My Two-Year-Old Grandson Has Made Me a Better Birder

Before getting out of bed this morning, I debated whether I should slip over to a nearby lake before work to check for newly arrived winter ducks. Regretfully, I admitted there was too much to do this Friday to justify an early morning birding excursion.

After Bible reading and prayer, I settled at my desk. Darkness still wrapped the outside. Then I heard it.

Could that be a Great Horned Owl?

For years, the Great Horned Owl had been my Gwinnett County nemesis. I had searched and listened, but never managed to find one—until just over a year ago when a birding friend invited me to her subdivision to see one on its nest. (Thank you, Liz!)

Barred Owls are common in our neighborhood. One frequently perches in a forty-year-old dogwood just feet from our bathroom window. But a Great Horned Owl? Surely not. Still, I hoped.

Not fully trusting my instincts, I quietly opened the window and held out my phone. Merlin confirmed what I already suspected. No winter ducks this morning—but I had just added another remarkable yard bird. The Great Horned Owl became bird number 81 for our home list.

As I sat there listening, it struck me: my two-year-old grandson had helped me learn that call.

“Papa Jack,” he often says, “Play birds sounds on the phone.”

He loves when I open the Merlin app and play bird calls. I play the sounds and ask him to guess the bird. It has become one of our favorite ways to bond—listening, guessing, learning together.

One afternoon when we stepped outside, he immediately shouted, “Red-tailed Hawk!” Sure enough, the hawk was circling high overhead. Earlier this week, I sat beside his bed, gently waking him from his nap. Still rubbing sleep from his eyes, he glanced down at my feet, pointed at my socks, and declared, “Mallard!” He was absolutely right—my socks were adorned with male mallards.

He already has his favorites: hawks, cardinals, blue jays, Great Blue Herons, and especially the owls—Barred, Screech, and at the very top of the list, the Great Horned Owl. Perhaps that one ranks highest because his dad placed a decoy of that owl overlooking their garden to discourage uninvited guests.

I felt a quiet pride this morning—not only for correctly identifying the owl from inside the house, but for recognizing its call. As dawn approached, it dawned on me that our little game of What’s that bird? has been teaching me as much as it has been teaching him.

He can already identify a Cooper’s Hawk. And now I can confidently identify a Great Horned Owl.

I think we’ll keep playing this game—so this old grandpa can keep learning his birds.