CMP Review 2026-08-12

August 12, 2026

Have you ever tried bird stalking?

Charlotte Mason called it a “gentle art.”

Children are instructed to be quiet as mice, moving softly and slowly, creeping on hands and knees if need be, until an unknown song was tracked to its source. Once the songster is found, they’re to remain as still and silent as possible, watching the bird and learning its habits. Binoculars may be used.

I was curious whether this old-fashioned practice might still have a place in modern birding, so I asked Amy Harbach—a Charlotte Mason mama, certified naturalist, and bird photographer @lakedistrictlovelies—if she uses “bird stalking” to photograph our feathered friends.

“Absolutely,” she said.

She told me that the people in the birding community who are good stalkers—quiet and respectful of the birds—often see more than those who are loud. “The birds are more at ease with peace-filled people.” And if you are slow and quiet, she says, and willing to wait, “the birds become curious about you and will come closer.”

Perhaps that is one of the gifts of nature study: the more gently we enter the natural world, the more it reveals itself to us.

@rbaburina

Image credit: @lakedistrictlovelies