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tions for the Virginia Society of Ornithology on sightings of rare birds including dates, places and verification of rarities. Lee punched in Yulee’s number. A request to leave a message was her reward. Lee asked Yulee to call as soon as possible; it was a kind of emergency.
“What will Yulee think?” I asked myself. Our friendship goes back 20 years or more but we have gone for months — even a year — without being in contact.
Yulee returned our call and asked about the emergency. She was relieved and delighted to hear that it was a sighting of a most unusual species and not a medical emergency.
After hearing my detailed description of the bird (still chomping down on sunflower seeds on the feeder) and my efforts to verify identification in several books, Yulee said, “Aren’t you well acquainted with a well-known bird photographer? Couldn’t he get a picture?”
Yulee chuckled after saying this. Who did I know who photographed birds? Then I remember that I had presented a program on Virginia birds to the Augusta Bird Club of Staunton not a month ago. It was illustrated by my own photographs of birds. Yulee was referring to me!
“Send me a detailed description of this sighting so it can become a part of the state records,” Yulee said. She then checked her records and reported that the last sighting of this grosbeak had been in 1991; the bird visited a bird feeder in Sterling.
I did not take a picture of the grosbeak. Photographing birds the way I do it is complicated, disruptive to the household and time consuming. It would take all day and life was complicated by the approach of the Christmas holidays.
“I’ll do it tomorrow,” I said to Lee. The bird returned the next day and, again, I said, “I’ll try to take a picture tomorrow.” The bird did not return.
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