A Father, a Son, and a Fortunate Detour
Ah, it's December again! Time for school vacations, end-of-the-year celebrations, lots of gatherings and watching men dressed as Santa in the scorching Brazilian Summer. Beside the Scouts, another activity my son and I love is bird watching-in fact, he is the bird aficionado, not me. So, in 2023 we joined a bird watching group that gets together to hike in the woods every 1 or 2 months. Naturally, we had a hike planned for last Sunday. But Brazilian summers are unpredictable, and as we drove to meet the group, the rain started pouring down.
Needless to say Inácio got truly upset. Our hikes are always much expected by him, so having our plans cancelled at the last minute was a real bummer. He whined a little but ended up falling asleep as I turned around to go back home. However, as I drove, the bad weather stayed behind us and a sunny morning was forming at the foot of the mountains. I passed by a few lovely country roads until I found a particularly inviting one by the side of some rice fields. I parked by the start of that small road and woke him up to invite him for our own special son and dad birding session. He was actually thrilled by the idea.
Man, it was so amazing! He jumped out of the car full of excitement and we were lucky to actually have 4 lifers on that road-a lifer is when you see a species for the first time. Instead of a large group hike, we had an amazing bonding experience. Isn't it lovely when things go wrong in the best way possible? I really believe we had a core memory forming right there. That road gave us more than just four lifers—it gave us laughter, wonder, and a reminder that the best memories often come from the most unexpected detours.
Ah yes, for the bird loving, curious folks, our lifers were:
- Roseate Spoonbill
- Chestnut-capped blackbird (Garibaldi)
- White-browed meadowlark
- Yellow-chinned spinetail
All pictures were fetched from eBird, since we still don't have all the cameras and gears necessary to take good pictures of our winged friends.