I recently joined the forum and am a transplant from the astronomy hobby. In astronomy, there are a fair share of tongue-in-cheek superstitions, such as an amateur astronomer's innate ability to summon clouds on the day they receive cool gear. Are there such things in the birding hobby? The whimsical part of me would like to think I was granted a blessing for joining BirdForum.
You see, for the past year or so, when I've been doing astronomical observations, I've occasionally heard the screech of an owl. I'd take my eyes away from the telescope to scan the skies and sometimes I would see a pale white silhouette several hundred feet up, just quietly gliding...hunting. I had always wanted to see the owl up close, but figured it was unlikely to happen.
On the afternoon I joined BirdForum, I had just spent some time setting up my Pentax 65ED-IIA in the backyard and was testing various astronomical eyepieces on mundane backyard targets. I posted a New Member greeting post and then went back out after sundown to put my dog in and have a smoke on the bench. There was a large black silhouette of a bird on a wire and I had assumed crow or raven, but it was unnaturally still and looked a bit more at the ready. It was also on a lower wire, which I've never observed the local crows use. Something was odd.
I slinked over to my scope, took a look and realized "that's no crow!"
I couldn't be happier and fumbled my phone to try to get a picture of it. I was able to observe it for a few moments before it took flight, likely to go after a rat, which the city is full of. I'd like to think I was bestowed a supernatural blessing by joining the forum.
You see, for the past year or so, when I've been doing astronomical observations, I've occasionally heard the screech of an owl. I'd take my eyes away from the telescope to scan the skies and sometimes I would see a pale white silhouette several hundred feet up, just quietly gliding...hunting. I had always wanted to see the owl up close, but figured it was unlikely to happen.
On the afternoon I joined BirdForum, I had just spent some time setting up my Pentax 65ED-IIA in the backyard and was testing various astronomical eyepieces on mundane backyard targets. I posted a New Member greeting post and then went back out after sundown to put my dog in and have a smoke on the bench. There was a large black silhouette of a bird on a wire and I had assumed crow or raven, but it was unnaturally still and looked a bit more at the ready. It was also on a lower wire, which I've never observed the local crows use. Something was odd.
I slinked over to my scope, took a look and realized "that's no crow!"
I couldn't be happier and fumbled my phone to try to get a picture of it. I was able to observe it for a few moments before it took flight, likely to go after a rat, which the city is full of. I'd like to think I was bestowed a supernatural blessing by joining the forum.
