"Bird watching isn't just about birds, it's also about those doing the watching ... in watching birds there seems to be a complete lack of idleness."

Bird watching takes us to new places. Some watches might travel the world to see rare birds in faraway locations - "slow birders" might just look for birds in their own neighbourhood - but both will discover something new when observing these creatures.

Even if we never see a bird in our watching, the act itself is calming, meditative, and a new way of seeing the world.

We don't need expensive gear to watch birds - but we need time, and the willingness to sit, wait, and watch.

Even Jesus urged us in the Sermon on the Mount to consider the birds.

Bird-watching won't change the world - but it can change us.

"Don't worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?" - Matthew 6: 25-27