Good evening, folks. Trigger, your roaming reporter here, bringing you Entertainment News.
Mr. Poppy has received fascinating e-mails from a source in Albuqerque who spoke on the condition of anonymity because she is not authorized to disclose classified information. (Don't you just love how reporters always use that phrase?) Her Bird List is diverse, extensive, and factual; the last point being somewhat questionable.
So Mr. Poppy, in an effort to stay competitve, has offered to provide an update on his extensive "Birds of Iraq" list.
Here goes:
1. Black-winged stilt (Yea, a water bird in the desert. Go figure.)2. Collared Dove (See Fr's. John and James, that collar-thing can catch on in the Middle East.)
3. Rock Dove (No, it's not a pigeon. It's a rock dove, Cite - "Birds of the Middle East" fieldguide.)
4. House Sparrow (Attracted to Mr. Poppy's personal birdseed mix - sunflower seeds, tortilla chips, and Ritz crackers. Exquisite. Keep those packages coming.)
5. Barn Owl (Which lives in the Iraqi Air Force hangar, which just so happens to not have any aircraft in it. Must be an analogy there somewhere.)
6. Barn Swallow (Second "Barn"-type. And we don't even have barns here!)
7. White Wagtail (Pretty bird with a twitchy butt. Fun to watch.)
8. Egyptian Nightjar (One of the pilots said one swooped down on him one night. "It was the biggest bat I've ever seen!" Knucklehead.)
9. Parakeet (Ataklef at the laundry. Yes, we sent him a photo for his scrapbook. We keep up on International relations.)
10. Finally, a LITTLE BIRD (Special Forces OH-6. Hard to locate in the fieldguide. Might need to be added and classified a Raptor!)
So, remember Barbara (oops, I think I just gave away the identity of the anonymous Albuquerque source; Oh, well. You know how reporters are.), just because you're SLIGHTLY ahead of Mr. Poppy on your bird list, 4,968 to 10, it's not about "Quantity," it's about "Quality".
And that's the way I see it (as well as a bicycle can see anyway).
From beautiful, sunny, hot, dusty, hazy Al Kut, Iraq, this has been Trigger, your roaming reporter, signing off.
2 comments:
We had a gorgeous sunlit male Western Tanager posing for us this afternoon; have you seen the Middle Eastern Tanager yet? (It would probably be the hooded version.) Stay with it, loyal reporter Trigger! Love from Ann Nonymous in that other desert.
Okay Ann Nonymous (I like that), what's a Western Tangerine anyway? Sounds colorful. You just keep heaping on the numbers, don't you. I'll never catch you.
Love right back at you,
C-M/P/3
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