Gratitude Friday 9-12-25 – The Great Migration of Life

“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, Birding with Yeats: A Mother's Memoir Hawk MT

Hawk Mountain at Sunrise with the Bird Nerds

The cycles of life have been with me a great deal in recent weeks. It is also a time of the year I tend to reflect on how life on earth moves around us, often in ways we miss unless we focus on it. And focus we should. We are part and parcel of our world and its cycles. We are approaching the last day of Summer, 2025. The sun is shining directly on the equator, with each hemisphere receiving the same amount of light. Beyond this threshold, days get shorter, and the nights grow longer. I love this season for so many reasons. We are moving into Fall with the autumnal equinox occurring in ten days on Monday, Sep 22, 2025, 2:19 PM, EST. On Tuesday of that week, we will officially be in a new season.

Migration is also upon us. Vast seas of animals move about us in preparation for the coming winter. We do the same. Friends are canning their harvested garden bounty. I start thinking about winterizing the house or going out and enjoying the season in the woods. I hope the woods win often. Over the next few weeks, millions of birds will pass over our heads, often at night while we sleep as this is the most common time for bird migration and why cities with all of their lights and reflective light windows are dangerous for birds. There is a real time migratory bird map called Birdcast managed by some of the leading ornithology institutions. When I wrote this, 278 million birds moved nocturnally on that day. We miss some of the most awe inspiring things when we fail to pay attention to the pulse of our earth.

As a person who bird watches, this is a key time for me to get out in the wild as migration moves into full gear. I do enjoy it. There are different types of birdwatchers. I am not the kind with an obsessive focus on a life list and the drive to cross every species off in order to hit a huge number. I do it to reflect, relax and observe. To be grounded. It is a time of year where the chance of seeing something spectacular, like a huge Broadwing Hawk flight of thousands of birds or a species not often seen is much more likely than in any other time of year, at least where I live. But truth be told, if I get out in the woods and don’t see anything rare, it is still a special time for me.

The next few weeks will include more movement for me than usual as I bounce across PA and a number of other states. I may get the opportunity to see migration along the great lakes and in New York State. I look forward to these travels, but also look forward to the slower times that tend to come during the looming winter months.

The Fall reminds me that I am part of that cycle of life flowing around me. It is my 60^th fall solstice, what I see in the season had changed as I have over the years although it has always been my favorite season. One of the big shifts for me occurred during the Pandemic. Because of the accompanying isolation, in many ways my world got smaller. It forced me to look at more incremental changes in nature. I found new spots to hang out and observe life flowing past and above me. In coming weeks, there is a spot along the Delaware where I know I can hear Northern Saw Whet Owls in the predawn hours. They have distinctive calls and are notoriously hard to spot even if you are quite close. It would be nice to spot one this year, but if I only hear them while watching the sun rise over the horizon as the river flows in front of me, all will be well. I will still be in my element.  

Indoor time draws nigh. Fires in the fireplace, stews and ideal book reading conditions. I am blessed with comfortable living. I know this winter I will have heat, food, shelter, and safety from the elements. There will be opportunities to celebrate holidays with friends and family. We have a short vacation planned, which is not something we have been able to pull off much in recent years. All of these things I am grateful to look forward to this season.

The Fall brings a change in the light coming in through the leaded glass windows of our 112-year-old home, 27 of which it has been our dwelling. Unlike those recent pandemic years, we will likely have gatherings in our dining room, our favorite room in our residence. We are not moving in a migratory sense; we have long lived in one place. Yet there is a transitory nature to life. We will not always be in this space; with the people we love surrounded by the familiarity of the things we have collected on our travels. These truths serve to remind me to cherish this season and all it offers.

We are all on a great journey of hills and valleys that we move through. We have different starting and stopping places, as we walk along with each other for parts of our lives. In this way we are all connected to our time and place. I am grateful for all who walk this path with me. May we find something special together over the crest of the next hill. Even if we do not, do we truly understand how amazing it is to have the gift to pass through time and space, together as nomads of life in the movement of life? To me, today this fact is a matter of deep gratitude.

What are you grateful for today?