Hey, you know what this coming Saturday (May 14th) is?
Well, it depends on where you are, really. If you’re in the US or Canada, it’s World Migratory Bird Day, so get out and find a migratory world to give to your bird. Or something. Give the bird to… no, that can’t be right. But I’d suggest going out and seeing how many species you can spot, or photograph, or do some research on, or make some new nest boxes, or set up some inviting habitat, or teach kids about, or, you know, something related to migratory birds, to show you’re not nature-hostile or Republican or whatever. Of course, this may be falling late for anyone from the mid-latitudes south, because the migratory birds have already arrived and thus nest boxes and so on would be late, but do something anyway.
As I discovered not too many days back, should you be in Mexico, the Caribbean, Central or South America, World Migratory Bird Day is the second Saturday in October. Makes a little sense, since those are the southern destinations for various species migrating south, and about the time that they’re doing it, so timed for their arrival in either case; how this escaped my attention before, I’ll never know, but I’ll blame it on US-centric Google (I’m now using Ecosia as a search engine.) If you’re in the rest of the world, apparently it’s not the right world because there is no World Migratory Bird Day celebrated therein, despite the fact that birds also migrate between Europe and Africa in the appropriate months. Maybe if I switched to Gügel as a search engine…
All that aside, you’ve had enough warning now to cancel those wedding plans, blow off the family reunion, postpone the trip to the ISS – whatever – and watch some birds instead. You can show this post to anyone protesting, because my name carries that much clout – my search engine says so (I’m also getting so handsome.) Enjoy yourself!