For the fifth year, I’m volunteering with the Virginia Working Landscapes program and conducting bird surveys. From mid-May to the end of June we’re surveying two fields in The Plains, Virginia, where we document the birds we see and hear for a certain amount of time in specific areas in a 100-meter radius.

Each year I find my skills in identifying birds so much more improved. In fact, whenever I walk the dog or sit out on the deck, I’m constantly hearing and identifying birds almost automatically. Interestingly, it was difficult for me to learn new languages in school, but for some reason recognizing and learning bird songs seems to come much easier than I expected.

That’s not to say that I go out on the surveys and know each song! In fact, that’s part of the fun. Sometimes we have difficulty identifying a song in the field, so we’ll take a recording and then have the challenge of figuring it out later via the bird apps or songs we’ve saved.

This week we enjoyed a beautiful morning in the fields, and despite not being a morning person, I’m always glad to get up to view the sunrise and greet the birds that usually wake me up.