Why I stopped carrying the long lens
For about two years I carried a big telephoto lens on every walk. It weighs as much as a bag of rice. I got some good pictures, and I also got a sore shoulder and a strange habit of only noticing birds that were worth photographing.
Today I left it at home and took the binocular and the notebook, and it was the best morning at the lagoon I've had this summer.
What changes
Without the camera I stay in one place longer. I watched a willet and a marbled godwit feeding side by side for twenty minutes: the godwit probing deep with its long upturned bill, the willet picking at the surface. Same mud, different depth. With the camera I'd have taken twelve frames and moved on.
The pelicans came over in lines of five and six, gliding inches above the water, never flapping. Elegant terns were diving just off the mouth, and I could actually follow a dive all the way in instead of trying to keep one in frame.
Not a rule
I still take a small camera sometimes, and the long lens comes out for specific trips. But the default walk is now just looking. The pictures I remember best are the pages I drew badly.