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Archive for the ‘Birds’ Category

Two Mornings

Posted in aging, Art, Birds, Books, Journeys, Writing, tagged , on May 14, 2025| 5 Comments »

Yellow warblers sometimes visit my small yard. — Art by Pat Bean

Aging My Way

“Old age is something only the lucky get to do.”

I was surprised on a recent morning to realize I was sitting in my small patio yard – doing nothing. I had gone out to sit in a cool breeze and watch birds as I drank my morning cream-laced coffee.

But the wind was not gentle, typical for Tucson, and the birds had gone into sheltered hiding somewhere. Their absence barely resonated with me, until I finally realized how comfortable and peaceful I was just sitting there, a state of mind that is fairly new to me.

But I guess that is what happens when one is an 86-year-old broad. In my younger years there was a time I was so impatient to get from one place to another that I ran instead of walked. And my mind was always racing.

This morning when I sat outside with my coffee, birds were twittering all over the place. Amy Tan’s The Backyard Bird Chronicles, which I’m currently reading – and enjoying – inspired me to go inside and get a notebook and start my own chronicles. While my small patio yard doesn’t compare to Tan’s bird haven, I do have a tall cottonwood and two tall oleander bushes in it, plus a couple of bird feeders and one for hummingbird nectar.

As I watched and listened, house sparrows, verdins, lesser goldfinches, house finches, mourning and white-winged doves, Europeans starlings and a spotted grosbeak made their presence known. The bonus was a rose-breasted grosbeak that as far as I know was a first to visit my backyard.

I enjoyed this morning, too, — but not more I think then I did the one in which I simply sat quietly, with only my mind wandering about. It has never stopped racing.

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Joy to You and Me

Posted in aging, Birds, Journeys, Morning Thoughts, tagged , on March 22, 2025| 5 Comments »

Male and Female Northern Cardinals

Aging My Way

“If your happiness depends on what somebody else does, I guess you do have a problem.” — Richard Bach

The older I get, the more I enjoy the little things life offers, like simply watching a pair of cardinals at my bird feeders. The scarlet male, with the morning sun making his feathers shimmer with light, was clinging to the side of one feeder while his red-fringed golden mate was sitting in a second one. I had a great view from where I sat at my computer jotting down my morning thoughts.

I also watched as a male mourning dove chased a female around the top of my wooden fence. It’s getting to be that time of year.

But I only noted the cardinals in the joy journal I keep, as I see mourning doves every day of the year. The doves don’t migrate and their visits to my small patio yard are a regular part of their daily routines, and I’ve noted their visitations numerous times.

Jotting things down in a joy journal reminds me of how blessed I am – even after suffering a heart attack. But then perhaps the heart attack was a blessing in disguise to make me realize how important the little things in life are:

Like a simple late-night walk with my canine companion Scamp while a cheshire-grinning sliver of a moon shines down on the two of us. Joy is a phone call from my kids and grandkids, and seeing photos of my distance great-grandkids getting a school award or enjoying themselves at Disneyland. It’s getting an invitation from my next-door granddaughter and her wife for a night out, and playing our favorite competitive card game of Frustration.

It’s a soak in a bath hot enough to turn my skin pink, or a new haircut.

Joy is a visit from my out-of-town brother, a neighbor dropping in for a beer and conversation, a good meal that I cooked myself, a visit to the library, my online writing chat group, the view I have each day of the Catalina Mountains, and of course the birds that visit my yard.

I’ve done the big stuff: Skiing down an Olympic run, interviewing presidents, going on an African safari, rafting through the Grand Canyon and spending nine years living and traveling all across this beautiful country in an RV.

I led an active life, and the memories I collected (well, at least most of them) give me joy. But now it’s my time to enjoy the little everyday things, like spending a whole day just reading a great book or simply watching my avian visitors.

There was no time for such things during earlier chapters of my life.

And while I do miss the adrenalin surges of the past, I’ve decided to follow Garth Brooks’ words: “Happiness isn’t getting what you want, it’s wanting what you got.”

And I got plenty.

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.

Bean Pat: If you want to check out birds, but none visit your yard, check out explore.org and watch some of their bird cams. My favorite is the one in Panama at Canopy Lodge. Cornell also has live bird cams for those who want to watch birds.

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The Bluebird of Happiness

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, aging, Birds, Journeys, tagged , , , , on January 15, 2025| 5 Comments »

Mr. Eastern Bluebird on my RV Mirror — Photo by Pat Bean

Aging My Way

When I was traveling around the country in a small RV with my canine companion Maggie, I awoke one morning to find a bluebird, the eastern species to be exact, perched on my RV mirror. It stuck around long enough for me to take its photo, actually seeming to pose for me.

