Inverting (insect watching) is the new birding

My nature-inspired comic #55 in December, introduced the term "Inverting" which means invertebrate watching as birding is to bird watching. I am an 'inverter' & bird watcher!           

The Christmas bird count leaves me dreaming of Inverting.        

         Bernie breaks through his introversion by Inverting 

I have no Egrets, going from birding to inverting,

was feeling under the feather,

now I am riding high over an exoskeleton thus asserting;

from keratin to chitin,

from vertebrates to invertebrates,

from stiff warbler neck to

 bumblebee buzz pollination

 there is a whole lot of shaking going on.

I am converting - in part.

Thought birds were smart 

until I observed a spelling bee 

as a bird lister, I needed a pencil & paper chart

as an invertebrate lister, I need a calculator 

so many more species, you see.

My Big (inverting) Year

covered miles and miles of walking

all in my 1.3-acre backyard - quite near.

I don't know all the invertebrate's names

but that's ok

cause no one has made that claim

millions of them haven't been discovered yet

never mind given names

so bring your net and  

swish and swing away.

My birder friends 

are getting used to my makeover

 looking into flowers

instead of trees

Perhaps I am really 

an insect watcher

and not a true inverter

yet

after all, I have observed

only

five or six hundred species

in our

backyard.

The benefit

If my neck gets sore 

from looking up at birds

 (Warbler neck)

I can always 

look down

while six legs

and (one or) two pairs of wings

scramble and fly about.

From birder to an inverter

I have found the cure for Warbler neck

I 

am

a

nature 

inverter and birder.

                                       - Bernie Paquette