When birdwatching has been an integral part of your life for so long, almost everything has an association with birds. Christmas is no exception.

For this holiday season, I’m going to examine some of my favorite Christmas birding associations and memories.

This one is a little morbid, but it clearly sticks out in my mind. When the boys were little, about 7 and 4, we sat on the floor by the tree Christmas morning passing out their gifts one by one. I glanced out the sliding glass door onto the deck only to see a Cooper’s hawk devouring a mourning dove about six feet away.