This avian visitor started my morning with a smile of happiness before Maggie and I continued on our way driving down the Natchez Trace Parkway, a historical route that began as a path used by animals and Native Americans, then was adopted by the multitude who followed. The designated scenic parkway is now a 444-mile drive through history, traversing through Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi.

 The bluebird’s own history as a symbol of happiness is said to have begun with a Chinese myth that goes back thousands of years. It has been included in depictions of a fairy queen who was the protector of women who didn’t comply with role of females in a traditional Chinese family.

Nice myth, I thought, when I came across it while researching the origins of the bluebird’s symbolism. Native American folklore identifies the bluebird as a spirit in animal form associated with the rising sun, while Russian fairy tales see the bluebird as a symbol of hope.

The myths have inspired more modern days song writers to come up with such tunes as: Somewhere, over the rainbow, bluebirds fly, which Dorothy sang in The Wizard of Oz. Or There’ll be bluebirds over the White Cliffs of Dover, which the British sang during World War II – despite the fact bluebirds have never flown over those cliffs. Even the Beatles sang about the bluebird of happiness.

Not to forget poets, I came across 44 poems during my research that used the bluebird to represent happiness, such as this simple ditty by A.S. Waldrop: This bluebird is special/so cheery and merry too/ He’s here for just one reason/to bring happiness to you!

Ah! It’s nice myth. But, as I’m mostly a happy person, I believe that happiness comes from moving on from bad things and finding your own silver linings, be it a hug from a friend or a change of circumstance. At 85, I have plenty of experiences doing just that. I choose to be happy. As Barbara Kingsolver says about having the strength to go on during bad times: “You stand up at sunrise and meet what they send you, and keep your hair combed.”

Or, as I have been doing lately, keep your hair short enough that it doesn’t need to be combed.

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

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Best Books I’ve Read in 2024

Posted in aging, Birds, Books, Journeys, Writing, tagged , , , , , , on January 2, 2025| Leave a Comment »

When I was traveling the country with my canine companion Maggie, which I wrote my own book about, my RV was always full of books. Perhaps that is why I had a couple of flats while on the road.

Aging My Way

What I yearn for in books is good writing, surprise and depth. I also want to read books that teach me something new – and I want the good guys to win. Justice has become a dear thing to me.

That’s not asking too much, is it?

In my earlier years I gave an author 50 pages before I decided I wasn’t going to turn another page. Today, I only give them 25 pages. There are simply too many books out there to let myself be bored and uninterested.

Normally, there are five books on my reading stack, with bookmarks at different points among their pages. While I sometimes find a page-turner among them and finish the book in a day, other books are best enjoyed at a slower pace, especially ones that give me something to think about and savor.

I usually read about two books a week, with this including the audibles I listen to in bed at night – sometimes for hours when sleep won’t come.

I read all genres except horror and true crime, but mostly I favor fantasy, mystery, memoir and travels genres, as well as books about birds and nature. I prefer the feel of a book in my hand, but also read e-books. When I come across the title of a book that sounds interesting, I first check out my library, but Amazon and bookstores, new and used, also get a lot of my business.

It’s my belief that as long as I can afford a book, I’m not poor.

Meanwhile, in case you’re interested (you can always stop reading if I’m boring you), here’s a list of what I considered to be the best books I’ve read the past year:

 The House on the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune. And I’m currently reading the sequel, Somewhere Far Beyond the Sea.

Remarkable Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt.

The Best American Essays 2024.

The (Big) Year That Flew By by Arjan Dwarshuis, who in 365 days set a world record for seeing 6,853 species of birds, some of which are on the verge of extinction. If this book interests you, you should also read The Big Year by Mark Obmaksic, which I read way back in 2005.

The Kingslake and D.C. Smith series by Peter Grainger. These books were free on Audible, and an unexpected and wonderful find.

A Short Walk Through a Wide World by Douglas Westerbeke.

The Armor of Light, by Ken Follett, continuing the Kingbridge series. Follet’s always a great read.

The Rise of Wolf 8 by Rick McIntyre. A great book about the Yellowstone wolves.

The Inspecter Gamache series by Louise Penny. I’m currently reading A Better Man, which is 15th in the series. Penny is a great writer, but justice doesn’t always win in her books, and so they keep me grounded to the real world.

