Standing Upon the Heights

"He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; He enables me to stand upon the heights." Psalm 18:33

The birds and I have taken shelter from the oppressive heat in the last few days, but that does not keep me from recounting birding memories.

I went to Yosemite with my family this Memorial Day. We have lived about an hour and a half away from the park for as long as I can remember, but I think it was my third time. Shameful. Thousands of people travel thousands of miles to see it, and we allowed familiarity to breed contempt.

I brought my binoculars and my parents', hoping I might interest them or my brother and sister-in-law in keeping a lookout. I didn't have much of a clue whether the birds would show themselves or which ones would be there. My mom and dad accepted the binocs, but I could not interest them in a leisurely trail walk. The other younguns were already fifty yards ahead toward the hike to the falls, and it seems it was our duty to overtake them.

Finally I was to learn three things I should already have surmised:

• Serious hiking and birding are mutually exclusive
• Yosemite Park on Memorial Day is not exactly a quiet habitat
• In some countries, women think nothing of hiking steep trails in skirts and flip flops

The trail was so steep, narrow, rocky and crowded that there was no leisure for looking up, and if fifteen Harlequin Ducks had walked by, I might not have noticed them except to try to make room for them to pass without falling down a very steep and very unprotected cliffside. Thousands of people traveled up and down, and the only birds we were privileged to see were two Barn Swallows having it out over the valley. As they engaged, they dropped like stones in the struggle and we watched them pull up just as they were about to hit the ground. My mom, the only one with me by this point, and I enjoyed the scene.

My brother took my binoculars with him as he and his wife left us to ascend the top of the falls. He brought them back with a broken strap, freeing me to shop for new ones--new ones I very much enjoy. Thanks, bro!

Even apart from the swallows, the day was not birdless; Common Ravens and Steller's Jays were numerous, and a Brown Creeper caught me without my binoculars while we picnicked on a mosquito-infested log. I enjoyed the raven's croak as it sent shivers down my spine: "nevermore." "Nevermore" indeed will I expect a hike with non-birders to yield the satisfaction I am accustomed to enjoy in birding.