Geese flying onto the water at Slavin Conservation Area. Picture by Annie Allen, December 2024

Slow Down, Slow Down, Slow Down.
by Liz Melville

Slow Down, Slow Down, Slow Down. This is my new mantra that I am committed to repeating this year. I wish to live at a pace that allows me to see the birds and the trees, and to be present for my loved ones. A hard ask for my ADD brain.

Part of my inspiration for slowing down comes from my new interest in birding. I recently wrote a story about the joint efforts of the Spokane Audubon Society and the Inland Northwest Land Conservancy to save Reardan’s Audubon Lake, a prime piece of real estate for migrating birds. After seeing the birds on this wetland and talking with many of the passionate conservationists who fought so hard to save this land for them, I became interested in learning more about the birds themselves.

I now take two kinds of walks: exercise walks and discovery walks. On the slower exploratory excursions, I often see many kinds of birds including a few of my new favorites: Red-tailed Hawks, Quails, Canada Geese, Downy-woodpeckers, Black-capped chickadees, and most recently a Red-breasted nuthatch.

On the first day I saw the nuthatch, I was on a deliberate excursion to look for birds in my neighborhood park. I planned to identify birds using binoculars and my newly downloaded Merlin Bird Identification app. I found a quiet place to sit, look, and listen, but most of the birds were high in the trees and hard to see or hear. This would have been disappointing but for all of the beautiful trees: Fir, Spruce, Pine, Maple, Oak.

The Maple trees were especially mesmerizing. Having dropped their glimmering fall cloaks, their naked skeletons were bare for all to see. One tree’s long limbs curved as if they had been frozen in the middle of a dance in which it had been rolling its arms through the open air. Another old tree’s branches arched sideways as if bent over from past hardships that I would never know about. There is something magical about seeing these trees’ forms: bare for the winter, with branches reaching for the sky.

While wandering through the trees, I heard a rustle and a pht, pht, pht. Rather than ignoring the noise and moving on as I once would have done, I walked under the tall fir tree from where I had heard the noise. And there, right in front of me, I saw a spry little bird with a pointy beak and a stripe running across its eyes. Upon seeing me, the little acrobat flitted to a higher branch to watch me. I stood still and after about a minute the bird, which I later learned was a Red-breasted nuthatch, decided I was harmless and returned to his spot on the tree. I was grateful that I had been paying attention rather than just tracking miles on my smartwatch.

I saw another Red-breasted nuthatch later that week. I was at home doing odd jobs when I caught a glimpse of something moving outside the window. If I had been in my normal get sh** done state, I would have ignored the movement and continued with the housework. Instead, I sat down by the window and looked outside. Much to my delight, the Red-breasted nuthatch was jumping all around my neighbor’s bird feeder (a bird feeder I didn’t even know existed!) This little acrobat would eat a little and then jump to the nearby bushes or a pine tree, where he could walk straight up or down the trunk. How many times had I missed seeing scenes like this one just outside my window because I was so busy getting things done?