My Experience in Nature

My Experience in Nature

I wasn't interested in nature before I came to Seattle. Growing up in Beijing, I didn't have much chance to get in touch with nature in the big city even though sometimes I took part in some tree-planting programs. In the last few years, Beijing has been infected with smog pollution and its bad air quality is still a serious problem. Since I love this city and I know it was better in the past, I want to improve its air pollution back to the state in the past. Beijing’s environmental issue is part of the reasons why I chose to major in environmental studies.

Figure 1, Steller's jay carrying a peanut at Nancy's backyard.

After I came to Seattle for college, my homestay Nancy introduced me about the topic of nature, especially bird-watching. I remember seeing four Steller’s jays at my first day of bird-watching. At that time, I was just chatting with her about my school life. Suddenly, I heard some harsh sound coming from her backyard. Then, I saw two birds with black crests and blue bodies. They were perching on the branches, staring at Nancy’s peanuts in a big bowl. Sooner, I found two more perching one the far side. How pretty they are! That was the first time I began to notice the creatures around me and Steller’s jay is the first bird I learned. I wasn't satisfied with just seeing them eating those peanut, I wanted to feed them! However, right after I opened the door to the backyard, all four of them flew away. Nancy told me that since those birds are so smart that I couldn't just go out and feed them. The only thing I could do is leaving those peanuts on the bowl and watching those birds eating peanuts from the window. After the day turned dark and the birds all flew away, Nancy told me that those four beauties don’t come to her yard very often. If they come, they don’t rarely come together. I must have been super lucky to see those birds at my first day of birding. After that first day of birding, I began to go birding with Nancy to many places such as Green Lake and Washington Park Arboretum.

Figure 2, A bird I saw in Oklahoma. Both Terri and I couldn't identify it. Can anyone help me?

Another story about my birding experience is my self-trip to Oklahoma in this spring break. During this trip, I met with Terri, a very kind and talented birder from Oklahoma City Audubon Society. She drove me around to many places and introduced me so many birds that I couldn’t even check all of them in the checklist of the bird book she gave me. For me, the most amazing bird that she introduced to me was the cardinal. With bright red feather all over their body, cardinals seemed very proud of their feather. Every time I saw them, they were standing upright. When they sang, they looked upward with their head up. What an amazing creatures! I love their songs so much!

Being around with nature is a wonderful thing! I’m looking forward to learning much more about nature. Although I can identify some birds, I still need to be able to identify them by their shapes, flights and songs, and calls. Also, I’m looking forward to know more about plants and their relationship with animals such as birds.