Happy Reading.

Pat Bean is a retired award-winning journalist who lives in Tucson with her canine companion, Scamp. She is a wondering-wanderer, avid reader, enthusiastic birder, Lonely Planet Community Pathfinder, Story Circle Network board member, 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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Two Ancient Poets – And Me

Posted in aging, Art, Birds, Journeys, tagged , , , on November 25, 2024| 4 Comments »

Aging My Way

I’m at a crossroads. I’m worried about the world, especially attempts to silence a free press while anyone can deliberately speak untruths on the internet. It’s already a mine field trying to figure out what’s the truth and what’s not. People shouldn’t believe everything they hear or read.

Let me repeat that: People shouldn’t believe everything they hear or read. In these days, double and triple checking everything is a must. Even so, what I’m seeing and hearing for the days ahead has my head in a tailspin. I just want to stick my head in the sand and let the world pass me by.

I mean I’m 85 and retired. I could just bury myself in books, art, birding, friends who don’t talk politics and other things that give me pleasure. Why not? I often feel useless because I have no power to make the world a kinder place.

And then, while I’m reading, I come across Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem Ulysses in which he wrote about growing old: “How dull it is to pause, to make an end,/ To rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use!” And I realize I’m still not ready to turn the world off.

Suddenly my rabbit hole emerges to a time when I discovered Lord Byron’s poem, The Prisoner of Chillon. I wouldn’t know for another 15 years that I was destined to be a writer, but the ancient sounding words, or so they seemed to a 10-year-old, enchanted me. I memorized that lengthy poem, simply because I loved the sound of its words. Many of those words, I still remember 75 years later:   My very chains and I grew friends,/ So much a long communion tends/ To make us what we are:—even I/ Regain’d my freedom with a sigh.

I love the freedom of being retired and yet I miss being chained to the feeling of being useful.

By now, well down that rabbit hole, I contemplate these two poems by authors that younger generations have most likely never heard of, and I’m back at that crossroads – and Robert Frost’s words about that road not taken.

Finally, I laugh at myself. Who says that road can’t be taken on another day? And who says I can’t still keep one foot in the world around me and try myself to be kinder, and the other foot in books and birds and art and pleasant friends.

Perhaps there is no crossroads at all – just plodding on.

Pat Bean is a retired award-winning journalist who lives in Tucson with her canine companion, Scamp. She is a wondering-wanderer, avid reader, enthusiastic birder, Lonely Planet Community Pathfinder, Story Circle Network board member, 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 Magical Journey

Posted in aging, Birds, Favorite Places, Journeys, Lakes, road trip, Travels With Maggie, tagged , , , , , , , on November 12, 2024| 4 Comments »

As if by magic, a lakeside campground often turned up during my nine years of living and traveling on the road exploring this beautiful country. — Photo of my RV Gypsy Lee resting at Jackson State Park in Alabama by Pat Bean

Aging My Way

          When I was traveling around the country in my small RV, I almost never took the direct route from place to place. An interesting looking side road always seemed more important than the destination where I was headed.

My mother told me this was a trait I had gotten from a grandfather who died before I was old enough to remember him. “He could never pass up a turnoff,” she told me on one of our back-roading trips to Jenny Lake in the Tetons, a place she fell in love with the first time she saw it.

 Judging by how she enjoyed taking different routes to get there, I could just as easily have inherited it from her. I think that quite likely, because promising her a road trip to the Tetons was often the bribe that I had to make to get her to visit me from her home in Illinois to my home in Northern Utah, where Yellowstone was only a five-hour drive away.

My mother and I made many of those trips in her later years. I treasure every one of them, but especially those in which we got off the beaten path. There’s magic in driving down a road not knowing what you are going to see, especially when you stop and explore along the way.

 As Ursula K Le Guin said, and I believe, “It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters.”

As I ponder Le Guin’s words, I think of the journey I’ve been taking for the past 85 years. The destination I’ve arrived at is far from the one I envisioned when I took those first wobbly and uncertain steps along an expected path. Detours along the way — some forced and some on purpose – have put me where I am today.

And since I’ve come to a place where I have love, friends, a lovable canine companion who keeps my life interesting, and a continuing zest for nature and life, the detours along this hard-won journey surely must have had some magic in them.

What do you think?  

Pat Bean is a retired award-winning journalist who lives in Tucson with her canine companion, Scamp. She is an avid reader, an enthusiastic birder, staff writer for the Story Circle Network Journal, the author of Travels with Maggie available on Amazon (Free on Kindle Unlimited). She is always searching for life’s silver lining, and these days aging her way – and that’s usually not gracefully.

