Birdie, Birdie, Birding

Birding on the island and mainland until today consisted for me in the general assessment of

"Are these LBF's (little brown #*@^%*?!!) or LBP's (little brown peeps)?"

Now after my first official shorebird birding session at the salt ponds (the island hot spots for shorebirds) I have names for the LBPs. Looking through a US $1500 spotting scope, I saw splendid examples of the common moorhen, snowy egret, green-winged teals, white-checked pintails, greater and lesser yellow legs, and the fabulous ruddy turnstone. Here are the specifics for the birdies when looking at them in the field.

I loved the red beak of the moorhen against her black coat, her shiny green legs with a dash of red at the garter line. The snowy egret was like any other egret, but behold, it has a black beak and black legs in contrast to other egrets, which have yellow legs. The green-winged teal sports a fabulous green eye shadow that reminded me of a grand drag queen. The white-checked pintail has a sassy red dash on the side of his beak, and the ruddy turnstone sports a brown necklace around its neck.

There is more bird watching on the horizon for me. The visiting American guru of birdwatching, Mr. R. will be with us for 2 more months and as he told me during the "shorebirding"

" I 'll go watch birds any day of the week. Just give a hollor. "

Yours Truly,
RAF