Imagine being with four of your favorite friends, hiking and singing together in an exceptionally beautiful forest on a perfect spring day in May. If that isn't the Other Side of Paradise I don't know what is!

On Saturday morning my San Francisco friend Dorothy and I met up with my Great Lakes Gaia singing friends Joan, Pat and Penny at Ontario's Pt. Pelee National Park in Leamington. My Gaia friends had never before met Dorothy, but they connected like long-lost sisters! It's such a joy to see your friends meet heart-to-heart. I couldn't stop smiling. Nor could they.

And it was fun to be part of the excitement as birders from across the globe, including some we met from Vietnam, had converged on Pt. Pelee during these two weeks in May when hundreds of thousands of birds migrate through Canada's southernmost point of land. I understand that Pt. Pelee is known for being the best location in inland North America to observe the northward migration of songbirds, but all we identified was a screech owl that some of the birders kindly pointed out to us. However the sound of birds singing throughout the park was extraordinary. And they weren't the only ones singing: so were we. If you look closely at this photo, maybe you can hear us...

CLICK HERE to view others participating in "The Other Side" PaD challenge for May 2008.