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My wanderlust has always drawn me to constant learning and thrilling adventures. I can’t remember a time when staying home felt appealing, especially with all the excitement waiting “out there.”
I recall a day when I was seven. My friend Stephanie and I decided to go on an “adventure.” We packed our backpacks with granola bars, snacks, and a stuffed animal, then rushed out the door.
After a few steps into our suburban yard, we paused, exchanged puzzled looks, and asked, “Where are we going?” Without a plan, we shrugged it off, munched our granola bars, and played in the backyard instead.
Stephanie and Kasey circa 1994
A Zest for Adventure
I've often found myself drawn to big dreams—moving abroad, climbing towering peaks, or planning ambitious projects. This thrill keeps me on my toes and fuels my imagination.
While this call to adventure has led to amazing experiences, I must admit that not all plans brought the fulfillment I expected.
Have you had a similar experience?
Have you ever:
Packed your schedule so full with work, vacations and social activities that you ended up in a state of constant depletion, unable to truly digest the experiences?
Gotten so excited about the idea of an adventure, so you planned it, packed everything up, made the long drive, and arrived to your destination, only to find that it wasn’t all that you had dreamed up? And perhaps you could have had a nourishing (and less stressful) experience riding your bike 20 minutes up the road?
In our fast-paced modern world, this is easy to do.
Whether or not you can relate to these experiences, you may benefit from a practice that has helped the restless wanderlust in me to access a state of calm inspiration while simultaneously me tapping into passion, curiosity, and excitement- without leaving the backyard.
Sit Spot and Bird Language
A sit spot is a regular outdoor place where you can connect with nature, ideally visiting daily or several times a week. Over time, the familiar greenery, birds, and insects become like neighbors, each with its own story.
Bird language refers to the communication conveyed through bird sounds and movements. By observing this at your sit spot, you'll see that these sounds are part of a larger ecological narrative. I remember a child once asking, “Wait, so you speak bird?” to which a mentor replied, “I guess you could put it that way.” While it's hard to replicate their sounds, understanding them is within everyone's reach.
For me, observing bird language at my sit spot has helped me:
Satisfy my curiosity and adventurous spirit
Ground myself and find calm
Connect with the natural world in my neighborhood
What are the birds saying? Our ancestors listened to bird language for survival, using it to stay safe and attuned to their environment. Learning this language can still offer valuable insights today.
In Jon Young’s book, What the Robin Knows: How Birds Reveal the Secrets of the World, he describes five vocalizations of the birds:
Observers of bird language listen to, identify, and interpret five vocalizations:
Songs
Companion Calls
Territorial Aggression
Adolescent Begging
Alarms
Jon Young considers these five vocalizations a “medium-fine filter for all the sounds the birds produce”. While there are additional vocalizations that can be learned, these five tend to be the a helpful to focus on for learning about the habitat as a whole.
How can birds teach us about the whole habitat?
Bird vocalizations provide insight into a habitat's baseline, which includes typical sounds and activities. When disturbances occur—like a predator or loud noise—birds use alarm calls to signal distress. These calls can intensify, often resembling a police siren.
When you hear these alarms, consider what they might indicate. Were you the source of the disturbance, or is there a predator nearby? With time and observation, you can learn how birds respond to different threats.
Other vocalizations reveal information about territories, nesting, feeding, and mating. We’ll explore those in a future article, but for now, let’s focus on some foundational tips!
Tips for Developing a Practice of Observing Bird Language at your Sit Spot:
1. Choose a sit spot. You want this to be an easy place for you to get to- no more than 2 minutes from your doorstep. Are there any places nearby that you are naturally drawn to? Any ‘larders’ (a.k.a. sources of food or water for local birds)? Even if you live in the city, there is likely a tree or park nearby with an interesting story to tell.
2. Go to your sit spot as frequently as possible. As with many practices, if you had to choose between frequency and length of time, go with frequency. The more often you visit your spot (even if it’s just 5 minutes per day), the more you will pick up on patterns and changes that happen throughout the seasons. However, whenever you can, try to stay in your spot for at least 20-30 minutes, which is about the amount of time that it takes for a place to restore to baseline conditions after a disturbance. If you can, experiment with going first thing in the morning around dawn or slightly after- this is when a lot of action occurs!
3. Tap into your senses. Sit spot helps you to access your ‘ancient nervous system’- the part of you that was designed to be fully engaged and immersed in sensory awareness. If you catch your mind busily thinking and planning, experiment with strengthening different senses. For example, you can try closing your eyes and taking inventory of all of the sounds that you hear.
4. Start by Identifying the 3 most common birds. You likely have some resident birds that can tell you a lot about what’s going on in your spot. If you don’t have one, get a field guide and perhaps some binoculars. You can also consider setting up a bird feeder. Just the simple question of, “What species is this?” can open up the gates to infinite, more specific questions, such as “Where does this house sparrow nest? What marks the territory that it is protecting? What are its feeding habits? What local predators are nearby watching it? Where does it go to hide?” …etc. Opening up your appetite for curiosity will likely help you to feed your hunger to learn and fall in love with the practice.
5. Learn to recognize the voices of those 3 different species. Can you distinguish between the voices of the sparrows, chickadees, and finches that live in your yard? (these happen to be the three most common that I see and hear in my yard- you may have different ones near you). As you start to make these connections, you can learn about who is around, through hearing alone, without having to see the birds. Can you distinguish between its baseline and alarm sounds? Try recording these sounds as a way to train your ears.
Here are a few techniques to spark your curiosity, which is limitless! As you practice, you’ll find countless ways to appreciate the world outside your door.
Remember two key points: 1) Curiosity is a muscle—exercise it by asking even the toughest questions! 2) Use your senses to explore these inquiries.
I hope this practice helps you feel the awe and connection it brings me. I wish I could have shared this with my younger self, who was eager for adventure but unsure how to find it.
Do you know any young people to whom you’d like to share this gift?
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