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Archive for the ‘Birds’ Category

Stepping Into a Korean World

Posted in aging, Art, Birds, Books, Journeys, Writing, tagged , , on May 27, 2026| 1 Comment »

Bushtit: A tiny grayish songbird that is not easy to find, because they like thick vegetation and move quickly through it. I saw my first one in North Bend, Oregon, in 2005 and haven’t identified another once since. — Art by Pat Bean

Aging My Way

I just finished reading two library books by Korean author Hwang Bo-Reum, one a compilation of essays about reading titled Every Day I Read, first published in 2021, and the other a novel, Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Library, published in 2022.

The first inspired me to read more, and the second gave me new insights about today’s work world, which seems to have taken a 180-degree turn from the work world of this old broad. That turn is something I was seeing everyday by living next door to my granddaughter Shanna and her wife Dawn.

I had already realized I needed to stop trying to compare the two eras or alienate a younger generation, which does not think like an 87-year-old. Hwang’s books just emphasized this.

Meanwhile, I would classify Hwang’s novel as sweet, with a cast of kind, if at times befuddled, characters who care about each other. Reading it was a break from the chaos of today’s world, and I found both books well-worth the time I spent devouring them.

Here are a few nuggets I saved:

On reading essays: “How could our thoughts be so similar despite living completely different lives, and so different when in the same circumstances.”

“It was part of the balance of life – a person’s dream coming true could mean the collapse of someone else’s life.”

  “People just see me as me, which is better than being seen as everybody else.”

“What a happy thing it was to meet a person on the same wavelength.”

This final thought reminded me how elated I become when I realize another person and I, despite many differences, are on the same wavelength. More often than not, this makes itself known by discovering we’ve read the same books.

Happy reading all.

Pat Bean is a retired award-winning journalist who lives in Tucson with her canine companion Scamp. She is an avid reader whose mind is always asking questions (many of which are unanswerable), an enthusiastic birder, staff writer for Story Circle Network’s Journal, author of Travels with Maggie available on Amazon (Free on Kindle Unlimited), and is always searching for life’s silver lining.

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The Wanderlust in My Soul

Posted in aging, Art, Birds, Books, Journeys, Writing on May 26, 2026| 2 Comments »

I spent one summer, during my RV travels from 2004 to 1013 in the Everglades, where I indulged in lots of birdwatching. One my favorite species were the Anhingas, a waterbird that swims with only its head and long neck above water. Thes trait has caused some people to call them the snake bird. I most often saw them on a low branch or stump with their wings stretched out wide to dry. Anyway, I drew this one during my Everglade summer.

Aging My Way

Steinbeck named his mode of travel, a camper created from a pickup truck, Rocinante, after Don Quixote’s horse, and I named my small RV Gypsy Lee for the wanderlust in my genes and a grandfather who loved to travel, or so I was told as he died when I was only two years old.

On most best travel book lists that I come across, I’ve read at least half of them – and I copy down the names of the ones I haven’t and check them out. Age has slowed down my physical road trips, but reading books about travel continues to warm my wanderlust soul.

I was pretty young when I started reading books by John Steinbeck, (1902-1968). Grapes of Wrath, Cannery Row, East of Eden, I loved; Of Mice and Men, not so much. But my favorite Steinbeck book is Travels with Charley, so much so that I gave Steinbeck credit for being one of the inspirations for my own travels, and titled my travel book, Travels with Maggie. Charley was a large French poodle, and Maggie was a bratty cocker spaniel.

Steinbeck and I looked at this country from different viewpoints, and I learned much from him. I would like to think that if he could have read my book, he would have learned from me, too. As I’ve noted before, one of the best things about reading is seeing the world from another’s perspective.

Meanwhile, here is one of my favorite travel quotes from another one of my favorite authors: Edward Abbey. “May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.”

Pat Bean is a retired award-winning journalist who lives in Tucson with her canine companion Scamp. She is an avid reader whose mind is always asking questions (many of which are unanswerable), an enthusiastic birder, staff writer for Story Circle Network’s Journal, author of Travels with Maggie available on Amazon (Free on Kindle Unlimited), and is always searching for life’s silver lining.

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A Historical, Fantastical Journey

Posted in aging, Art, Birds, Books, Journeys, Uncategorized, Writing, tagged , , on May 25, 2026| 4 Comments »

Memories are always flashing through my old-broad mind, perhaps because my brain is so crammed full of them. Anyway, as I painted this quick capture of a male downy woodpecker, I recalled the old, animated character Woody Woodpecker. Anyone else remember Woody? — Art by Pat Bean

Aging My Way

 “It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters.” — Ursula K. Le Guin.

