Early birds

“So, I leave for a moment to make my coffee and you hear an owl,” I laughingly said to Rachel. We were sitting in our backyard garden, enjoying what was left of the sunrise before it created the intense summer heat. It was the rare time of day when the birds are louder than the nearby highway or any neighbour’s power tool. Rachel turned her face to me, grinned and then resumed looking at the iPad on her lap. In just ten minutes, her bird app showed 11 birds listed and identified based on sound. And yes, a barn owl was on the list.

Slow start

In July and August, a favourite early morning habit for our family involved getting the girls out of bed and going to the backyard garden. As a result of both their limited mobility and being fed via gastrostomy tube continuously through the night, the girls require attention by 5:30 A.M. every day. With no school routine pushing us forward, we would transfer the girls into their wheelchairs while still in their PJs. After an application of bug spray, Rachel would be parked under the small Eastern Redbud tree and Janneke next to the long grasses. I would set up the iPad on Rachel’s lap and retrieve my coffee. There is a time for everything – and it was time to listen to the birds. 

Last year, I came across Looking Up: A Birder’s Guide to Hope Through Grief by Courtney Ellis. Ellis’s book is a beautiful expression of sorting through big feelings associated with loss. Woven throughout her writings is the description of different birds, capturing insight on grief in a unique way. It was a wonderful reminder of how hope and encouragement can be found in the most ordinary and often overlooked places. Though Ellis focused on the death of her grandfather, I could relate with my own feelings of ambiguous grief as part of caregiving and the absence of familiar milestones in raising two medically complex kids. 

Spellbound

Hence, this past summer, the Merlin Bird ID (free!) app became a part of our morning routine with Rachel and Janneke. Created by Cornell University, it records the sounds in your location and identifies the bird. The app also offers a photo and description of the bird, particularly if you can’t seem to see who’s making the sound. The technology allowed us to create a different kind of interaction with our girls, a brief escape from the ordinary. We heard the sound together, and then we saw the identification on the app. Rachel, in particular, would look at the picture of the identified bird, and I am convinced there are times she made the connection. What began as a simple routine became a small but meaningful comfort – to be curious together.