For the Birds Radio Program: Three Quarters of a Century, Part 2
Laura is still making plans for birding trips. What’s she doing to raise the odds that she’ll still be up to is?
Transcript
I love my birthday—even this one, my 75th. It’s not that I’m in denial—my first heart attack over 11 years ago and my first bout with breast cancer almost 10 years ago were pretty clear reality checks on any illusions of immortality.
Nevertheless, I’m signed up for three wonderful birding tours: in April I’m headed to South Florida and the Keys on a VENT tour led by Rafael Galvez; in August, Russ and I are headed together to the Galápagos on an Alvaro’s Adventures tour; and in February 2028, Russ and I are signed up for another VENT Hawaiʻi tour led by Erik Bruhnke and Kevin Burke. The Florida and Hawaiʻi trips are repeats because I love those places and have so much affection, admiration, and respect for those specific tour leaders. Also, having been on them before, I know we’ll be going at a pace I can still easily handle, at least as of today.
Russ and I often talked about going to the Galápagos, and Alvaro’s trip sounds like the perfect way to celebrate our 75 birthdays and Russ’s retirement. And I must admit to wanting to hit one last listing milestone. I keep insisting that I don’t care about my bird list numbers, but I noticed when eBird updated my species count during this Taxonomy Time that my life list had reached 2,471, only 29 species to go to reach 2,500. For a long time, 10,000, give or take a few, was considered the total number of bird species on the planet. With the current taxonomic trend favoring splitting over lumping and the huge advances in taxonomy in the tropics, the species total has crept up well above that, and this taxonomy update brought the total of bird species in the world to 11,172. I just want to reach a quarter of the old standard. Alvaro sent me the checklists from his last two Galápagos tours, and if we see every single species that both groups saw, that would give me over 30 lifers, putting me over the top.
The Galápagos tour will almost certainly be trickier than the Florida or Hawaiʻi ones, especially getting in and out of the catamaran on multiple islands. If the trip were tomorrow, I know I could handle that, but we’re talking about 9 months in the future for an elderly woman as the clock inexorably ticks down the seconds. So to improve the likelihood that I’ll be healthy and able to keep up, I’ve stepped up my desk treadmill pace. From the time my family gave it to me for Christmas in 2017, I’ve moseyed along at 1.8 mph as I read and work at my computer. But last month, I started easing up the speed in tenth-of-a-mile increments, and at this very moment as I write this, I’m walking 2.5 mph. This pace is a little too brisk for me to crop photos or edit sound files, but overall, it’s pretty comfortable.
I do neck, weight, and balance exercises, leg stretches, and other simple physical fitness activities every day; when I have time, I do my Jane Fonda aerobics, too. And I’m trying to remember to drink plenty of water. Whether I’m traveling or not, I try to take lots of photos of the birds I see in my backyard and around town, so picking up my big camera has always been very easy right up until last year when I did back-to-back trips to the Dry Tortugas and Guyana, taking hundreds or even thousands of pictures every day for over two weeks; my left wrist, which supports the camera, got very sore. Since then, I wear a wrist brace when I’m taking a lot of pictures, and the problem has disappeared.
So I’m doing my best to forestall any difficulties, but if anything bad does happen between now and these tours, well, that’s what trip insurance is all about.
These three trips will mark the end of my birding tours. I’m still holding up well, but for me, it would be better to give up birding tours a year or two earlier than I could than to wait too long, inconveniencing other participants and the guides. I’m hardly giving up birding—I’ll keep focusing on my backyard and the Duluth area, plus Russ and I plan to take trips on our own, setting our own pace, as long as we can. I still want to see those other Caribbean todies!
To make staying home more rewarding when we do start facing health and mobility issues, I’ve gotten back into growing houseplants—they fill me with joy. I still enjoy writing and producing my blog and podcast/radio program. And I have so much happiness in my life thanks to family, friends, so many kind listeners and readers, birds, chipmunks, and my little dog Pip. For someone whose income only barely reaches into five figures, I feel like the richest person in the world.
So, as with all my previous birthdays, starting a whole new year is fun and exciting, whistling past the graveyard or not. It ain’t over till it’s over.