You Don't Say?

If you keep an open mind, you never know what you'll hear.

The old man had obviously seen me before I saw him. I had been peering though the Bushnells into the underbrush at a Winter Wren when the old man shouted from about 30 yards away, startling me. "Ya seein' anything?" he inquired. I turned around to face the voice. Walking out of the woods on the well worn trail, he came leading a small dog on a leash. His red plaid woolen vest was pulled over a threadbare olive green jacket. The flaps on his battered hat covered his ears, but his hair poked out in crazy angles announcing to the world who was actually in charge of his appearance. The pulling, choking shelter-rescued mutt was also wearing some sort of cover-up around its midsection and was attempting to gain the upper hand in setting the pace of his master's walk. As he neared me I said, "I was looking at a Winter Wren and have just seen a Yellow-rumped Warbler." "Yeah, I seen em' last time me and the dog walked along the river...have ya seen the big red one?" he replied. "Hmmm no." I answered, "but I did see a Red-bellied Woodpecker in that tree, and it's still there," as I pointed upward to a distant tree. "Yup, seen it, the big red one...see it all the time," the old man verified.

Well I mused, this guy must walk along here often, however he sounded like one of those, been there done that, that's nothing new, you young whipper snapper; types, so I was best to just run the old 'respect your elders' drill and keep it short. "You walk through there," the man 's breath came out as a fog in the 45 degree air as he pointed a gnarled finger, past the brush and toward the river, "and you can see the Huron." "No kidding?" and nodded as I responded, clearly over matched here in the avian arena. "Ayuh, seen it a lot of times." said the octogenarian ornithologist as he finally succumbed to the straining canine and allowed himself to be led farther down the path, and out of my sight. "Wow," I chuckled to myself watching his hat dissapear into the woods, "a real Huron right here in Wauwatosa."