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I Don’t Wanna!

Posted in aging, Art, Birds, Journeys, Writing, tagged , , , on November 8, 2024| 5 Comments »

I’d rather be birdwatching!

Aging My Way

“It’s good that at 85 you can still do the techie stuff,” my granddaughter Shanna complimented me the other day when I was telling her that my Roomba was misbehaving and that I had been texted a link to a YouTube video that would show me how to fix it.

I was tempted to say “But I don’t wanna? Have I mentioned how much I hate doing techie stuff. Still, I was pleased that my granddaughter thought me so capable – but even more appreciative when her wife Dawn fixed the Roomba.

I love technology, but all I want to know is which button do I push,

I was blessed with that before I retired, as there was always someone around to fix my technical problems. Since I’ve never been afraid to push a button, I sometimes even created those problems myself. That’s probably why when I went to find an IT specialist and they saw me approaching, they usually exclaimed: “Ohhh. Here comes trouble.”

But not having those helpful specialists around these days makes me want to go back to work – well, almost.

Meanwhile, my loved ones and friends mostly take care of my technical problems. Of course they’re not always available. What happens then is that I spend four hours figuring things out for myself instead of a techie taking 10 minutes to do the same thing.

The silver lining, however, is that when I finally fix whatever techie thing went wrong, I do feel pretty proud of myself –and I like that feeling.

Pat Bean is a retired award-winning journalist who lives in Tucson with her canine companion, Scamp. She is an avid reader, an enthusiastic birder, staff writer for the Story Circle Network Journal, the author of Travels with Maggie available on Amazon and is always searching for life’s silver lining, and these days aging her way – and that’s usually not gracefully.

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Miyajima Birding Memories

Posted in aging, Birds, Journeys, Travel, Writing, tagged , , on October 28, 2024| 1 Comment »

Tori Gate entrance to Miyajima

Aging My Way

Daily photo memories began dropping into my email about a year ago. They almost always bring a smile to my face along with good memories – from seeing how my great-grandchildren are growing up to recalling some of my travel adventures.

One of the more recent photos to show up was one I had taken of the giant tori gate that welcomes visitors to a small island an hour away from the city of Hiroshima. On seeing it, I was immediately transmitted back in time to the three days I spent there with a son who spoke perfect Japanese and a granddaughter taking a break from her college studies.

My granddaughter Heidi and I had spent Christmas in Guam, where my youngest daughter was then living. We had stopped in Japan on the way home where we were met by my son Mike, who had lived in Japan for a couple of years.  

The three of us, often hand in hand, had walked all over the island, enjoying its quaint nature trails, museums and shrines. It was January of 2005, just shortly after I had retired, and just shortly after I had become an avid bird watcher.

When our landlady at the charming little bed and breakfast where we were staying learned that I was interested in birds, she gave me a small field guide written by a local birder. As a result, I was then able to identify and add a dozen new bird species to my life list. The birds were mostly colorful and ones that can’t be found anywhere in North America.

I revisited the Miyajima birds with a little research this morning and found them just as delightful to see a second time. According to my record-keeping, the birds I saw included the Brown-Eared Bulbul, Yellow Bunting, Jungle Crow, Common Gull, Grey Heron, Black Kite, Rock Pipit (not sure which subspecies because I didn’t note it at the time), Daurian Redstart, Eastern Turtle Dove (also known as Oriental Turtle Dove), Japanese Pied Wagtail, and Varied, Coal, and Long-Tailed tits.

I remember my granddaughter joking about how casually I used the word tit.

My memories are like the crazy quilt that my grandmother made, and which I slept under as a child. They are all over the place, and I treasure them – well, most of them that is. As an 85-year-old broad who doesn’t travel too far from home these days, it’s heartfelt to have such good memories.

Pat Bean is a retired award-winning journalist who lives in Tucson with her canine companion, Scamp. She is an avid reader, an enthusiastic birder, staff writer for the Story Circle Network Journal, the author of Travels with Maggie available on

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Lollygagging My Days Away

Posted in aging, Birds, Books, Journeys, Nature, Writing, tagged , on October 6, 2024| 1 Comment »

Cumbres Pass in Colorado, a fall scene I stumbled into after taking a wrong turn during my RV-ing years. Thankfully, the sight is still embedded in my memories. — Photo by Pat Bean

Aging My Way

It amazes me how, in my eighth decade, I can finally sit so quietly, simply enjoying the sights around me and communing with my brain’s thoughts and memories. I’m finally able to let go of the intense need I’ve long had to constantly be doing, doing, and doing.