This quote means so much to me that it has a permanent place on my blog page. It was the inspiration for how I traveled after retirement, when I took the backroads and zigzagged across America in a small RV for nine amazing years.

It was a similar, but yet totally different journey, that the protagonist takes in Douglas Westerbeke’s intriguing book A Short Walk Through a Wide World. Classified as historical fantasy, a New York Times reviewer said it rolled The Life of Pi, The Alchemist, and The Midnight Library into one fantastical fable.

I recommended the novel to my book-loving neighbor who enjoyed it as much as I did. We read it last year shortly after it was published. And by the way, I do know how lucky and blessed I am to have a neighbor who loves reading as much as I do.

Westerbeke, a former librarian, credits all the reading he had done as inspiration for his novel. I would think that his neighbors, if they know him, would be fortunate, too.

Meanwhile, a Bean Pat for our local libraries. “A library outranks any other one thing a community can do to benefit its people. It is a never-failing spring in the desert.” – Andrew Carnegie“

Pat Bean is a retired award-winning journalist who lives in Tucson with her canine companion Scamp. She is an avid reader whose mind is always asking questions (many of which are unanswerable), an enthusiastic birder, staff writer for Story Circle Network’s Journal, author of Travels with Maggie available on Amazon (Free on Kindle Unlimited), and is always searching for life’s silver lining.

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All About Us – And Happiness

Posted in African Safari, aging, Art, Birds, Books, Journeys, Writing, tagged , , on May 22, 2026| Leave a Comment »

A memory of an afternoon safari in Tanzania. — Art by Pat Bean

My Way

Book: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari, one of the top 100 books of the 21st Century according to the New York Times Readers’ Pick.

Wow! That was my first reaction when I started reading this book. It’s 2.5 million years of history squeezed into 599 pages – and it’s all about us. There’s the good, the bad, the ugly and questions about what’s next.

I read it a while back, but unlike some books that quickly fade from my memory, this one has stuck with me. I’m thinking about reading it again. What would be really fun is to find a used copy in which someone has underlined passages and/or made margin notes. Someone else’s thoughts is one of the reasons I like purchasing used books.

Art: It’s supposed to be a Marabou Stork. I saw lots of them in Tanzania in 2007. From the back, if you have a decent imagination, these birds look like they are wearing a long black coat, which has prompted some people to call it the undertaker bird. Anyway, this quick sketch was fun to do, but the best part about it was that it reminded me of my two-week African safari, during which I identified 182 different bird species. While that’s not an impressive number for what I could have seen, it pleased me.

Quote: And that brings me to a favorite quote, which I will paraphrase because I can’t find it or who said it. Simply put: “Happiness is not always getting what you want but loving what you have.” Anyone know who said it?

Pat Bean is a retired award-winning journalist who lives in Tucson with her canine companion Scamp. She is an avid reader whose mind is always asking questions (many of which are unanswerable), an enthusiastic birder, staff writer for Story Circle Network’s Journal, author of Travels with Maggie available on Amazon (Free on Kindle Unlimited), and is always searching for life’s silver lining.

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The Magic of Starlings

Posted in aging, Birds, Books, Journeys, tagged , , on February 10, 2026| 1 Comment »

European Starling — Wikimedia Photo

Aging My Way

The European starling is one of the birds I quickly learned to identify after I became addicted to bird watching back in 1999 – when I was a mere 60-year-old. It’s a black bird with a distinctive yellow bill and fairly common.

I saw starlings often when I lived in Northern Utah, and when I drove around the country for nine years in a small RV, and currently here in Tucson where I settled down in 2013.

The birds first arrived in this country in the late 19th century when a flock of them were released in New York’s Central Park. Many died, but the ones that lived thrived and can now be seen in every U.S. state including Alaska and Hawaii.

The birds are both loved and hated, the latter because they are an invasive creature and they often flock in huge numbers. But count me as a lover

There was nothing really special about these birds, or so I thought until I had a close encounter with them during a field trip to Great Salt Lake’s Antelope Island. They aren’t just black. When the sun shines on them they glisten with a rainbow of color, so much so that when I saw them in this light, I was amazed.

And their voices can mimic just about anything, from a squeaky bike to a melodious tune, one that once had me looking around a grocery store parking lot to find the singer. I was shocked when I realized it was just what most of us consider an ordinary starling.

So, next time you see one – and you might only have to step out your front door to do that – you might want to take a closer look.

Pat Bean is a retired award-winning journalist who lives in Tucson with her canine companion Scamp. She is an avid reader whose mind is always asking questions (many of which are unanswerable), an enthusiastic birder, staff writer for Story Circle Network’s Journal, author of Travels with Maggie available on Amazon (Free on Kindle Unlimited), and is always searching for life’s silver lining.

