Sample Birding Stories & Zen Birding

These stories trace the human journey — moments of connection, friendship, challenge, humor, and discovery — all unfolding in the landscape of birding. Birds appear throughout, but they are the setting rather than the subject. Each story reveals something about people: how we respond to the world, how we change, and how time in nature shapes a life lived in attention and wonder. Here you’ll find a selection of stories from the Birding Journey, offered as a glimpse into the larger archive.

What I call my Zen Birding writings are different. They are guidance — practical, reflective, and shaped by my own experiences in the field. When I write these pieces, I’m speaking to myself as much as to the reader: reminding myself to slow down, to let the moment be what it is, to stop reaching for conclusions. Birds help with that. They arrive without commentary, without argument, without any need to be interpreted. They simply appear, and in their appearance I find a quiet kind of instruction. These Zen pieces offer that same instruction to anyone who wants to deepen their birding through presence and attention.