I got into birding this spring as a hobby, thinking to myself "it's free, you just need to use your eyes and ears", withing a month I bought a $350 pair of binoculars. I've managed to fight off the temptation of a decent camera so far, thankfully. I found a great park at the tail end of spring migration about 10 minutes from my apartment, and the dawn chorus was almost sensory overload, the was so many different species singing and calling. I'm looking forward to what new birds I'll see during this fall migration and especially next spring migration.