Okay, I succumb. I've thought about this a lot, and considered the topic to
be too broad for me to respond to -- seems like my childhood was full of
significant bird stuff, hard to pick just one bird or event: the RUFOUS
HUMMINGBIRD nest just 10 feet from our livingroom window; the "snowbirds"
and "Alaskan robins"; the AMERICAN ROBIN named Christopher that we raised
and who came back the next spring; earning my Girl Scout bird badge; etc.!!


But ... My true benchmark bird, it finally came to me, was the loon in
first grade. I hadn't seen one in real life, but in a classroom discussion
I talked about loons. The teacher told me there was no such bird!! I may be
embroidering this memory, but I think I hauled Audubon's _The Birds of
North America_ into class (it was the only "bird book" we had in the early
50's) and said "There. Loon." Eventually I became a teacher, and to my
knowledge NEVER said to a child, "There is no such thing."

I haven't seen a hummer in Ketchikan yet! Bob Armstrong reports a first
sighting yesterday (April 5) in Juneau, and I saw the posting from Sitka
.... they MUST be coming through, but at least where I live, they're keeping
a low profile. Nevertheless, it is April, and it's glorious. On my morning
walk out the road from my house, parallelling George Inlet, I kept pace
with a Humpback Whale the other morning. It was sunrise, dead calm, and
every time the whale surfaced there was another spreading pool of golden
light on the water ... as I said, glorious!

Enjoy,
Sharron

Sharron Huffman "We are confronted with
Herring Cove Originals insurmountable opportunities."
229 Stedman --Pogo
Ketchikan, AK 99901