Subject: Re: Flamingos (getting side-tracked)
Date: Nov 22 18:00:48 1997
From: "Martin Muller" - MartinMuller at classic.msn.com


Tweeters,

Jon.'s planted flamingo story and self-important birders, reminded me of a
story I heard when still in Holland.
I had found the Dutch Birding Association a little too serious for my taste.
This is almost twenty years ago, so things may have changed.
Anyway, in one prime birding area in the central eastern part of Holland, one
particularly fanatical chapter was tested by its then president.
I know something will be lost in the translation, but bear with me.
Bustards ( Great Bustard <Otis Tarda> and Little Bustard <Tetrax tetrax>) are
extremely rare in Holland. In Dutch they are called (in translation) Big
Ladder and Small Ladder. So when the local chapter president recorded not just
a big ladder but also a small ladder out in the estuary, numerous birders
swarmed out to add these ticks to their lists.
It took a while before they realized the big and small wooden ladders out in a
meadow where their targets.

They fired (almost tarred and feathered) the president!

I still chuckle when I think of the incident.

Martin Muller
Seattle, WA
MartinMuller at classic.msn.com