The Zen Birder

Little Sparrowhawk

               My first Saturday in South Africa, and I was lucky enough to go bird ringing with my professor. One of her long-time students was doing the ringing. They caught so many birds! I decided to sit near the tent and watch the birds get processed. I took pictures and wrote notes.
              

               I call myself a Zen Birder. I am not going to tick off every bird I see on these trips, because I probably would not be able to identify it myself. Just because someone tells me that such and such is a certain bird, does not mean that I will write it down. I want to study the bird, and figure it out for myself. This might set me back a bit in the life list, but I want to quiz myself. 

            

               It paid off when I saw the Africa Purple Swamphen or Gallinule. I walked away from the tent with two birders. We stopped at a small pond on The Stinks (it is a sewage treatment plant). There were ducks, plovers, lapwings, geese, and songbirds. Then among the reeds I saw a blue and green bird with a red bill. Hard to miss I would say! I asked the one birder, but he did not see it. It had slipped back into the reeds. I am certain of what I saw, a bird defiantly of a different color!!

The Stinks, South Africa