My appreciation happened in just one day. Smack in the middle of Covid 2020 Keith and I visited the Celery Fields Regional Storm Water Facility in Sarasota. He had just gotten binoculars for his birthday. As we looked out over the marshland, I saw an expanse of marsh with grass, mud, some water lillies. It was pretty … I guess. Well to be perfectly honest, I have seen prettier.

But what did Keith see?

A gorgeous Purple Gallinule. Well I was envious and hooked. I immediately wanted my own binoculars. His picture was taken with his Canon and a telephoto lens (not as massive as the nature photographers but still effective.)

The next time we went to the celery fields, I got my own picture with my Samsung 10 camera phone. It took awhile and was a little muddy, but this is the Common Gallinule and there were a lot of them hanging out in tufts of grass close to our observation boardwalk.

Birdwatching is fun. But you really need binoculars to see how much wildlife is beyond the view of the naked eye.