Barr Lake on a cold winter day… Today (January 9, 2022)

House sparrows, waiting for their turn at a birdfeeder. Barr Lake State Park, January 9, 2022

His name was Brian, tall, lean, walking with good posture, some gray in his hair but not much. His binoculars pretty much gave him away as “a birder” (ie, someone who enjoys watching birds). And that he was. At some point we stopped to talk. Immediately I knew that he knew what he was talking about and not just about birds. He could identify them by their sounds (which I cannot) and he had an eye for them. Mine isn’t bad actually, but his is better.

I had seen a hawk fly by over the lake (Barr Lake) but all I knew was that it wasn’t a red tail. He was pretty sure it was a “rough-legged” described in great detail. I was unfamiliar with that species. As we were talking a bevy of American goldfinches, a dozen or so, flew to a nearby bush and began pecking at the seeds. “It’s an invasive plant” Brian commented, “and the birds will spread its seeds far and wide. Then he showed me a goldfinch nest and spent a good ten minutes explaining to me how delicate, fragile it was, yet strong.

We continued to talk.

I had pointed out Long’s Peak to Nancy. The family farm in Lyons was located just below it. Looking up and seeing that mountain often when visiting “Stone Bridge Farm” as it was and is still called always nearly took my breath away and… it reminded me of our wedding reception which was held in a cow pasture with Long’s Peak towering above us.

Had I even climbed it, he asked. No, not me, I’m afraid of heights but I did poke around the base several times before it got too steep for me.

Brian had, but when he got to the summit there was a group of people with cell phones taking “selfies” and talking on the phone to friends far and wide. It ruined the atmosphere for him. Even on the top of Longs Peak people cannot get away from their cellphones, technology. Then he went on to tell me what the summits were like on a number of other Colorado “14-ers” (that is to say Rocky Mountains more than 14000 ft in altitude). I told him Nancy’s brother David had climbed Longs’ and if I remember correctly several other “14-ers”.

It turned out that Brian is a retired wildlife biologist, retired from 25 years with the Denver Zoo where he specialized in caring for the reptile collection, his specialty – the world and behavior of rattlesnakes. He asked how it was that I was interested in birds. I told him that after I retired I was looking for a hobby – or an interest perhaps is more accurate – where I might learn about something I knew nothing about and birds came to mind, how yes, I try to learn about their behavior, to identify them but I was not interested in becoming some kind of expert, only to enjoy them, connect to another group of living things with which I share the planet and that my interest in them was probably a result of having taught Evolution for 35  or more years, with birds being one of the prime examples of easily identifiable speciation, etc.

We didn’t share phone numbers or other contact information nor did I get his last name but as he walked off he said “Do you come here often? Maybe we’ll meet again.” “I hope so,” I answered… and I do.

I very much enjoy being around people like Brian, whose connection to Nature is literally part and parcel of their being, who know it like, frankly I never will, but who like to, in a selfless and generous fashion, share their understanding with a city boy like myself but do so without the arrogance and competitiveness I often run into. Others like Brian at Barr Lake ..

Because of a bum knee, I haven’t been out walking, hiking in the hills or on the plains of Colorado. It was cold today. The car thermometer read 28 degrees when we pulled into Barr Lake State Park and there was a good deal of ice and snow on the paths, making walking, even for those with no knee problem, problematic. The key to the weather though was that the wind was down and that made the cold more tolerable. After a while I hardly notice it.

A fine afternoon.