All my close friends know I'm a birder.
Oddly enough, my favorite bird is the crow.
I could watch them all day. I think of them as the teenagers of the bird world. Smart. Playful. Full of energy.
One of the things I love most about birdwatching is where the birds take me.
They get me outside.
They lead me to places I might otherwise miss.
They spark conversations, shared memories, and community.
A Different Kind of Bird Hunt
Recently, I started chasing a different kind of bird: 30 giant painted crows scattered throughout Portland.
Wildwood: Follow the Crows is a free public art trail featuring 30 crow sculptures, each uniquely painted by a local artist. The project celebrates LAIKA's upcoming stop-motion movie Wildwood, based on the Portland-set books by Colin Meloy and illustrated by Carson Ellis.
And there's an even better purpose behind it.
When the trail ends, the crows will be auctioned, with proceeds benefiting OHSU Doernbecher Children's Hospital and the kids and families it serves.
So, naturally, I decided to find all 30.
And I did.
Where the Crows Took Me
The crows took me all over Portland. St. Johns. OMSI. Downtown. The waterfront. Pittock Mansion. The Rose Garden. The Bird Alliance. And plenty of places in between.
Some were familiar. Others I hadn't visited in years. A few I'd probably passed dozens of times without really noticing.
Along the way, I met other crow hunters.
"Which one are you looking for?"
"Have you found number 27?"
"There's one right around the corner!"
Complete strangers suddenly had something in common.
A crow.
The Goal Isn't Always the Point
It reminded me of something I talk about often from the stage.
We tend to focus on the destination. The goal. The sale. The promotion. The finish line.
Goals matter. They give us somewhere to go.
But sometimes the greatest value of a goal is where it takes us along the way.
The places we discover.
The people we meet.
The conversations we have.
The memories we create.
Finding crow #30 felt great. But the best part was everything that happened between #1 and #30.
Go Follow the Crows
If you're in Portland, go Follow the Crows.
Take your kids, grandkids, spouse, partner, coworker, or friend. Find five. Or find all 30.
And while you're looking for the crows, look around.
You might discover the crows aren't really the point.
Sometimes the journey is.
What's going well?