va(stay)cation: day 3.

(in which i learn about hawk-watching.)

i was lounging around drinking my second cup of coffee today when i thought to myself, it's really beautiful outside. i should do something nice today. after all, the point of this week is not to sit on the couch, incessantly refreshing my email. a hike seemed to be just the right early-fall activity. heck, i'm making my own mountain day here. so up i went, to the top of wachusett mountain! it was a lovely climb, quite a bit more rocky than good old money brook, but good. the best part, however was at the top.

backtracking just a bit, i sometimes forget why i went into family medicine. when you get to the very bottom of it, it's because i think people are fantastic. no, not everyone. but in general, i love how weird and funny and fascinating people and their lives and passions are. it's the same thing that keeps me coming back to this american life week after week.

so. up at the top of the mountain were a whole lot of people with binoculars and telescopes. a motley crew, some with long hippie ponytails and canvas vests, others with denim shirt tucked neatly into denim pants and glistening white new balance sneakers. one sidled up next to me while i was eating my apple in the sun and politely answered my questions. it turns out they are from eastern mass hawk watch and they were there to count the hawks that are migrating south for the winter. heck, i didn't even know hawks migrated. but they do, all the way down to south america. apparently thousands of them pass by our very mountain. and these folks were up there counting them all! just like they do every year.

when you start asking people about their hobbies, well, i think for the most part they love it. and when some total hawk-novice like myself starts asking all sorts of probably foolish questions, all the better because they can demonstrate their superior hawk-knowledge. and you can tell that these people live and breathe hawks. by the end, the guy was forcing binoculars into my hands and sighting hawks in the telescope for me while he told me all about how the hawks ride something called "thermals" all the way past the equator and shouted intermittently across the lot, 'paul, occipiter tracking left!' 'paul, how many in that last kettle?' paul appears to be quite the ringleader.

all in all, it was a marginally disappointing day for hawks. only about two hundred today, and not that close to the mountain. ('some days they come so close we're arguing over whether the total's 475 or 477, but today's not going to be like that', hawk-watcher #2 told me with a touch of dismay.) however, it was a lovely day for climbing a mountain, eating a nice crunchy apple at the top and learning a little something new.