Did Yogi Know Birding?

 Yogi Berra has been quoted as saying, “It ain’t over ‘till it’s over.”  He was talking about baseball, but the same can be said about the June Challenge.  Over the years, I’ve come to realize that the JC doesn’t end until there is no light left on the night of June 30 … and maybe even just a few minutes after that.

One year I had tried repeatedly to see the Barn Owl that reportedly was hanging out around the observation platform at Paynes Prairie just off US 441.  During the month I collected many mosquito bites there, but no owl.  On June 30, Rex Rowan and I lingered on the platform until there was no light left.  An owl would have to land on us for us to see it.  Resigned to our fate, we headed back to my van.  I opened the tailgate and the inside light came on.  And in that little bit of light we saw a Barn Owl flutter directly over our heads, just a few feet away.  We celebrated with whoops and high fives, and we thanked heavens that we had stayed around to that last minute; the precise minute the Barn Owl chose to swoop over our heads.

This year my nemesis bird was the Black-crowned Night Heron.  I whiffed repeatedly trying to catch a glimpse of one.  Then Rex sent out an email suggesting that one might find something interesting by being on the pier at Powers Park just after sunset.  So on the last night of the month, that’s where I was.  Sunset was at 8:34. On a gorgeous evening, herons, egrets, and blackbirds swarmed by the dock, but there was no sign of anything new.  At 8:50 it was almost too dark to see.  At 8:53, I reached for my flashlight to light the way back to the van.  As I did, I heard the distinctive “quok” of a Black-crowned Night Heron.  I spun around, searching for the bird.  It called again from just above me.  There it was … literally in the last seconds of light … the final tick of a wonderful month of birding.

Yogi was a smart guy, but I’ll bet he never knew he was really talking about the June Challenge.