Coo-AHH, cooo, coo, cooo. Coo-AHH cooo coo cooo.

The soft, dulcet tones of a mourning dove: one of my favorite sounds that transports me in time and place. I spent the first 10 years of my childhood living in Illinois. We would travel the then eight-hour drive (which is now closer to 6 thanks to modern highway designs and advancements) to my grandparents’ farm in Clark County, Wisconsin a few times each year. I have so many wonderful memories of that farm: helping Grandpa with the cows, playing with my brother and sister in the hayloft and other outbuildings, being terrified to go in the cellar, how the wire hangers in our bedroom always seemed to softly tinkle even when there wasn’t a breeze. But one of my favorite memories is waking up on warm, sunny summer mornings, the curtains blowing in a slight breeze and hearing those mourning doves coo to each other and having this overall sense of peace, even at such a young age when I was innocent to the burdens of adult life.

I’m sure we had mourning doves at our feeder in Illinois, but for whatever reason I only associated them with Wisconsin so when we moved I was thrilled to hear those gentle coos in my own yard! Even now, while I enjoy seeing the flashy songbirds in the trees and feeders, it’s the haunting calls of the mourning doves that I look forward to most.

A word that’s been making the rounds on social media lately is seatherny.

Seatherny [seth-er-nee] – noun: The serenity one feels when listening to the chirping of birds.

I have been unable to find a dictionary that supports this actually being a word but it is a sentiment I wholeheartedly agree with. I know there are plenty of people who grumble about the early morning hours that the birds keep, thus disturbing their slumber, but after a long, dark, silent winter hearing the birds call back and forth to each other reminds me that lighter, warmer days are here for the next few months, and perhaps also takes me back in time to those carefree, happy moments when I was a kid.

As I have mentioned in a previous blog, my dad was a big birder. He was always carrying around his camera and his notebook to be at the ready for any birds he might need to add to his birder’s life list. A birder’s life list is exactly as it sounds, a list of birds that one has seen and, depending on how the list is set up, a bucket list for those one hopes to see. When I studied abroad in England one semester, to help prepare me for my travels my dad bought me a book of the birds that I would find in Great Britain, as well as my very own Birder’s Life List and Diary. I’ve been very fortunate over the years to travel to other countries and, following Dad’s example, a book of the native birds is always packed in my bag.

Would I enjoy birding as much if Dad were still around? Do I continue with this hobby in his memory? I don’t know if I have the answers to those questions but I do know that finding joy in something that he loved so much makes it almost seem like he’s here watching the birds with me and partaking in some seatherny.

I invite you to partake in seatherny, or other birding adventures.

To Get You Started:

• Visit the James Newman Clark Bird Museum located in Phillips Hall at UWEC. There are over 500 species of native birds on display, including a bald eagle, golden eagle, and the extinct passenger pigeon.
• Look to see all the happenings at Beaver Creek Reserve! They do birding programs throughout the year such as learning bird songs/calls, bluebird house building, and more. To stay up-to-date on their offerings sign up for their Current Happenings Newsletter or look at their calendar. You can also participate in their Citizen Science Projects. People of all ages can participate in studies through Beaver Creek that help the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources obtain valuable data. Some of the projects related to birding are:
  • Christmas Bird Count
  • Bald Eagle Nest Watch
  • Midwest Crane Count
  • Bluebird Restoration Project
  • Song Bird Banding
  • Northern Saw-Whet Owl Banding
  • American Kestrel Program
• For fun, check out new birder Jennifer Garner’s “Bird Modeling Agency!“
• And, as always, the library has you covered with a variety of books (as shown below) and DVDs.

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