2017: favorite nature moments #6

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Photo by John O'Barr

When the word got to me in July it was a bit of a Gomer Pyle "shazam" kinda moment.

Local birder John O'Barr stopped by the nature center and told me that a roseate spoonbill (Platalea ajaja) was in Blount County.  Yes, a large pink Gulf Coast bird with a mixing-spoon shaped bill was here in the foothills of Old Smoky. Shazam!

In the 1930s, the spoonbill was vanishing, only found in a very few places. I wrote about it in my second UT Press book, Ghost Birds. But it wasn't a life bird for me. I saw one in Florida on November 14, 1987. 

But it would be a Life Bird for Rachael Eliot, a.k.a. Starbuck.  And it was almost too easy. O'Barr gave me the street address, the house with a pond behind it, and there it was. We hardly had to leave the car.  Did I say, Shazam?

Click: spooner

Thanks, John. 

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