And most recently, of course, she came along with me to the New River Birding and Nature Festival. (Thanks to me, she is now an astute birder. Way more astute than I am.) Folks were mighty impressed with her mad bird skilz -- her ability to track and zone in, her attention to detail...
Can't say as I blame them. It is amazing. But the time for truth-telling has come. I fear I must burst the bubble.
Driving through West Virginia, we saw two small grey animals off the side of the road on hillside. They looked remarkably like these creatures, which I photographed in Alberta in the fall of 2008:
"Oh, look! A little donkey!" Kelly exclaimed. I guess that all the close attention she'd had to pay to the intricate differences among the various types of sparrow and innumerable warblers had finally caused her brain to snap. Because donkeys, of course, look rather like these creatures that I photographed in Tennessee in 2009:
Kelly is going to be a great birder. She'll whip my butt. But, for now at least, I have the edge in mammals. Not that she should worry.
I've got her back, after all.
5 comments:
In my defense, I saw the deer's butt, and it looked a lot like a little donkey's butt. I did wonder why little donkeys were grazing by the roadside...
You got her back, all right. Maybe they were mule deer?
That is super sweet. Ungulates are tough.
Maybe Kelly just needs to focus on one branch of the animal kingdom at a time. I still haven't gotten to dragonflies. Might not ever.
Let's give the girl a break here. She's had a life-altering epiphany and if she wants to call deer "little donkeys", then I say let her!
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