Why the heck are we doing this?

When we moved to Beaverlodge close to ten years ago, we were encouraged to join in the Christmas Bird Count, by bird advocate Joan Kerr.  As postmaster in the community of Beaverlodge Marilyn had plenty of opportunity to interact with people and it wasn't long before Joan and her determined that they shared this common "interest" and when Randy learned of this "game" we were both sold.
As a pair of procrastinators and this bird counting thing looked like another great means of escapism - our kids weren't coming home for Christmas anyway... and now the bird count has become a Christmas tradition for us empty nesters.  The precount coffee meeting with stories of this year's possibilities followed by the adventure and search of the count and the hunt for that elusive species.  Our digital camera has been a godsend for us as there are times when we are unsure of the species observed and these photos have removed all doubt on accuracy.  We still revel in the mystical encounter we had with a Snowy Owl on the north perimeter of "our area west of the Boe's place.
But why all this chatter about the Christmas Bird Count when this blog is about our journey to Middle Earth and the bird life that knows not of winter?
Well, participants of the bird count receive mailings and sometimes these mailings have advertisements in them.  Early this summer when the publication arrived out flew an interesting notice about a tour.  A tour to Ecuador and Galapagos.  A birding tour with plenty of sight seeing intertwined and even better we had been discussing how to celebrate those 40 years, those 14,600 days of togetherness besides, weird or not - our wedding cake topper is/was a pair of white doves...