[obol] blown birds

[Charles R. Gates]

I just returned from Maine where I attended the ABA National Convention.  I
was out in the field with 100 other people on a field trip.  One of the
guides had just mentioned that we had not seen a single Flicker for the
trip.  A few minutes later, I saw a bird land on a dead snag 100 yards away.
I pulled my binos up and saw a black necklace on the bird and instinctively
called out, "Northern Flicker" with my best "aha, I found one" voice.  Just
as I said it, I realized that the bird was blue and had a crest and I had
announced to the entire group that I was an idiot.  I quickly added, Oops,
never mind, it's only a Blue Jay.  A guy behind me felt my humiliation was
inadequate as he added, "How can you mistake a Blue Jay for a flicker?"  I
am humbled almost daily.

-----Original Message-----
From: obol-bounces at lists.oregonstate.edu
[mailto:obol-bounces at lists.oregonstate.edu]On Behalf Of Andrew Marshall
Sent: Wednesday, July 05, 2006 1:39 PM
To: obol at lists.oregonstate.edu
Subject: [obol] blown birds


Hi Folks,
My best/worst if you will blown bird... we have a fence post at the far end
of the property, semi-rotted wooden, slightly angled near the top, with
'ears'.  Any one see where I am going with this??? In good light it looks
like a fence post, but one evening I became aware of a large owl sitting
there on top of this post.  I scanned it visually for several minutes,
getting more sure of it's owlishness... and wondering why the crows and jays
were leaving it alone... sitting there out in the open... so I belted off to
get my binoculars, sure it was a  long eared owl, or very well camouflaged
screech owl or something like that... See, I knew there was a fence post,
just hadn't seen it in that light before... the binoculars revealed of
course that it was nothing at all save the oddly lit top of the fence-post.
And in the right light, it still gets me for just a second every now and
then!
And to continue the laughs... a few seasons ago I had set my duck decoys up
and then had to go take a leak.  The pond was a small hole in dense reed
canary grass swamp, and only about 100 yards from the house, so I dallied a
little at the house getting a snack.  When I returned, in case ducks had
flown in, I carefully sneaked in through the grass, counting the decoys as I
went.  All was calm, no ducks except... there was one hen too many.  I
popped up and made noise to flush the duck... it wouldn't move.  I yelled
louder... no movement.  I drew bead and yelled again... no movement.  I am
25 yards away hopping up and down yelling, and she should be airborn and
long gone and instead she is making like a decoy... totally motionless
except for the breeze making little ripples around her front.  I finally
gave up thinking I had been mistaken in my original decoy count.  As I
turned away, lowering the shotgun, she finally moved, swimming over to one
of the drakes... a decoy drake... really, it was a decoy... Though I was
close enough to have thrown a shotgun shell at her and hit her, I never did
get her to flush.

Best wishes
Andrew




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