Incidental Findings...

These Incidental Findings, these random sights of beauty, these are the things that I don't specifically set out after but that I see anyway.  I don't leave the house saying 'I will find a mink track in the mud, a single feather lying in the marsh, see a mind-blowing array of clouds when I least expect it, walk down a trail right after a mammalian creature that is larger than myself has, come face to face with a northern saw-whet owl, look down at simple rocks and be unable to look away because they're so beautiful...'  

I didn't know there would be rainbow, a rock covered with lichens that look like dark russet potato chips, a barn owl sleeping in a hole, mountain cranberries in full ripe splendor, an ovenbird nest...

 

 

I usually leave the house saying 'today I hope to see good birds.'  But could I ever really plan on seeing a ton of molting winter loons, a northern hawk owl (okay that one may have had a last minute plan involved), a peregrine falcon, a white-winged crossbill, a horned lark? 

  
Often the best parts of a day are the unexpected sightings.  I think this thrill of 'seeing' is partly what draws me to birding.  I like that there could be hidden beauties anywhere.  In this crazy, wireless world of traffic and fuel inefficiency, I'll take all the beauty I can get!