Sax-Zim Winter Birding Festival Part I

So there we are, 25 senior-ish citizens plus a couple of kids in their twenties whose presence and whose passion for nature reassures this old crank that there just might be hope for the world after all. We are equipped with binoculars, cameras, spotting scopes, tripods, field guides and checklists. We are on a school bus in the freezing Minnesota pre-dawn. The bus driver says, "I have to keep the heater set on 'low'. Otherwise the blower shuts down." We don't care. We're tough. We dress in layers. We are going on a field trip.