As a Philadelphia native who spent the first 28 years of life in the city, birds to me were pigeons, sparrows and starlings. All of that changed when I met my current spousal unit, Bill Murphy. Bill has an inherent and enduring love of the outdoors. He was not a bird watcher when we met but he knew all of the common species from years of being in the field. When Bill started taking me fishing in the Poconos, I brought along binoculars to avert the inevitable boredom that set in while he fished yet another 500 yards of the mountain streams he loved so dearly. I saw my first Cedar Waxwings on one of those trips to the Pocs and that was it. We gradually stopped fishing and bought a second pair of binoculars. We started going to Peace Valley for Saturday morning bird walks with Fred Mears and to Hawk Mountain to see and learn about hawk migration. All of this was 23 years ago and in the interim we have birded many wonderful places and have seen thousands of species of birds. And although I have loved all of this, I have to say that to this day the sight of a Cedar Waxwing brings a smile to my face. I am always pleased to see the bird that was the harbinger of dramatic change in my life.