If you’ve noticed, I haven’t taken but one photo of nests this season. It’s because I realized that my photography disturbs the birds. Maybe you all have been thinking this all along!
I consider what it means to observe and delight in nature without disturbing it for my own pleasure or curiosity. I watch from the window. I peer in only from a distance. And I’m learning to delight in those who know better as they take pictures with the kind of installed cameras that never disturb the birds. I can enjoy those photos. I can also enjoy spotting nests without hovering too closely. After all, by now I know what I’d see. I know the egg of the sparrow, the robin, the cardinal, and the dove.
Out of love for the very things that delight me most, I decide to let them be. Sometimes, that’s what it means to live with flair. Sometimes, loving something means we don’t disturb it or use it. We just love it and let it be.