I rarely cover upcoming events, but when my editor at The San Diego Union-Tribune asked me to write a piece on the upcoming San Diego Bird Festival, hosted by the San Diego Audubon Society, in fairly quick turnaround, I was all over it. Am I a birder? Nope. But for years I’ve been the “landlord” to pairs of doves that nest in my garden. I have visiting hummingbirds and phoebes. Crying hawks wake me in the morning. In other words, I’m a gardener. But I’m also entranced by other, more flamboyant birds and a fan of one of the keynote speakers, Christian Cooper, who charmingly hosted a too-short National Geographic series, Extraordinary Birder with Christian Cooper. So this was a fun piece to write and I hope you take a look and then get tickets to attend some of their cornucopia of events!