“I feel lucky every day,” said Ryan. “Traveling the world like this was beyond my wildest dreams.”
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| Kevin Ryan |
EASTON — It doesn’t quite matter where Kevin Ryan is.
He could be in Australia or Antarctica. He might be stepping off an airplane in Hawaii. He might just be peeking out the window of his Bay Road home.
Ryan, Easton’s kind-eyed globetrotter and birdwatcher, is always looking up.
He’s been all to of those places — all seven continents, in fact, after his 2016 trip to Antarctica. And the 72-year-old man battling Parkinson’s disease says he has found life, kindness and a reinvigorating spirit in opening himself to new experiences.
“I’m always keeping my eyes to the sky,” he said last Wednesday at his usual roost, the Beanery on Washington. “And I’ve always found something.”
It’s a unique perspective that most expert birders like Ryan share: finding beauty in every corner of life.
Yes, for example, seeing the snowy albatross of Antarctica rising above the icebergs is a rare treat. But how about nearby, where you can see the fastest bird in the world?
“You know where that one is?” Ryan asked. “Right in Brockton.”
Eagle-eyed Brocktonians will know he’s referring to the peregrine falcon, which nests most years in the Verizon cell tower downtown. The small, strong bird with a speckled white breast can reach dive speeds of 200 miles per hour.
“And it feeds on those fat Brockton pigeons,” Ryan said.
Altogether, he’s seen about 3,000 different species of birds in his travels, which have taken him to 25 different countries. He writes most days in his birding journals, and puts together big, bound scrapbooks for his major expeditions, like Africa (2011), Australia (2012) and his unforgettable trip to Antarctica two years ago.
The cover to his Antarctica photo album features an image of Ryan holding up seven fingers — Antarctica was the seventh and final continent he stepped foot on.
“I feel lucky every day,” said Ryan, who served in Vietnam before working for 25 years as an Amtrak conductor. “Traveling the world like this was beyond my wildest dreams.”.
After growing up in the Mission Hill housing projects in Roxbury, Ryan joined the Marines at 17.
He spent 13 grueling months in Vietnam (“the only country I don’t remember seeing a bird, he says) before returning to Massachusetts and beginning his career with Amtrak.
His passion with birds began in those years, but truly spread its wings when he retired about 10 years ago.
“I decided first that I wanted to see how many birds I could see in Massachusetts in one year,” he said.
He finished with 321.
The beauty in birds, Ryan says, is in their amazing capabilities. Did you know that a Laysan albatross named Wisdom laid an egg at 67 years old last year? Or that some shorebirds, like whimbrels and godwits, fly nonstop from Cape Cod to South America?
Have you ever seen the fortitude of a harlequin duck calmly float while an ocean storm rages around him? Or the amazing ability of a tawny frogmouth to camouflage itself in the trees?
“You learn something new every day,” Ryan said. “With birds, you never stop learning.”And they never stop surprising you. The best evidence of that came a couple years ago, when Ryan spotted a golden eagle near his home on Bay Road.
Not a bald eagle, which is relatively common in New England — a golden eagle, which is a very rare sighting in the Bay State. They can only be seen for a couple weeks in late October or early November when they migrate south from Quebec.
Not even Parkinson’s disease, which he was diagnosed with two years ago, can slow him down. Ryan is set for a trip to Ecuador this winter, where he plans to add a few hummingbirds to his big list. He’s also a member of the South Shore Bird Club, which goes on trips and hikes every month to seek out the best of the South Shore’s birds.
Along with his wife, Donna, and two children, the birding, traveling and journaling has kept him young, he said. He battled for a long time with PTSD from his time in Vietnam, but found peace in his travels.
“The world is such a beautiful place,” he said. “And the people everywhere are so kind. It lifts your spirit.”
https://www.enterprisenews.com/news/20181209/eastons-globetrotter-birdwatcher-is-always-looking-up
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