wesbird72
#23 Food - Bob the dentist gets to feelin' like a birder. The picture is from my camp near Whitefish point some years later.
Bird trips always involve food. I must say that it is very hard to say exactly which bird trip / food story is my favorite. However, this one surely ranks high in the Culinary Hall of Fame;
I had a friend named Bob Caldwell who also happened to be my dentist. Bob was a really nice guy, and through our conversations he found out about my interest in birds and asked me a lot of questions. I could tell he was intrigued with the idea of getting up at 3 in the morning, driving 100 miles to Point Pelee Provincial Park in Ontario, and birding all day.
I asked Ron if it would be alright to invite him along on one of our spring trips, and Ron said something to the effect of; “As long as he understands that our normal birding thing is not a leisurely walk in the park”.
I packed the cooler for that trip; Sodas, a couple loaves of rye bread, 3 kinds of meat, 2 kinds of cheese, a head of lettuce, jars of pickles, mustard, Miracle Whip, and a whole Mexican Wedding sheet cake.
Our usual birding method was to get to Pelee just before dawn hike out to the point, and bird our way back to the car. This would take about 3 hours or so, at which point we would make our first pit stop.
I made the sandwiches; Slice of bread, mustard, slice of Old Fashioned Loaf, slice of Provolone cheese, slice of Pimento Loaf, slice of Swiss cheese, slice of Smoked Ham, pickles, chunk of lettuce, Miracle Whip, slice of bread. Delicious! Finished the break off with a piece of Shirl’s stupendous Mexican Wedding cake.
Next we birded the marsh area all along the road for 2 or 3 more hours. -- Repeat sandwich and cake process.
We usually drove out of the park to Hillman marsh and the onion fields next, looking for shorebirds etc. That took a few more hours. -- Repeat sandwich and cake process.
Bob was really groaning by this point so he ate only a half a sandwich and refused the third piece of cake, saying that he felt like he was nine months pregnant.
By the end of the day Bob had added 30 or 40 species to his life list and was wore out. He was really feeling his birding oats though on the drive home because he made this statement;
“You know when I first got here this morning I really didn’t know what real birding was about, but after spending the day with you guys, I think I’ve become a real birder.”
Ron didn’t miss a beat, he said simply; “You ain’t no birder!” Then after pausing for effect he said; “You can’t eat!”
The look on Bob’s face between those two statements was priceless and I’ll never forget it. We all had a good laugh when Bob realized he was just the object of Ron’s extremely dry wit, a wit which he inherited from his father, by the way.
#23 Food - Bob the dentist gets to feelin' like a birder. The picture is from my camp near Whitefish point some years later.
Bird trips always involve food. I must say that it is very hard to say exactly which bird trip / food story is my favorite. However, this one surely ranks high in the Culinary Hall of Fame;
I had a friend named Bob Caldwell who also happened to be my dentist. Bob was a really nice guy, and through our conversations he found out about my interest in birds and asked me a lot of questions. I could tell he was intrigued with the idea of getting up at 3 in the morning, driving 100 miles to Point Pelee Provincial Park in Ontario, and birding all day.
I asked Ron if it would be alright to invite him along on one of our spring trips, and Ron said something to the effect of; “As long as he understands that our normal birding thing is not a leisurely walk in the park”.
I packed the cooler for that trip; Sodas, a couple loaves of rye bread, 3 kinds of meat, 2 kinds of cheese, a head of lettuce, jars of pickles, mustard, Miracle Whip, and a whole Mexican Wedding sheet cake.
Our usual birding method was to get to Pelee just before dawn hike out to the point, and bird our way back to the car. This would take about 3 hours or so, at which point we would make our first pit stop.
I made the sandwiches; Slice of bread, mustard, slice of Old Fashioned Loaf, slice of Provolone cheese, slice of Pimento Loaf, slice of Swiss cheese, slice of Smoked Ham, pickles, chunk of lettuce, Miracle Whip, slice of bread. Delicious! Finished the break off with a piece of Shirl’s stupendous Mexican Wedding cake.
Next we birded the marsh area all along the road for 2 or 3 more hours. -- Repeat sandwich and cake process.
We usually drove out of the park to Hillman marsh and the onion fields next, looking for shorebirds etc. That took a few more hours. -- Repeat sandwich and cake process.
Bob was really groaning by this point so he ate only a half a sandwich and refused the third piece of cake, saying that he felt like he was nine months pregnant.
By the end of the day Bob had added 30 or 40 species to his life list and was wore out. He was really feeling his birding oats though on the drive home because he made this statement;
“You know when I first got here this morning I really didn’t know what real birding was about, but after spending the day with you guys, I think I’ve become a real birder.”
Ron didn’t miss a beat, he said simply; “You ain’t no birder!” Then after pausing for effect he said; “You can’t eat!”
The look on Bob’s face between those two statements was priceless and I’ll never forget it. We all had a good laugh when Bob realized he was just the object of Ron’s extremely dry wit, a wit which he inherited from his father, by the way.