Birds magazine in late 2016. Here is a link: 14 Acres of Habitat in New Hampshire.

A few more things…

I freelanced for local newspapers and magazines for many years, while also being a school and town volunteer and stay-at-home mom to two lovely, smart, creative daughters. We moved to Florida in December 2016 for my husband’s job. He’s an airline pilot flying the 777 out of Miami to Europe and South America. He likes birds too. In fact (he reminds me) he liked birds first.

I have been a blogger since the beginning of blogging (an era that now seems quite ancient and innocent). My first blog was called “ever so humble.” My place blog “Atlantic Ave” won a “Best in New Hampshire” award from New Hampshire magazine. When I was writing for a local newspaper as well as blogging about my life, family and region, my blog was just my name. They are all privately archived now.

I don’t claim to be an expert on birds… or any other subject. But I am a good observer, curious, with a capacity for wonder.

My birding “life list” is on the sidebar, alphabetically. I only count birds I photographed and blogged. Thanks for stopping by. Now let’s go outside and look around!

Amy Kane

I think the most important quality in a birdwatcher is a willingness to stand quietly and see what comes. Our everyday lives obscure a truth about existence – that at the heart of everything there lies a stillness and a light.
― Lynn Thomson