For those that missed it (including myself until it was pointed out
by a work colleague), the following are John Layton's "10 Good Things
About Becoming a Bird Watcher" from Monday's Canberra Times.
(Re: point 10, birdos should _not_ buy "relaxation" CDs with the
expectation that you'll relax - instead, you'll listen intently
trying to identify the bird calls. You have been warned...)
-----
1. You'll discover through binoculars that small birds are not the
amorphous, little brown things you assumed they were. They are
often quite colourful and can be sorted into specific groupings.
2. You'll have an excuse to buy new books, join chat groups and
birdwatchers' clubs. Social horizons will expand.
3. You'll impress friends when you tell them white-throated needletails
from Siberia and Latham's snipe from Japan appear in Canberra in the
warmer months.
4. No longer will you look for lost golf balls. Instead, you'll search
for birds and conclude your balls were stolen by artful, albeit dopey
crows, who mistook them for eggs.
5. You'll install a birdbath and smaller birds will delight you with
their presence. Not so the currawongs. These piebald palookas will
acknowledge your kindness by up-chucking in the water. I wish they'd
go to the neighbour's fish pond instead.
6. Exotic common mynas should be discouraged. Their ability to banish
native birds from the area earns them the sobriquet flying cane toads.
7. Great self-control will be required as you refrain from spiflicating
the neighbour's cat when you find it grooming its whiskers next to a
pile of feathers.
8. You can spend the afternoon at the coast watching birds in the tall
timber in a rainforest.
9. After a shower and dinner, you'll relax. The tired neck you acquired
from peering up trees fades from memory as you become engrossed in
bird-identification books and write up your birdwatcher's diary.
10. Then you lay down your weary head and fall asleep happily counting
scrub wrens and lyrebirds.
--
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Paul Taylor Veni, vidi, tici -
I came, I saw, I ticked.
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