“Sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet!” is the loud, ringing song that makes my heart leap. It is leaping right now, a little bit, as I write this, thousands of miles away from prothonotary territory. This is because it brings me back to some of the most joyous times of my life…birding with friends along the north shore of Lake Erie in the middle of May. This is the time of peak spring migration when the twigs and branches seem to be literally dripping with birds. Sights and sounds and the smell of blossoms almost overwhelm the senses. To add urgency to the action, the aim is to identify as many different kinds of birds as possible in the day or weekend. This means intense tuning in to every twitch and twitter. In short, there is a very strong sense of being fully alive…a sense of being completely present in the here and now.” ~ Robert Bateman
