In addition to swimming, my dad’s “roses” were birds. For many years he participated in Zumbro Valley Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count. To this day, the Christmas Bird Count is the longest running survey of American bird populations ever conducted. As a child age 5 through 7, this was a day spent with my dad that I looked forward to. Now that he has passed away, I am so happy to have these memories of times he took away from work to spend with us kids.
Do I remember the day because we spent it tooling around the countryside in his “brown buzzard” (what we so lovingly called his beat up car) counting birds? Not at all! I remember it as the day that he would laugh while I consumed as many peanut M&Ms as my body would allow and wash them down with Coca Cola from a glass bottle. I would remember it because of his reaction as a not-so-common bird was marked down on the list. I would remember it as a day spent with me while he was enjoying the hobby that gave him peace and appr