Saturday morning I dragged my sleepy butt out of bed early to take part in a beginner's bird walk at the Maine Audubon Society Gilsland Farm Center in Falmouth.

And I'm glad I did. I hadn't been out birding for sometime and was eager to go.

But before I could get out the door I had to rummage around in the gear room to find my bird book and binoculars, which I hadn't used since a most wonderful trip to Assateague Island in Maryland several years ago to watch the wild ponies and walk along the beaches and marshes with the shorebirds.

But I found my goods and made it to the walk on time.

Our trip leader, a naturalist named Judy, took a group of us on a wonderful two-hour walk through the fields and woods of the sanctuary, which was alive with the sound of birds. We stopped often to raise our binoculars and "ooh" and "ahh" at the sighting of the many beautiful birds we encountered.

Along the way, we got a few helpful tips on how to properly use our binoculars (sight your bird first, and without taking your eye off it, raise your binoculars up to your eyes and view. Voila!) And we got some interesting and useful tips on bird identification and the use of field guides.

Our bird checklist for the morning was pretty impressive I thought, and included the following (in layman's terms): barn swallow, tree swallow, tufted titmouse, goldfinch, chickadee, red-winged blackbird, osprey, downy woodpecker, song sparrow, white-throated sparrow, cardinal, ibis and cormorant. One bird I had never seen before was the blue-bearded vireo. And the big bonus of the walk: two big, beautiful bald eagles!

All in all, it was a fun and informative walk. I will no doubt join in more such programs and events and highly recommend them to anyone interested in birding.