January :  One in a thousand - oh so rare...
                 Birthday Party in the Snow...
                 Outback with a difference...
 
Coming up...
 
February:  Tune in for a wild Date Night...
 
 
 
JANUARY :
 
So, I'm looking to do something which will put me into the category of  -
 
"Less than 1000 people in the world have done that"... 
 
What on God's dear planet of more than 7 000 000 000 people could I find to do, that would give me cause to crow "I'm 1 in less than 1000 people to have done that."
 
BASE jumping is out for this decade and I'm not likely to go heli-ski right now - there's far too many people doing that!
 
I've always considered myself a lucky person, so as I began to move my thinking laterally, I realised that something had caught my attention on the local news.
 
 HA!  My luck just kicked in.

..."Birders from near and far are able to cross an item off their bucket list after viewing a wee bird that lost its way.
 
A red-flanked bluetail that would normally be in Southeast Asia at this time of year has been causing quite a stir in Queen’s Park. Birders armed with binoculars and photographers equipped with fancy cameras descended on the park in recent days to view the visitor.
 
“There were a lot of bird watchers–35 or 40,” New Westminster resident Rob Butler said about the crowd on Wednesday afternoon...
 
...The arrival of the red-flanked bluetail in New Westminster is the first time the bird has been reported in Canada.
 
“It was pretty neat,” Butler said about seeing the bird. “I have been over to Asia birding. I didn’t see it in Asia.”
(by  Theresa McManus)


We whipped the girls out of school (LOL... they're home-schooled!) and took off for the day.   Within 10 minutes of being at Queens Park, we found the sweet little dumpling, hopping around in the brush and playing in the lower branches of the trees.   It really was quite an experience to be among professional birders, watching and feeling the excitement that only this tiny rare vagrant bird could bring.

Who would have thought that this red-flanked bluetail could have actually saved me from a potentially crazy idea.  I owe you big time little guy...  Thanks!

(by CH-R)