Bean Pat: The Life Affirming Magic of Birds by Charlie Bingham. It was while reading this book this morning that got me thinking about my starling sightings.

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Making and Breaking New Year’s Resolutions

Posted in aging, Art, Birds, Journeys, Writing, tagged , on January 1, 2026| 1 Comment »

Happy New Year to All. — Art by Pat Bean

          “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul – and sings without the words – and never stops at all.” – Emily Dickinson

It’s the day of resolutions. I make them and I break them. The problem is that I always think I can carefully set my days the same way I carefully set a dinner table when guests are expected

          There are rules for how one places the silverware, which side of the plate the glass goes and so forth. And it always seems to me my day should go in a similar rhythm: Make the bed, make coffee, write for an hour, walk the dog, clean the kitchen, play with my art, and so on, with free time allotted at the end of the assigned tasks.

          But by the third, or even the second day, I don’t want to make the bed, or I don’t feel like doing my art, and I definitely don’t want to write. And so, the pattern is broken and all my resolutions have flown out the window,

          After a lifetime, well 86 years of it, you would think I would learn. But no, each New Year, I again have a list of resolutions, sometimes as long as my arm.

          Looking back on my life, I thankfully realize that my work, my passions and even my hobby took my tendency to bore so quickly in stride. As a newspaper reporter, no two days were ever alike, rafting down a river was never the same, and as for my hobby of birding, each day is still always a surprise.

          But here it is again. A New Year. And once again I find myself making resolutions. But this year I’ll be happy if I can just keep them for four days. That will be record breaking.

          Pat Bean is a retired award-winning journalist who lives in Tucson with her canine companion Scamp. She is an avid reader whose mind is always asking questions (many of which are unanswerable), an enthusiastic birder, staff writer for Story Circle Network’s Journal, author of Travels with Maggie available on Amazon (Free on Kindle Unlimited), and is always searching for life’s silver lining.

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Looking For – and Finding – Joy

Posted in aging, Art, Birds, Dogs, Journeys, Writing, tagged on September 13, 2025| 5 Comments »

Watching and drawing birds gives me joy.

“Joy is not in things; it is in us.” – Richard Wagner

Aging My Way

If ever there was a time to have joy in my life, it is now. For one thing, I’m an old broad who raised five children without disposable diapers. And since, as a retired newspaper journalist, I can’t find any joy in reading the news, I’m looking for it elsewhere.

The magic is that I don’t have to leave home to find it.

Take for instance just the past five days when I started keeping a joy journal.

Monday: Joy was waking up at dawn and watching an Anna’s hummingbird at my nectar feeder and listening to sparrows and finches twittering their own joy for a new day.

Tuesday: Joy was grinding some coffee beans from Kenya, a gift from my guardian angel daughter in law, and then enjoying a freshly brewed cup of coffee with a good book in my hand and my canine companion Scamp beside me.

Wednesday: Joy was having a good friend stop by for a happy hour, and the good cheer and laughter that came with the visit.

Thursday: Joy was the faithful daily call from a son and our conversation this day about a TV program we’re both watching and who won the daily game of Wordle.

Friday: Joy was a call from a long-time friend to discuss our upcoming road trip, my first since my heart attack a year and a half ago. And thinking about it after we hung up, my mind began singing Willie Nelson’s On The Road Again. At heart, I’m a wanderer.

I know these are simple, small things. But then the years have taught me that’s where joy is usually found.

Pat Bean is a retired award-winning journalist who lives in Tucson with her canine companion Scamp. She is an avid reader whose mind is always asking questions (many of which are unanswerable), an enthusiastic birder, staff writer for Story Circle Network’s Journal, author of Travels with Maggie available on Amazon (Free on Kindle Unlimited), and is always searching for life’s silver lining.

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A Warbler, A High Lake and Memories

Posted in aging, Birds, Favorite Hikes, Journeys, Lonely Planet Pathfinder, Quote for the Day, tagged , , on September 6, 2025| Leave a Comment »

A MacGillivray’s Warbler

“Be like the bird who, pausing in her flight awhile on boughs too slight, feels them give way beneath her, and yet sings, knowing she hath wings.” – Victor Hugo

Aging My Way

Today’s Tucson Bird Alliance’s online newsletter featured a MacGillivray’s warbler, a small gray and yellow migratory bird that is currently passing through Southeastern Arizona.

It was one of the birds I specifically went hunting for during my early days of birding. I found it on July 1, 2004, at Tony Grove, a beautiful lake located at an altitude of 8,100 feet off Logan Canyon in Northern Utah.

