The Ancaster resident is so absorbed in nature that he forgets about his chronic Lyme disease. When his symptoms were at their worst, Bell used a cane and “couldn’t walk more than a few hundred yards.” “Now I go birding and I can walk eight, 10 kilometers a day,” he said. “I’m not trying to say the bird is a cure. It’s a coping mechanism.” Bell talked about the mental and physical benefits of birds while sitting in his backyard overlooking the Dundas Valley Conservation Area on Monday. They were scanning the skies for a rare black vulture that had been spotted that morning in Toronto’s High Park and was believed to be heading west. “Birding saved me,” Bell said. “Every morning, it’s not about what I’m going to do, it’s where am I going today? Which path do I want to walk? And I leave. It gave me a real spark and purpose in life.” Bell isn’t sure how he contracted Lyme. His work as an exploration geologist took him all over the world, and in the fall of 2013 he was bitten by several unknown insects while in southern Africa. Shortly after returning home to Canada, he walked through tall grass where he may have inadvertently encountered a Lyme-carrying tick. His symptoms started shortly after, with a high fever and chills. He felt better after a few days and “forgot everything.” But about a month later he was hit with “a whole cascade of strange symptoms” that included “horrendous” muscle pain, flu-like attacks in his joints and profound fatigue. “There was clearly something very drastic going on,” said Bell, who was in his 50s at the time. Bell said his doctors were skeptical he had Lyme disease. They ruled out other conditions with similar symptoms, but “were not interested in trying to figure out why I had what I had.” He eventually went to the United States, where he was diagnosed with Lyme, put on “huge doses” of antibiotics and told to avoid sugar, starches and other foods that could interfere with the medication. Bell said he developed severe social anxiety that made it impossible to handle crowds and noise, and his cognitive abilities were hampered to the point where he sometimes had trouble counting change to buy a newspaper. He knew his days as a mining executive were numbered. “It was really disappointing. I was doing a job that I really enjoyed – getting paid to do a treasure hunt,” said Bell, who went on sick leave before retiring at the end of 2015. He spent the first winter of his forced retirement looking out the window at the feathered visitors who frequented his bird feeders. “I love watching the birds live their lives. They work so hard and are so industrious,” Bell said. “The more you learn, you just can’t help but be impressed with birds and fall in love with them.” As an unexpected bonus, she added, “While I was so focused on thinking about the birds, my mind was off my aches and pains.” He joined the Hamilton Naturalists’ Club and went on a birding trip the following spring. From there, Bell said, “I was just hooked.” He branched out into bird photography, joined citizen science efforts like Project FeederWatch and began giving talks on poultry farming, speaking to hundreds of people on Zoom during the pandemic as part of a push to get Nature Canada to designate Hamilton as a bird-friendly city. the birds. “If I was interested in the bird when I was working, I would have been fired because I would have been so distracted,” Bell said with a laugh. Along with exploring his bird-rich turf, Bell “makes the pilgrimage” to Long Point in Norfolk County several times a year, especially during the spring and fall migrations, when tens of thousands of birds pass overhead. He is especially grateful for the partners who took him under their wings. “I didn’t think I’d make new friends at my age,” she said. Bell tells his story in a new book, “Out of the Lyme Light and Into the Sunlight: Birding as Therapy for the Chronically Ill,” to be published Nov. 15 by Hancock House. The first-time author hopes his story will inspire readers with a chronic illness to seek their own joy. “I wrote from the heart,” Bell said. “My goal is to share my passion and give them hope.” SHARE:
