Let's face it, we'd all rather be birding. But we don't always know how to, you know, pull it off during the work week. Here are a few ideas:

1. Volunteer to inspect the air conditioning units on the roof. For which you'll need your binoculars. And it may take a while to get a good look.

2. Offer to take the mail to the post office. And to make sure the letters get there sooner, you'll need to take them to the main branch, which happens to sit next to that regional park with all the oak woodlands and streams.

3. This bird guide? I needed something to swat that fly in the lunch room.

4. It's not your fault that cold and flu season coincides almost perfectly with spring migration. Just sayin'.

5. Schedule all your meetings in the room with the window that looks at that big oak tree. Then make sure your boss sits in the chair closest to the window so he thinks you're paying attention to him while you're really just watching that Bewick's Wren.

6. Make frequent trips to the warehouse, where all those swallows happen to be nesting.

7. Volunteer to get donuts for the team. And you'll need your binoculars to see if the drip coffee shop down the street has a line.

8. Suggest birdwatching for your next team building exercise. Everyone will be glad to get out of go-kart racing and trust falls.

9. Tell your boss that the client you're going golfing with is terrible, and that you'll need the binoculars to find his stray balls. And you'll need the bird guide as a seat booster because the client isn't very tall.

10. Just invite your boss to go birding. I'll bet he or she is dying to go.