This is what I recently found on one of my lunch breaks doing a breeding bird survey 150 kms south of Heidelberg: A pair of Northern Wheatears.
The scene: sweet
The female: sweet.
The male: sweet.
And then a Black Kite flew over: sweet.The cast in alphabetical order:
Black Kite - Milvus migrans - Schwarzmilan [Black "Milan", a specific word comparable to the English Hawk, Buzzard etc.]
Northern Wheatear - Oenanthe oenanthe - Steinschmätzer [Stone chatterer]
Please send me a wheatear. Ok, thanks, bye.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you mean "Send a Wheatear"?!?
ReplyDeleteI JUST FREAKING SEND YOU A FREAKING BLACK KITE!!!! Do you have any idea how difficult it was to find a bird of prey - nah - any bird of anything to fly across the Atlantic with that darned volcanic cloud all over the place!?
How am I supposed to contact it now?? Send it back? Now that it's almost there?
For a freaking Wheatear!?!
Well, for freak's sake, I suppose that's what the man meant when he said that what we got here is failure to communicate?
Some men you just can't reach?!?
No, man, no way. I guess you'll just have to be happy about a little-tiny-forking-first-for-North-America Black Kite!!
Well, it'll be awfully bleached and abraded by volcanic ash once it reaches Queens, so if you spot some strange Red-tail or TV, ...
Look, man, you're not going to overlook and not find it, right?
You'll be able to identify it, right?
A freaking Wheatear?!?
The man's utterly crazy!!!