Washington County Magpie.

["William J. Hunter" <dixiewili at redrock dot net>]

Greetings from the frozen "South".

The Dixie Birder's were out and about yesterday (12/19/02) in search of that
illusive bird known as the Washington County Magpie. It is a rare race of
the Black-billed Magpie. This particular race of bird has a sensor in it's
brain that "goes off" when the bird approaches the Washington/Iron County
line causing mild hysteria and an abrupt "U" turn north.

Now we hired an expert guide, a young lady who is about to spend three
months birding China, so we knew we were in excellent hands. But try as we
may, we could not turn up a single bird. We traveled the Interstate. We
traveled old Highway 91. We traveled the "old Road" used by Brigham Young
and followers to get to Pintura and on in to the Virgin Basin. Still no
"Bird" was sighted. Oh, we did see a Golden Eagle, a couple of Merlins -
light and dark, Juncos, Jays, Sparrows, Ravens, Crows, Starlings, Robins and
the like, but not even a glimpse of the long-tailed marauder.

Now there are legendary stories of a group of feathers found here, or a
sighting there, like the Loch Ness Monster and Big Foot. But hey, would you
believe stories like that from the likes of Charlie Sheard or Judy Jordan? I
didn't think so!

So we came up empty handed, unless of course you consider viewing the red
rock Kolob Fingers dusted in a covering of snow on a sunny winters day to be
of some virtue.

Alas, maybe next year.

Dixie Willie
Utah's Dixie

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