Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Hints that your friends might be just a little nerdy

So we were on a non-birdy bird walk, led by my friends Scott and Linda from SHBO, at the Beanery in Cape May. The Beanery can be a very fun place for birds, but it was really quiet in the rain and wind that day.

Good friends or good naturalists can find plenty of ways to amuse themselves when the birding is slow. Mostly we made bad jokes and acted obnoxiously. We had plenty of opportunities to embarrass ourselves this way over the course of the weekend.

Every so often there'd be a new plant we could dork out about, like these sweet gum balls that Lynne wanted to try planting at home in Minnesota or the wild persimmon fruit that I got them to taste just by promising them it wasn't poisonous.

;-)

I don't guess many non-birders dance this way when spotting a Black Vulture for the first time. A little nerdy? Yes. Fun? Absolutely.

Other than Jay's prodding it with his foot, this is not a typical scene when normal people spot a black rate snake along the trail, is it?

;-)

Nerdy.

A very pretty snake, btw, though it was a tad nervous with all our cameras pointed its way.

At some point we'd given up on seeing any birds and wandered away from the rest of the group, content to find our own fun elsewhere. Who needs birds when you've got friends that are just as nerdy as you are, anyway?

Note: Susan, Lynne, Jay from birdJam and Delia will not take offense at my calling them nerdy. We're cut from the same cloth, I think. That's why I like them so well.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nerdy is good. Nerdy means you are willing to have fun and not be "too cool" -- nerds ROCK!

RG said...

Yeah ... a bunch of us went out today to sample water at 6 sites in a local stream. There was absolutely NO water in the stream at all ... no rain for awhile. But .. we still managed to kill more than 2-hours looking at "what might have been"!

Great row of bird shots .. fun for us from a far away place to see.

Jayne said...

Bird nerds unite! :c) I've so enjoyed these posts Laura.

Kathi said...

In the last photo, what was going on? Susan is looking right, Delia is looking left, and Lynne is taking a picture of the sky. Nerdy!

~Kathi, whose nerdy photos include one of a dead rabbit

troutbirder said...

Glad you had so much fun. Wish I had been there myself.

Mary said...

Now I feel more relaxed knowing I'll blend in with a group of nerds quite nicely.

Patrick B. said...

Nerds do indeed rule. I've never tried a wild persimmon. I know some can be pretty dry/tannic. Was this the case?

Here's a random fact for the day: The persimmon is one of the food plants of the Luna Moth caterpillar.

NCmountainwoman said...

I loved the shots of the nerdy birders. And I really enjoy hearing about the Cape May group.

Susan Gets Native said...

Some of the coolest people I know are ones whom others would call "nerdy".
So there, "cool" people.

I never even noticed you taking pictures of us. You sneaky thing.

cedrorum said...

That looks fun. I had the persimmon trick played on me when I first moved to the southeast. I've been looking for someone gullible to play it on ever since.

Lynne at Hasty Brook said...

The persimmon was mushy and actually sorta sweet. Can't believe I took a bite though...
That Black Vulture lifer dance picture is THE DORKIEST picture I've ever seen of myself. Thanks. Is the short bus coming for me?

I brought the sweet gum ball home.

Nerdy and proud of it.

dguzman said...

I took a bite of that persimmon and found it a bit sweet as well. Very mushy. The skin was really bitter, though!

@Katdoc--that last photo was all of us looking at a kettle of black vultures right above us. It was awesome!

Nerdy and proud of it!

RuthieJ said...

I love those pictures!

Larry said...

Looks like you were having lots of fun.-That's a funny Lynne pose!

LauraHinNJ said...

Liza: I agree, yes.

Rabbit's Guy: Amazing, isn't it, how easy we all can waste time?

;-)

Jayne: Yeah... you're one of us, too.

KatDoc: I'm not sure, really. Looks like everyone was happy, anyway.

Troutbirder: Plenty of nerdy fun, yeah.

Mary: I suspect you might be the silliest of us.

;-)

Patrick: Hey! I was hoping they'd get that funny lips-puckering thing that an unripe persimmon will do.

;-)

(evil grin)

NCMountainWoman: There's lots more nerdy pics to come.

;-)

Susan: Ever imagine you'd be happy to be called nerdy?

Cedrorum: We think alike!

;-)

Lynne: :-)

I think you're beautiful!

(Remember... I was on the short bus, too.)

and somehow avoided telling that story.

Delia: So that's what it was?

RuthieJ: Yeah... fun people!

Larry: Isn't she cute?