It is not often that you see a Wood Thrush, let alone see one singing out in plain sight. This one was no more than 20 feet from the boardwalk yesterday at Magee Marsh and delighted a small group of birders at the Biggest Week in American Birding for a good 20 minutes before moving on. It was a one of those moments that will be remembered, and treasured, by all who shared it (with the possible exception of the Wood Thrush).

I even remembered to shoot some video so you can hear the song.

Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Control. -1/3EV exposure compensation. 1800mm equivalent field of view. Video was handheld.

And for the Sunday thought. Despite threatening rain, poor light, and low temperatures, yesterday was as good as I have ever seen Magee Marsh. There were warblers, sparrows, natcatchers, flycatchers, thrushes, tanagers, orioles, grosbeaks, egrets…everywhere. They were down low and close in to the boardwalk. It was very special. Among the huge crowd of birders, there was a hush. Gone were the mobs gathered to see a single good bird that clogged the boardwalk during the past week (as well as the shouted instructions of the professional guides). There were clumps of birders where there were clumps of birds, but never such a crush that you could not pass…and never such a crush that you could not see. Twice I had warblers working and feeding within arm’s reach. You could stand in one place and watch 10 warblers of 3 species glean the fresh leaves for bugs. I came back after a 90 minute loop once around the boardwalk feeling satisfyingly full of birds, full of delight…content…deeply happy. What a gift!

And it was not a feeling you had to be a birder to appreciate. Many, maybe a majority, of the people on the boardwalk yesterday were civilians…folks for whom birding is not a major preoccupation or recreation…just plain folks drawn by the rumor (and the media accounts) of something special happening at Magee Marsh on International Migration Day. And they were in the zone! They were just as delighted and just as amazed as those of us who could actually identify the birds we were seeing. You didn’t even really need binoculars or any skill with them. The birds were that close! A treat, a blessing, anyone with eyes and ears could appreciate.

Hence the hush. The happy low current of laughter. The occasional quiet cry of outright delight. Surrounded by bird song and birds in motion, the humans just naturally fell into an attitude of true worship. Souls opened. Delight flowed in and out with every breath. People smiled at each other…smiled at the birds…smiled at the songs…smiled in themselves. And we knew, every one of us, that we were in the presence of a miracle…in the zone of the holy…caught in a flow of love that can only be called divine.

I, for one, wish church could be like that more than it is. That is all it would take, really, to put faith back at the center of lives. Just a regular dose of deep delight in the presence of wonder!