There's a guy in Tennessee, Jeff Wilson, who must singlehandedly make
subscribing to BIRDCHAT worthwhile. Here's to the ol' coot! Thanks to Tom
Schooley for forwarding this to me.
----------
>> From: OL COOT 1 <OLCOOT1 at AOL.COM>
>> To: BIRDCHAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
>> Subject: [BIRDCHAT] A wee thing in Tennessee.
>> Date: Friday, December 05, 1997 8:54 PM
>>
>> Dec.3, 1997
>> Damp Fine Day
>> Nashville, Tenn.
>>
>> She was a wee slip of a thing, sitting there in the rain, sipping
>her
>> drink.
>> Soaking wet she didn't weigh any more than the cap on my large economy
>sized
>> toothpaste. She is a young thing, probably less than 6 months old. Yet in
>that
>> short time she has traveled from the mountains of the far northwest to a
>> backyard in Nashville. She has traveled farther than a lot of humanoids
>do in
>> a lifetime and she did so alone. She has been weighed, measured and has a
>> slight tingling in her posterior, due to an encounter with a tall, hunk
>of a
>> bald man. He had a broad soothing smile and bedside manners of the
>kindest
>> doctor, his large gentle hands examined her tiny body but left not a
>feather
>> ruffled. She was asked all kinds of questions but she knew more than she
>could
>> tell. He has now added the information acquired to his vast and growing
>store
>> of
>> understanding and knowledge. She was then posed and photographed,
>marveled,
>> oohed and ahhhhed over, then released to go about her life.
>>
>> She is now a mark on a map and a factoid among the data. If she
>could
>> have told all, vast voids could have been filled but man may not be ready
>for
>> this
>> amount of knowledge. Maybe this is best gotten in small doses, distilled,
>> filtered, rethought and pondered so we might be ready for a realization
>when
>> it comes. She is indeed a wee thing but to me she will always be thought
>of
>> as a Magnum as in # 357. I've been to extremes with birds, in just 4
>days I
>> have
>> marveled at the largest birds to be seen in Tennessee, the Swans at
>Lauderdale
>> and now I behold the smallest that will ever be seen in the state, this
>> wonderful Calliope--- MADE MY DAY!! Thanks to Bob and Martha Sargent.
>>
>> Good Birding!!!
>>
>> Jeff R. Wilson
>> OL' COOT
>> Bartlett, Tenn.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone 253-756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax 253-756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416
http://www.ups.edu/biology/museum/museum.html