Cross country skiing is a mostly solitary sport, which is one of the reasons it appeals to so many of us. But every once in a while you meet someone out on the trail that has an interesting story to tell. The other day I was skiing the Cowhorn Lake trail near Grand Rapids when my friend and I began to notice little piles of bird seed along the trail. Eventually we caught up with the Birdman of Cowhorn Lake who was feeding the birds, and he told us there was a spot coming up you could feed them out of your hand. Curious we agreed to ski ahead and meet up with him at the spot he mentioned. We arrived first and all was quiet, then he skied up and whistled a couple of times and there were at least 15 chickadees and nuthatches on the scene. In less than a minute I had birds using my hand like a bird feeder! Now that’s a great day out on the ski trails!