Last Saturday, I wanted to go for a hike in the woods, but didn’t. It was a good day for it. I guess I’d have seen some birds.

Maybe I’d have seen a Catbird that sounds like a cat. I always wonder why this gray bird’s got an orange butt.

I figure it’s the same reason that a chimp’s got a pink butt. Sex. This is unscientific. But thinking about sex doesn’t have to be scientific; it just happens.

In any case, I didn’t go for a hike. I had reason not to. There was a mid-day NBA playoff game on TV.

While watching the game, I thought about the birds I didn’t see by not going for a hike.

I didn’t see the three or four kinds of woodpeckers I might’ve seen. Downy, Hairy, Red-bellied, Red-headed.

Maybe a Northern Flicker. That would’ve made five that I didn’t see.

I didn’t see the Catbird with its orange butt, as already mentioned. Or the Eastern Bluebirds that are predictable in the field near the woods where I hike.

I didn’t see the Bank Swallows that are showing up. No Eastern Kingbirds and Brown-headed Cowbirds.

As long as I’m listing birds I didn’t see, hell, there’s latitude. We’re talking DIDN’T.

So, it’s true to say that I didn’t see a Golden Eagle, or a rare Illinois Anhinga. But why push it.

More realistic to say that I didn’t see a Pileated Woodpecker. This could’ve happened. I’ve seen one in these woods.

I didn’t see a Scarlet Tanager that came home early. For that matter, I didn’t see a Western Tanager that doesn’t live around here.

If a Western Tanager had gotten lost on the wind, and showed up in my woods, I wouldn’t have seen it.

Instead, I saw the basketball game.

As I watched my team suck big time, I thought of the Western Tanager that could’ve strayed off course.

It would have been a rare thing. Not seeing it was my loss. My team’s performance on the court that Saturday was their loss.

A bad day for basketball playoffs and bird watching.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 24th, 2011 at 11:09 pm and is filed under "Daily Sightings" A Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.