{"id":882,"date":"2014-07-07T17:56:31","date_gmt":"2014-07-07T17:56:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sayjack.net\/?p=882"},"modified":"2014-07-07T19:22:10","modified_gmt":"2014-07-07T19:22:10","slug":"the-bird-walk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/?p=882","title":{"rendered":"The Bird Walk"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

The Superb Starling (photo by Beth V.)<\/p><\/div>\n

A bird walk in Africa is not really a walk at all.\u00a0 At least it’s not if you consider walking a form of exercise or a means to get somewhere.\u00a0 A bird walk consists of taking a few steps, pointing toward tree or sky, exclaiming “what’s that?”, then hoisting the binocs and thumbing through the bird book until you arrive at the Aha! moment.\u00a0 If your guide already knows the bird, the last step may be waived. \u00a0More birds are discovered and discussed.\u00a0 10 minutes later, the birders advance 25 meters and the stages are repeated.\u00a0 This can go on for a full morning with the round trip from camp traversing maybe 2 km.<\/p>\n

\"Birders<\/a>

Birding–a few in our group are dedicated birders<\/p><\/div>\n

This is totally engrossing if you’re into the fascinating puzzle that is “birds.”\u00a0 It’s a combination of Where’s Waldo, What’s Liz Wearing, Scrapbooking and studying for the SAT all wrapped into one.<\/p>\n

\"Lilac-breasted<\/a>

Lilac-breasted green-hatted orange-winged long-tailed roller (photo by Beth V.)<\/p><\/div>\n

Philatelists, genealogists, sunken ship divers, paparazzi, and fantasy football fans all understand the magic of a personal passion and the joy of discovery. \u00a0On the other hand, the uninitiated\u00a0might just stare and wonder.<\/p>\n

Eventually, non-converts stop wondering and just stare.\u00a0 African birds are, after all, often brightly-colored, crested, long-tailed or birds of prey–all outstanding characteristics that earn one’s attention.\u00a0 There is plenty to study.\u00a0 The birders in our group have tallied 179 new birds over the days we’ve been here, and Africa is estimated to contain<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The stylish Crested Crane (photo by Beth V.)<\/p><\/div>\n

1200 of the world’s 2000 species of birds. Bird sightings can be especially engaging during those dry periods when the big animals are hiding.<\/p>\n

Still, there’s a thin line between staring in wonder and tedium, and a bird walk can test one’s patience.\u00a0 Luckily, in Africa there’s always big animal poop and tracks to study.\u00a0 While the birders look up, we can look down.<\/p>\n

\"Birders<\/a>

Birders look up, I look down: Here’s a duiker “latrine”– common poop area that helps establish territory. \u00a0A duiker is a small antelope.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A bird walk in Africa is not really a walk at all.\u00a0 At least it’s not if you consider walking a form of exercise or a means to get somewhere.\u00a0 A bird walk consists of taking a few steps, pointing … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":884,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[5],"tags":[15,18,30,31,17,19],"class_list":["post-882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fam-friend","tag-africa","tag-arusha","tag-birder","tag-birding","tag-safari","tag-thornton"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/CrestedCrane.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3QqGi-ee","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}