What are your hobbies? Genuinely trying to find something new for myself.
Right now my free time mostly goes into watching series and checking trades, and I want to add something that actually feels productive or fulfilling instead of just passing time.
Curious what you’re into, and honestly, why you got into it in the first place. Doesn’t need to be impressive or unique, just real.
Birding. Gets you outside and is healthy for mind and body. To get started, download the Merlin app (*or whoBIRD on FDroid) and walk outside. If you start getting into it, maybe buy or borrow some cheap binoculars. Meet up with a local Audubon group for a social outing with some generally chill people. And your observations can help gather data for science using eBird from the Cornell lab of ornithology.
I fucking hate the stigma surrounding birdwatching. Birds are fascinating, intelligent, and social creatures, and they constantly do things you wouldn’t expect.
Today, in the US Virgin Islands, I saw a pelican diving into the ocean for food, a pigeon digging determinately in the sand, and some weird tropical bird tossing mustard packets into the air over and over again.
That’s so cool! I’d love to go birding in that area sometime. I’m in the middle of the US, but we had a vagrant Brown Booby visit us from the Caribbean last month. That was a lot of fun to see!
You’re 100% correct tho. Birds are amazing! They sing, dance, give gifts, commit arson, they travel the world, and they’re actual real-life dinosaurs.
Plus they’re literally everywhere. You don’t even need to go out of your way to see some.