Cole Porter’s classic song “Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall in Love)” kicks off with, “Birds do it.” How apt is that? Can approaching romance like field research as a human take some of the sting out of the uncertainty of the pair bonding dance? Can a human “date like a bird”?
In my latest story, “The Migratory Suitor,” published in 2025 Nov/Dec BWD (formerly Bird Watcher’s Digest), I describe how I approached a renewed entry into dating after a divorce, with an attitude of expansive “scientific detachment.”
And it was scientist and author Wenfei Tong’s book Bird Love that directed my “research” at this time in my own family life as a human. You will see Tong make a significant appearance in the story, advising me on a specific question I had for her about bird pair bonding.
I examined my own experience of human pair bonding as if entering the bird world version of the same thing. We writers are always documenting, we observe and take notes. “Everything is copy,” as writer Nora Ephron said. We collect observations to share stories that are ultimately a shared experience of tensions felt by humans, romantic tension included. Tong’s commentary assured the ending of this piece, so you’ll just have to read the whole thing to find out what happens!
Here is a sneak peek at the first page of the story.
You can read the rest of the story here, as it appears in its printed version in BWD. I am grateful to editor Jessica Vaughn for her total enthusiasm for a story a little outside their usual content. Date like a bird? Why not?
BWD is a sweet magazine of well-written birding content from other birding names and creatives from writers to visual artists to photographers: artist Alex Warnick (painting covers), writer and artist Julie Zickefoose (a regular columnist and cover artist), English birding celebrity David Lindo (The Urban Birder), and author and bird rehabber Katie Fallon, to name a few. I hope you’ll consider subscribing to BWD, as doing so supports independent creatives for conservation like me and the others listed above, as well as informs readers on a huge range of birding topics and wild bird natural history.
And if you want to hear Wenfei and I talk about both her book and this article, listen to our interviews on two podcasts; one with Georgia Silvera Seamans at Your Bird Story and the other with Nate Swick at The American Birding Podcast!
Thanks for reading, listening, and thinking on this topic. I hope it offers some levity for the day. And if you peruse a bit through earlier posts on this site you just might catch a glimpse of the real Mr. Osprey.
This post was updated 3/21/2026 to include a link to the full Migratory Suitor story.