Attribution: John Gerrard Keulemans , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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By Bill Stokes
Kickass, the doorstop dog, is unable to stop the keeper from taking on impossible missions and so it was that when he—the keeper heard about Peter Kaestner traveling to the Philippines to see an orange tufted spider hunter to become the 10,000th bird he has seen, he—the keeper was motivated to start his own bird “life list,” which is already up to two—house finch and English sparrow, seen this morning on the balcony at Vista West where the keeper and Phyllis live and do their bird watching.
The keeper’ s life-list goal is not 10,000, it is three and he hopes to achieve it as soon as he sees the first robin of 2024, whereupon he will retire from birdwatching and resume his more rewarding hobby of watching Phyllis do creative things in the kitchen. He may refer to her as the “white-tufted soup hunter.”
Photo by Bill Stokes