Nature Done Wright

Had to chuckle at Margaret Roach's terrific article in the Gardening section of last Sunday's New York Times. It's about a new book called "Slow Birding."

She writes: "Slow birding, a term she adapted from the slow food movement, is not checklist-driven bird-watching, which may feel almost competitive, as if mandating that more is better, and rarer is best. For a slow birder — and Dr. Strassmann considers herself one — the payoff is not a longer life list, but connecting with and gaining insight into our inner circle of everyday birds."

I wrote a column about the practice six years ago, inspired by an essay by Charles Fergus in a collection of his writings from 1978 to 1992.

He called it "stump sitting." More recently, I've heard the term"mindful" used in this approach, and I'm guessing the same idea applies.

So hats off to the new book — and to Charles Fergus for writing about it at least  30 years ago.