Ruth Pearl and Ken Elliott became birders in Africa.
“It was bird heaven, so colorful and varied,” says Ken. “There were so many that we started taking a bird book everywhere we went.”
Born in England, the married couple spent a few years in Africa, where Ken, now retired, was working as an aviation engineer.
Ruth, an artist, remembers the iridescent, long-beaked sunbirds, which are like hummingbirds but bigger, of Kenya. And Ken says he was partial to the green and yellow little bee-eaters that would flock outside of their home.
In 1990, when they left Africa to move to the United States – again, for Ken’s work – they worried their best birding days were behind them.