It's not like I see (or take photos of) a lot of amazingly rare birds but my employers offered me a Paul Bannick print for an anniversary gift. I dithered for months and finally decided on a varied thrush. When I told him he said, "You always pick the strangest things. You've *seen* all the snowy owl shots I've been getting, right?" And those are fabulous and unusual photos and it has been the year of the snowy owl which is a damned fine bird but the varied thrush, while not incredibly rare, is a pretty bird, too.

(And Paul, this could be a hint, yes.)

--- On Sat, 3/31/12, Barry Ulman <ubarry at qwest.net> wrote:

From: Barry Ulman <ubarry at qwest.net>
Subject: Re: [Tweeters] re: Thankful for the "Commonplace"
To: "dave templeton" <crazydave65 at gmail.com>
Cc: "Tweeters" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Date: Saturday, March 31, 2012, 11:43 AM

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

_______________________________________________
Tweeters mailing list
Tweeters at u.washington.edu
http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters