[wisb] Re: Spark Bird
- From: andy gruse <andygruse@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "wisbirdn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <wisbirdn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:17:59 -0800 (PST)
It's funny that this topic came up. I'm asked all the time why I like birds.
To my friends who don't "bird", they often look blank when I try to tell them
and I'm sure they are thinking, while I explain, about what is on television or
what their next meal is going to be. But the spark bird is simple. My mother
asked if I wanted to go to the beach with her. She was going to look for
sandpipers. At age 12 I was more interested in playing baseball but since no
one was around, I tagged along. It was July 10th, 1980, sitting a the end of
the lighthouse pier jutting out into Lake Michigan in Michigan City, Indiana,
hot and sunny day, waves gently splashing onto my legs, five dark and tall
sandpipers were sitting on the jetty. My mom was passing the binoculars to me
and taking them back to see what details we could see when as she leafed
through her Peterson guide I looked up and saw 4 American Avocets in a diamond
pattern fly past. The
image has never left my mind. Neither did the excitement. As you can imagine
with only one set of binoculars trying to both look where they went, long
disappeared as I tried to describe what I saw, pretty much at the time it was
"orange head, long bill and black and white all over". Fortunately they flew
past again with my mom seeing them then. That hooked me. The five other
sandpipers turned out to be 4 Willets and 1 Marbled Godwit. That was a great
day. Thanks for the memories!
Andy Gruse
Neenah,
Winnebago County
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