Learning to See Nature

So I’d never seen, or photographed, a Ruby-crowned Kinglet until a few weeks ago, and now I’m coming across them at least once a week in south Burnaby.

Here’s one from today’s walk.

ruby-crowned kinglet burnaby bc

I wonder if I’d been seeing them all along for years, but just considered them another LBB (little brown bird).

I’ve noticed a similar phenomenon in spotting various birds, fish, animals, and even plants. Once you learn what they are, you start “seeing” them more often.

A great example is spotting salmon fry hatching out in the creek in the spring. Most people don’t notice them. Sometimes it’s hard for them to see fry even when you’re pointing them out.

But walk the creek several days a week, year after year, and you learn where you are most likely to see the first fry of the year.