I visited the grove many times after moving to the area for the first time in 1971, both for the area’s hiking trails and the opportunity to renew my sanity when life was stressful, as many of those earlier years were. And after an eight-mile roundtrip trail that led from Tony Grove to white Pine Lake, which I usually hiked, I always felt I could once again handle whatever life threw my way.

Nature has always done that for me.

But at 86, such a hike is out of the question. Both my balance and stamina have abandoned me. The best I can do is maybe a one-mile walk on level ground pushing my rollator before me and stopping at least a few times along the way.

Thankfully, I have my memories – and my stress level these days is pretty much zero. I also have lots of birds that visit my small patio yard. So, I’m going to keep an eye out for that MacGillivray’s.  

Pat Bean is a retired award-winning journalist who lives in Tucson with her canine companion Scamp. She is an avid reader whose mind is always asking questions (many of which are unanswerable), an enthusiastic birder, staff writer for Story Circle Network’s Journal, author of Travels with Maggie available on Amazon (Free on Kindle Unlimited), and is always searching for life’s silver lining.

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Beauty and Birds: Look Around You

Posted in aging, Birds, Favorite Hikes, Favorite Places, Journeys, Nature, Tucson Points of Interest on June 19, 2025| 2 Comments »

Add Tucson’s Agua Calliente Park, where I saw this green heron, to the list of places to visit for beauty and birds. — Photo by Pat Bean

“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.” – Confucius

Aging My Way

During the nine years I was traveling around America in a small RV with my canine companion Maggie, I was often asked what place I liked best. The question always had me stumbling for an answer. To name just one and leave out all the rest of Nature and man’s wonders just seemed wrong.

Everywhere, and I do mean everywhere, I went had its own kind of beauty. This was brought home to me at an overcrowded El Paso RV Park where I was parked on a cement slab with large RV rigs hooked up six feet away to both my right and left.

I was bemoaning the fact that I had been stuck here because nothing greener was close enough to reach before dark.  And then I happened to glance outside my RV window.

Strutting across the cement was a California Quail with six young chicks following her. The sight made me rethink my idea of beauty, especially since one goal of my RVing years was to see as many species of birds as I could.

Meanwhile, here are a few other special places I’ve visited that have impressed me in one way or another – and where I got a new bird for my life list.  

Maine: Acadia National Park, where one can stand on the top of Cadillac Mountain and be the first person in the United States to have the sun touch their face. I saw a black-billed cuckoo here.

New Hampshire: Flume Gorge, for an unforgettable hike and birds like an ovenbird and a black-throated blue warbler.

Oregon: Brandon National Wildlife Refuge, where my bird list grew by a pelagic cormorant, black turnstone and a whimbrel.  

Utah: Zion National Park, a longtime special place for me, and where I saw a California condor flying overhead. These birds were brought back from the edge of extinction and I wrote about their recovery several times.

Texas: Brazos Bend State Park, even if an alligator sometimes required me to detour off a favorite hiking trail. It was here where I saw my first pileated woodpecker, a close look-alike of the extinct ivory-billed woodpecker.

And I could easily list another 100 sites without much thought. Look around you. Beauty is everywhere.

Pat Bean is a retired award-winning journalist who lives in Tucson with her canine companion Scamp. She is an avid reader whose mind is always asking questions (many of which are unanswerable), an enthusiastic birder, staff writer for Story Circle Network’s Journal, author of Travels with Maggie available on Amazon (Free on Kindle Unlimited), and is always searching for life’s silver lining. She also believes one is never too old to chase a dream.

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Life is Like That

Posted in aging, Art, Birds on May 16, 2025| 3 Comments »

Life is also full of birds if you just look. I didn’t start looking until I was 60. — Art by Pat Bean

“If you are too careful, you are so occupied in being careful that you are sure to stumble over something.” — Gertrude Stein

That’s exactly what happened to me this morning when I opened a new bag of coffee and poured it into a canister.

I always get a few grounds scattered about when I do this, but was determined it wasn’t going to happen this time.

Yup! You guessed it. I didn’t spill a few grounds; I spilled about half a cup of them.

Life is like that the years have taught me. So, after cleaning up the mess, I did the only logical thing to do. I laughed at myself.

Pat Bean is a retired award-winning journalist who lives in Tucson with her canine companion Scamp. She is an avid reader whose mind is always asking questions (many of which are unanswerable), an enthusiastic birder, staff writer for Story Circle Network’s Journal, author of Travels with Maggie available on Amazon (Free on Kindle Unlimited), and is always searching for life’s silver lining. She also believes one is never too old to chase a dream.

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