I went on a birding tour to Australia and New Guinea once. At one spot in Cairns, Australia, there were a number of RAINBOW BEE-EATERS diving at insects over a pond. I wanted to try for photographs of these spectacular birds, but our leader wanted to get on with the tour for the sake of the listers. When I requested more time with the bee-eaters, his reply was, "Oh, they're common." Which may be true in his native Australia, but they sure aren't common here in the U.S. And they're beautiful.

What would he think if he were over here and wanted to gawk at a Steller's Jay, and I said, "Oh, they're just common. Let's get out of here."?

Barry Ulman
Bellingham, WA.

On Mar 31, 2012, at 9:47 AM, dave templeton wrote:

> couldn't agree more. for me it shows up as 'the' image of (insert name of common bird here). i show that image to others; some say wow that's nice', but others say, 'but that's just a ((insert name of common bird here).' to which i reply, 'yeah, but it's a pretty good (insert name of same common bird here).'
>
> i have a pretty good steller's jay, a couple good red winged blackbirds at different stages, and an almost good image of a junco, but i still haven't got the essence of a robin.
>
> kinda keeps stuff in perspective.
>
> t
>
>
>
> --
> dave templeton
> fall city, wa
>
> crazydave65atgmaildaughtcom
>
> "Don't worry about the world coming to an end today; it's already tomorrow in Australia." Charles Schultz
> _______________________________________________
> Tweeters mailing list
> Tweeters at u.washington.edu
> http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters