May is one of the best months of the year to view birds as it is a migration time. If you like seeing birds, want to know more about them but don't know a pigeon from a hawk; if names like white-eyed vireo and rufous-sided towhee sound impossible; if you've looked through binoculars but saw nothing clear and birding seems daunting, here's some down-to-earth, practical advice. There is an old saying that a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. Forget the thousand miles; the first few steps can be beautiful, compelling and can hook you on birding at this opportune time.

Here's what you need to start:

*A good pair of eyes with or without glasses. I'm not just talking about vision here but looking at what you see. For example noticing that some birds perch high in trees others low, some appear in ones or twos, others in groups. Birding is in the smallest of details.

*A serviceable pair of legs to take you outside where the birds are. Birds don't make house calls or schedule appointments. They are very active during early morning when they are feeding. So if you want to see them, you've got to get out during their rush hour.

*Curiosity. Woodpeckers peck but what are they pecking for? This seemingly innocuous question may lead to others about what birds eat and to the discovery that different birds' bills are suitable to different kinds of food.

*Patience. Birds don't pose. They quite often give you a partial view and fly off. But you can see a lot in those seconds and surprisingly partial glimpses are very helpful in identifying a bird.

Here's what you don't need:

*The latest high priced binoculars, telescope or the absolute last word in field guides to help identify what you've been looking at. Americans have a fascination with technology endowing it powers that it doesn't have. Technology won't find a bird, identify it or see the beauty in it. Technology will only bring its image closer.

*Fashion statement clothes with cargo pocket pants, multiple pocket birding vests and bush hats. Clothes never saw a hawk up close or made anyone fall in love with swallows or fascinated a person with the straight line flight of a cardinal in through the woods or the bobbing flight of an American goldfinch over a sea of scrub and flowers. One of the most knowledgeable amateur birders I ever spent an hour birding with was a young Brit. I met him in Cape Cod several years ago. He was more suitably dressed for a day in downtown Boston, from where he'd just come, than walking trails and seashore. In one hand he carried a brand new edition of a Peterson field guide (my field guide of choice) and in the other a worn pair of old, ordinary binoculars. He could identify a gull in flight with the naked eye that I couldn't if I had my binoculars on it for five minutes. He only occasionally looked briefly through his binoculars and never once opened the field guide. All the time he gave me a running commentary on the different names we and the English have for the same birds; our common loon is their great Northern diver.

Here's what will greatly aid you during those first few steps:

*A serviceable pair of binoculars. Look through someone's binocs, borrow your father's or your Uncle Max's binoculars and get someone to show you how to use them. Binoculars are about adjusting lenses by turning them with your own fingers to match your eyesight. If your father or Uncle Max doesn't have a pair or won't part with his precious WWII. vintage binoculars for a day, go to a lower end department store that has some that are under 100 or even $50. Don't pick out a pair based on someone else's recommendation or slick packaging.

Take them out of the packing and the store if possible (offer to leave the clerk your drivers license if necessary). Look through them. Do they focus easily? Is the image sharp, clear and pleasing to the eye? Do they feel comfortable in your hands? Hang them from your neck by the strap unless you're planning on having someone else carry them. If they don't focus easily or feel comfortable in your hands or around your neck, they are going to be the same in the field and you'll quickly stop using them. Binoculars are an extension of you and your eyes, not a technological panacea.

Newer and expensive aren't necessary to enjoy looking at birds. I have five pair of binoculars and regularly use three different pairs for different purposes. My wife, a true minimalist, has and uses only one pair. We have an old pair of binocs that either one of us could satisfactorily use on a birding trip if one of ours broke. It is a no name beginner's pair that we both looked through about 16 years ago when we started birding and were shopping for a pair. We both noticed that they were sharper and clearer than all the others in the same price range, which then was $60. The first time she saw a sparrow up close with them she couldn't believe the colors she saw: yellows, reds, etc.

*An easily usable field guide. There are many field guides but three that I refer to most often are: the Peterson Field Guide to Eastern Birds, National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America and the Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America. They all are excellent in varying ways. My personal choice when I'm in the field is Peterson's. I like the drawings and the arrows pointing to bird's features; some of the page numbers are engraved on my brain and my old edition copy is so worn and water swollen that I have little difficulty speedily thumbing through it. Like binoculars, this is an individual choice. So go to a book store, check them out and pick the one that you like, no matter how quirky the reason. If you like, it you'll refer to it; and when you do, you'll see the bird on the page that you saw in the field and it will have a name. That is part of the hook and the satisfaction of birding.