Hehehe...

I could have written that myself...except for the bearded guy part and I never remember collection jars.

One good thing about being an all around naturalist, is that if the birds aren't out, the mushrooms might be, or if neither are then there are always plants, or rocks, or....
You just can't go home disappointed!


Maurie Kirschner
Olympia WA
outdoorchickerooatyahoo.com


Rob Sandelin <floriferous at msn.com> wrote:
Mary Hrudkaj wrote of her delemma of whether to look at rocks or birds. I
have this problem in much greater magnitude. Somebody once said that a
naturalist is a biologist with a short attention span. Here is a description
of why I no longer go out on organized bird trips.

It starts off well enough, I hoist the bins with the birders and we spot and
chat and check things off lists, the bird books out and pages flipping.
However, I linger while the group walks on to the next spot, and I notice a
vole trail in the grass. Immediately I am on my knees, parting the grass to
look for signs or tracks. I follow the vole tunnel a bit then stumble into a
mushroom. Eureka! It's an Agaricus campestris, so I tuck it into a pocket
and begin to look for a few more. Then I spot a rotting log and simply have
to turn it over and in doing so come up with a snail and find a huge
carabidae beetle, so I fish around in my pockets for one of my numerous
collection jars. I get the beetle in the jar and have flipped my bins over
to use them as a microscope so I can examine the beetle closely when I hear
a bird call and suddenly remember, oh yeah, I came out here to look at
birds....The rest of the group is now a half a mile ahead and wondering,
where did that bearded guy get off to?

I had a moment once in costa rica where I had birds, butterflies, a huge
beetle, a snake, a lizard and a small rodent all competing for my attention
at once. I sort of had a melt down.....

Rob Sandelin
Naturalist, Writer, teacher

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