In my earlier years, the doing was a way to cope with a too young, too wrong marriage. The doing then became a necessity as I had five young children underfoot, and then a need to support the family financially.

When that was accomplished, the doing turned into a desire to celebrate a late, second adolescence because I had missed that first season of my life. At the same time, I was also deeply involved with an exciting job I loved, and which, because it was as a journalist and I was involved in reporting the world around me, was on my mind almost 24 hours a day.

When I retired in 2004, doing, doing and doing had become an ingrained habit. If I wasn’t constantly involved in some activity, I felt substantially reduced as a person. As a result, I planned my life so I was either always on the go or had an ongoing project, like traveling the country in an RV, writing a book, or seeing as many bird species as I could.  

I treasure those years of doing as I spent nine wonderful years living on the road during which I saw an abundance of this amazing country. And I did, finally, write that book. As for the bird watching, I’m still doing that, and I’m still writing – just at a much slower pace, which has left me with plenty of time for lollygagging.

What astounds and amazes me is just how much I’m enjoying it.

Pat Bean is a retired award-winning journalist who lives in Tucson with her canine companion, Scamp. She is an avid reader, an enthusiastic birder, staff writer for the Story Circle Network Journal, the author of Travels with Maggie available on Amazon (Free on Kindle Unlimited), is always searching for life’s silver lining, and these days aging her way – and that’s usually not gracefully.

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Sweetwater and a Green Heron

Posted in aging, Birds, Favorite Places, Journeys, Nature, Writing, tagged , , , , , , on September 28, 2024| 2 Comments »

This is a Green Heron that I saw here in Tucson at Agua Caliente Park. — Photo by Pat Bean

Aging My Way

Since my heart attack, and the installation of three stents in this old broad’s body, I’ve pretty much nested. It felt like a major triumph when two months out I could drive again, even if just to the doctor’s, pharmacy, grocery store and library.

Then on my first real outing, a party accompanied by “the girls” – my granddaughter and her wife – I took a fall. It was a little one, with me going down on my knee, rolling forward on my left side and just barely hitting my head. In my younger life, I would have just gotten up and been embarrassed if someone had seen me.

But I’m on blood thinners and my head and knee swelled up to gigantic proportions, so “the girls” rushed me to the emergency room for a CT scan. I was fine and the swelling soon went down. However, I was black and blue on my left side from my knees to my head for several weeks.

After that, I was reluctant to leave my comfortable abode except for necessities. It kind of felt like I had agoraphobia. I decided I didn’t like it – and in response recently set a goal of doing one outside activity a week. Last week, it was a pool party at the same friend’s house, but because I was accompanied by “the girls,” it kind of felt like I was cheating.

This morning, however, I got up early and went on an accessible bird watching outing all by myself. The event took place at Sweetwater Wetlands, one of Tucson’s birding gems. Before my heart attack, I had hiked the trail around the small lake often but hadn’t been back in recent months.

While most of the lake had been drained in anticipation of the upcoming annual burn to control invasive plant species and mosquitos, there were still birds around. These are the ones I saw as I walked along the accessible path with my rollator – or simply sat in it and watched: Say’s Phoebee, Gila Woodpecker, Green Heron, Least Flycatcher, Western Kingbird, Cooper’s Hawk, Vermillion Flycatcher, Gambel’s Quail, Kestrel, Black-Crowned Night Heron, Mourning Dove, Abert’s Towhee, and lots of Mallards of varying ages.

The Cooper’s gave us a nice fly-about view, but the Green Heron, which flew in and settled among the Mallards was my favorite sight of the morning. These birds have been a favorite since I saw one sitting on a branch barely above the water watching the scene below intently. Its watch paid off as a small fish swam beneath the branch and quickly became lunch for the heron.

Watching birds is still about the only thing I have patience for. Now, as I sit here in front of my computer in my cozy air-conditioned apartment, I’m thinking about what I will do for an outing next week. Stay tuned.

Pat Bean is a retired award-winning journalist who lives in Tucson with her canine companion, Scamp. She is an avid reader, an enthusiastic birder, staff writer for the Story Circle Network Journal, the author of Travels with Maggie available on Amazon (Free on Kindle Unlimited), is always searching for life’s silver lining, and these days aging her way – and that’s usually not gracefully.

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