WriterByNature.com

I’m blessed with mentors this year.

Charlene “Bird Lady” Miller and I first met on Jon Young’s Wilderness Awareness School Forum. This past weekend I finally got to meet her.

I took along my photos and videos for identification. Bird Lady is a retired Wildlife Rehabilitator with expertise in passerines.

I can never repay Bird Lady for all she taught me. Now I can see the difference between the Veery and the Oven Bird. I know how to call out a warbler and have a better idea of how to interpret the bird behaviors I see. She is generous with her information; I am truly blessed to learn from such a gifted individual.

Bird Lady and I know , have studied, or have worked with most of the same teachers - Jake Swamp, Tom Brown, and Ricardo Sierra, to name a few. It’s like finding a long-lost friend.

As if her naturalist skills were not enough, Bird Lady is an accomplished artist. Her paintings, finger-weaving and jewelry are breathtaking.

Bird Lady has a new career these days. I attended her Women’s Circle presentation at the Mt. Pisgah State Park. She incorporates her native Cherokee heritage into a program combining art and nature observation that is engaging and enlightening. Our group shared a salad accented by wisteria blossoms and cat brier that I gathered with George Johanson. The prayer feather I made is now attached to my laptop. I feel like I’ve introduced my mentors to each other.

As her guest, I was immersed in a wilderness wonderland. Native plants and animals thrive. This is biodiversity as it was meant to be. I used to dream about buying land and restoring it to its original beauty. It feels good to know someone is doing just what I envisioned.

And just when I thought it could not get any better, I found out that the Women in The Outdoors Event is on a different weekend than my COMA foray. That means I get to visit Charlene again in August. It also means that I’ll get to learn new skills, like how to cook wild game. Bird Lady is usually a presenter, but this year she gets to be a participant.

I could go on about this multi-talented, multi-faceted teacher. I haven’t even touched on her fish or her previous service as a member of her town council or her previous work fostering Seeing Eye dogs Charlene “Bird Lady” Miller is one of those rare gifted people. But applying my improved nature observation skills is a better tribute.