The Story:
In 1964 or so, my colleague Fred spotted a nesting colony of a recent arrival to the area called the Smooth-billed Ani. A small flock was building a nest in a large date palm on Ponce De Leon Blvd. near the University of Miami. Fred was the preparator for the Zoology department and a good field man. Tireless, long legs and a great attitude.
Anyway, we took his old VW van and parked near the palm tree. Within half an hour we documented several Anis and were watching behavior when a Coral Gables police cruiser glided up behind us, parked, and out walked a large policeman. Slowly and carefully he approached us. (We were dressed in field clothes - grubby- and looked rough.) He wanted to know who we were (please produce ID) and what we were doing. It took him some time to wrap around the idea that we were watching a very unusual bird colony. He finally got to the binoculars and agreed the he had never seen this kind of bird.
The real story:
Across South Dixie Highway was an apartment building. Living there was a very observant woman that reported two perverts with binoculars looking into her apartment (the line of sight was behind and slightly to the right of the palm tree.) Now this building was quite far away, and how she spotted us in the van is a mystery , but she did. Coral Gable's finest cleared us completely and advised that the next time we were birdwatching in the neighborhood, we let them know.
All in a days work for a birdwatcher.
Fred and I had other capers that may surface in later essays.
Photo: - www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/PHOTO/LARGE/bna_B...
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1 comment:
Given your other stories from your youth/college days -- and let's observe only that you strayed far, frequently, and gladly from the path of righteousness -- I don't doubt that your "birdwatching" might have been mistaken, by an outside observer, for naughtiness.
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