Straight To De Soul

Sunday, February 26, 2006

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

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