My kids were born with Brian's ornithology gene. They have a gift of identifying birds. On any given day they can identify what kind of bird is at our feeder.
William: "Look Mom. A goldfinch!"
Mommy: "What did you just call me?"
Claudia: "Where's the goldfish?"
Brian is the same way. We can be in any part of the country, and he knows his birds.
"Hey Sue, did you see that double breasted, yellow bellied, tripple tailed, rainbow crested sapsucker?".
He even know birds from all of his foreign travels- Chinese birds (Moo Shoo Speckled Falcon), German birds (Pileated Long Neck Pilsner), New Zealand aka Kiwi birds(North Island Brown Heavy Footed Moa), Costa Rican (Banana Bellied Orange Beaked Whistling Caw Caw) and Antarctic birds (Southern Royal Ice Crested Snow Petrel).
"Hey Sue, did you see that double breasted, yellow bellied, tripple tailed, rainbow crested sapsucker?".
He even know birds from all of his foreign travels- Chinese birds (Moo Shoo Speckled Falcon), German birds (Pileated Long Neck Pilsner), New Zealand aka Kiwi birds(North Island Brown Heavy Footed Moa), Costa Rican (Banana Bellied Orange Beaked Whistling Caw Caw) and Antarctic birds (Southern Royal Ice Crested Snow Petrel).
It's amazing. I can't even remember what breed(s) our dog is, but he can memorize a bird book in no time flat!
I'm grateful that our kids inherited his gift. Me, on the other hand, I am satisfied to continue using my unique way of identifying birds:
"You mulberry eating, purple staining, flying sack of shit! If you crap on my car one more time, I'm gonna bust your feathered A$$!".
4 comments:
LMAO!!! :-)
My Brian can also identify far more birds than I can - Olivia will ask, what was that and he'll say the actual name of it whereas I'm like, "it's a bird" Brian is nowhere close to knowing as many birds as your Brian, but what does amaze me is how he can rattle off sport statistics a mile long but can't manage to remember the three things I told him to pick up at the grocery, or where he put his shoes! It's just amazing!
Our Brians must be related!
Brian does know the REAL name of birds but I like to tease him that he actually makes up the names. since I don't know birds myself, I don't know if he's actually right.
Birds and I just don't get along.
Mrs. Nurse Boy
You must have had a bad encounter with a bird! I would like to hear that story.
Brian and the birds goes way back! When we were dating, he would idetify birds while we were hiking. I was impressed. He continued to identify birds for me for the next several years, often in different parts of the country. I was amazed that he could retain all this knowledge from studying the bird books before he went out hiking.
Then it occurred to me! He's making the names all up and I am too stupid to know the difference! So now I like to tease him about his knowledge (or lack of).
I often join in, coming up with some pretty funny names... such as the Pileated Pilsner and the Hawaiian Volcanic Vulture!
In Brian's defense, he honestly does know his birds... all of them. He has a memory like a sponge... forgets nothing he reads! He saves his forgetfulness for everyday things like losing his keys.....
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