Tweeters,
Some details of this story have been left intentionally vague to preserve
the reputation of those involved:
I signed up for a Audubon walk at a local lakeside park. Traffic was bad
that morning and I arrived late. I didn't see any group of birders so I
wandered around a bit by myself and then went back to the parking lot. A
man there asked me if I was here for the Audubon trip? He told me he had
arrived earlier and seen no one so thought he might be at the wrong
place, he drove around and then returned. He had phoned the leader but
only got voice mail. Since traffic was so bad that morning we decided to
just hang out for a while surely the leader and rest of the group were
just stuck in traffic. One by one three more people arrived each with a
tale of how bad the traffic was. I was the only one who had ever been to
this particular park and I had indeed gone on a previous walk with the
same leader. I assured the group it was unlike this leader not to show.
An hour after the appointed start time we collectively decided that
something had happened and we weren't going to have a leader but since we
were here we might as well go birding. I am not an experienced Birder
but I was the only one who had even been to this park so I started
showing the other four around. We didn't see much that day it was a case
of the blind leading the blind. We were pretty close to finishing our
tour of the park when a bicyclist saw our binoculars and stopped to tell
us there were HUNDREDS of Loons around the bend. We knew enough to know
hundreds of looks would be very unlikely but we didn't know what to
expect. When we got to where the lake was visible again sure enough there
were HUNDREDS of American Coots just off the trail. I know my story
doesn't have much to do with Coots but the combination of unusual events
make that day stand out in my memory.
I get a kick out of the way the Coots 'walk on water'.
Later we found out that the leader had marked the wrong date on the
calendar.

Linda Phillips
sweetmem at juno.com
Kenmore 98028-2616