Better Living Store

Last weekend some friends and I decided to go on a weekend camping trip in the Cascade Mountains. Although we are all accustomed to roughing it, we always seem to leave a key piece of equipment behind. The trip started out well enough, but when we were within a few miles of our campground, I hit a rut in the road and got a flat tire.

When we got out of the car to make the repairs, we were miles away from any other people, let along a lighted area. I usually keep a Pelican flashlight in my car, but my dad had taken it out for to do some electrical work in our crawlspace. Much to our chagrin, we were forced to change the tire with nothing but our cell phone backlighting to guide us.

As an active member of the Audubon Society, I take part in regular group meetings near my home in Michigan. There are a number of exciting functions associated with the club, but none compare with our biannual bird counts. One count takes place just before Christmas, when many of the more colorful songbirds have migrated south. We dutifully pile into our cars and mark down all the birds we see through the snow. But the most fruitful count takes place just after the Fourth of July.

For this year’s summer count, I packed up a trusty pair of Magnacraft binoculars and set out for a local river. I parked my car and took a seat on the river bank. Several minutes passed uneventfully as I scanned the length of the river for activity. Suddenly, there it was: a male bufflehead duck. These birds are extremely rare in my area, but the high-powered glasses helped me to make a positive identification.