Birthday Gift

One beautiful spring day this year, Sylvain and I spent the day at Point Pelee National Park. Around noon we took a break to eat lunch and wander through the gift shop.

I was looking through all the field guides and nature books when I noticed two people leafing through a tome. As they returned it to the top shelf face out, I saw the title: Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Ontario: 2001-2005.

“Holy!” I thought, “That’s my book!”

Ok, not MYYYY book. But it is the monumental scientific achievement into which I poured my heart and soul and sweat and many, many, many hours in the field for five years of my life after having been asked to volunteer to captain a team and take responsibility for one of the 10 x 10 km squares of Ontario for this project.

“Hey! I contributed to that!” I squeaked to no one in particular as the couple walked away. Slowly I pulled it down from the shelf and turned to the contributors page. It took a while to find my name in the alphabetized sea of names. It takes one heck of a volunteer turn-out to cover a province this size.

From the website: “Without doubt, the second Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas ranks among the most successful, important, and exciting bird research and conservation projects ever undertaken in the Western Hemisphere.”

Sylvain found me there pouring over the glossy maps. “See that little square that is darker orange than the square next to it? That’s my red-bellied woodpecker,” I said, trying not to sound too proud.

“Really?” Sylvain was genuinely interested.  I told him about degrees of evidence we used to document breeding species, such as if you see a bird carrying a fecal sac away from a nest, that means there are babies in the nest.

“It’s like taking out the dirty diapers,” I explained.

“We should get this,” Sylvain proposed.

“No, no. We don’t need it. It costs about a hundred dollars. I’ll only look at it once or twice. I don’t need to own it,” I said.

On Tuesday night when I got in from my movie with R (she had no idea it was my birthday and Sylvain was okay with my going out with someone else on that night), there was a birthday card lying on top of my robe on the bed.  I read it. It was very sweet.

I went about my ablutions and only right before bed did I pick up my robe to find hidden underneath: the tome.

I’d say there are two kinds of partners in the world: those who do something for your birthday just so they can tick it off the to do list and know they did something, and those who figure out what it would take to touch your heart.