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By Peter Lit
"They suspected immediately that i was an imposter..."
They suspected immediately that i was an imposter even though i had taxied forty miles to The Canopy Tower a premier birding site for eco-tourists. i didn't have the requisite spotting scope, but from the catwalk around the top of this converted radar station, above the canopy, overlooking the Canal, i saw flocks of toucans, tropical kingbirds, cuckoos, a three-toed sloth; all firsts for me. Early the next morning, waiting for sunrise, we saw a blue cotinga, a blue dacnis and another tanager with white wing bars. i was so excited by the bright green unidentified flying object that i missed the actual sunrise. After breakfast, their suspicions were heightened as we drove toward the Canal. i didn't have a large pair of binoculars, and, i was pointing out butterflies, dragonflies. Within minutes of our arrival, i had seen many new birds; jacana, crake, puffbird, thrush, etc. These were, of course, a specific jacana, a specific crake, a specific puffbird, a specific thrush. i was confirmed as an outsider when they noticed that i was writing in a journal and didn't even possess "The Birds of Panama". Nonetheless, excited, they call me from my scribbling to see, specifically, a Yellow-crowned Euphonia, a Grey-breasted Martin, a Variable Seedeater, and of course, pigeons, grackles and starlings. These people are crazy; they're always moving. Aggressive, they are collecting, not watching. Yellow-tailed Oriole Slaty Antwren Blue-grey Tanager Red-crowned Woodpecker Black vulture (i think this may be contagious, since here i am, in the rainforest, in Panama, writing the names of birds in a book) Blue-black Grassquit Lesser-Kiskadee Yellow-headed Caracara Buff-throated Saltator John and April say they are merely "avid" birders, far from fanatic. Yesterday they left early and in one day identified 92 species, 8 of them by sound. Northern Oriole Barred Antshrike Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture Gray-cheeked Thrush Common Black-hawk Slate-colored Seedeater. I'VE BEEN INFECTED i can't write fast enough. |
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