Birdwatcher;
Good morning to you sir, I hope the day down in San Antonio is behaving and you're well as we head into Easter.
My personal bird knowledge is woefully inadequate, as I found out often when visiting my friend and neighbor who was a fairly knowledgeable bird identifier. He's just moved a mile down the road and the new neighbor appears to be even more into birds, so more education is hopefully forthcoming.
Being the northern tip of some desert habitat, we've got some oddball birds for BC and especially for Canada, so Williamson Sapsuckers and Pygmy Owls come to mind.
While I'd been aware of Pygmy Owls, the Williamson Sapsucker was just another woodpecker to me until I ran into a young fellow with a clipboard and binos one day when I was coming out with a load of firewood. He was doing something for some university degree studying Williamson Sapsuckers and was eager to tell me about them.
Firewood season for me by the way is April and May, so a rifle for black bears comes along too, but mostly I'm looking to get up the mountain after a long winter of being valley bound.
All that leads to this then Birdwatcher, in that a few years later I'm coming out with another load of firewood and see a trio of chaps standing beside a higher end Euro SUV.
They've each got a spotter on a tripod set up as well as fair sized binos hanging off their chests, all with the Swarovski, Leica, Zeiss looking labels on them.
I pulled up, rolled down the window and said, "Morning gents, I believe you're a couple clicks too high for what you're looking for ..."
One of them cut me off and said, sounding just a wee bit superior I thought, "And just what is it that you think we're looking for by chance?"
To which I replied, "Well seeing the glass, I figured you were looking for Williamson Sapsuckers and you need to drop down a couple roads and head into the canyon for them"
For a brief moment they were speechless Birdwatcher, as if their dog had learned to speak or perhaps the building janitor had imparted life changing wisdom to them. It seemed to me they were having a tough time connecting a redneck who looks like me, with a not new, shiny or even clean truck full of firewood with anyone who'd know about Williamson Sapsuckers.
And yet, I'd said it.
One of them recovered first and asked where they should go and of course I directed them to the spot the young student had met me years before that.
They thanked me profusely and I rolled on home to split and stack the morning's work.
Of course I have no clue if they saw one or not, but the "bird watching" friends tell me that's the place to look for them still.
Thanks for twigging the memories this morning and all the best to you this Easter.
Dwayne
