Like so many before me, I have watched birds and learned about them for as long as I can remember. It was the National Geographic Song and Garden Birds ofNorth America that taught me how to observe and identify species. For hours as a child I sat watching the finery of nature huddle in our bird feeder. At 9 years old, I knew species, habits, diets and egg colors and what the nests of these creatures looked like.

I vividly remember one cold gray March day in 1965 as we were moving from Hawthorne to Ringwood. I was looking out the back seat window of our Renault Delphine when I saw up in our tree the biggest prettiest bird I ever saw. It wasn’t until almost a month later that I was able to identify that wondrous creature as being a Piliated Woodpecker. A long time friend of our family, the mother of my father’s best man, now deceased, Grandma Woodham, left a life long impression on my then youthful mind. She taught me respect and love of nature. As a memeber of theAudubon Society, Grandma Woodham was a wealth of information she and Uncle Woody were very special people. The Christmas of 1967 brought me the book that confirmed my love for birds. GP as I called my paternal grandfather gave me my "Bird Book" I sat by the hour leafing through it. I listened to the little plastic 45RPM recording of bird calls that came with my "bird book" on my Victrola.

As I grew into adulthood, ,my fascination with birds grew with me. To quote Frank M. Chapman, Ornithologist, "Birds are the most eloquent expression of nature’s beauty, joy and freedom" Mr Chapman said it all. I never leave home without my binoculars just in case I am lucky enough to see a giant Raptor gliding by, or a flock of Canada Geese migrating in perfect formation. I consider it a miracle of God that a humming bird can fly the way it does. In my studies, I found a bird called McKay’s Bunting. It is isolated on two islands off the western Alaskan coast. He breeds in the tundra and along the rocky shores. The three or four spotted eggs are cupped in a rock crevice or hollow log. The birds winter on the mainland. The males song resembles that of a goldfinch, which is New Jersey’s state bird. Interesting how the bird of my namesake is from the Artic....