All the Birds

Well, Several of Them Anyway--Sunday, 10/18/15

Focal item: Peach titmouse blouse

I wanted to wear this lovely blouse one more time during the Work the Wardrobe Challenge before the weather got too cold (and stayed cold through April), so I took some inspiration from this books-and-fashion blogger and put it together with denim and some nude flats.  Easy peasy.

From abibliophilesstyle.wordpress.com

Uncharacteristically, I decided to style this with subtle but very on-point accessories--some pieces that I've had since my high school/college days.  A pastel bird choker (whoa, that sounds really bad! I don't use it to choke birds, I promise!) that I bought at a garage sale and a pair of earrings that always remind me of a simplified thunderbird image.  I haven't kept very many earrings or necklaces from so long ago, but I've held on to these, even though it's been years since I've worn them.  Thanks to the WtW Challenge, I got them out of the jewelry box and onto my bird-lovin' self.

Peach titmouse blouse (Kohls), $8.00/wear
Bootcut jeans (thrifted, JCP), $0.24/wear
Grey leopard flats by Fergilicious, $1.08/wear
Silver chain with birds necklace+
Thunderbird earrings+

Outfit total: $9.32/wear

I thought A Birder's Guide to Everything was a sweet movie with some funny moments.  My favorite lines were from Ben Kingsley, playing Lawrence Konrad, an ornithologist and very serious birder who joins 15-year-old protagonist David and three other teens as they attempt to re-find a bird that David believes might be an extinct species, the Labrador Duck.

Konrad wrote a memoir that the 15-year-old protagonist David has read 5 times. When David mentions this to Konrad, Konrad says, "Then I don't need to tell you...that I spent 15 months in Ecuador...tracking the pale-headed brush-finch, only to learn that it was a mere white-headed brush-finch.  If I had faced facts a few days earlier, you'd be looking at a man with two legs."

(And no, we gloriously do not find out how that leg was lost.)

David tells Konrad that his dad, who is getting married the next day to the nurse who cared for David's mom in the months before her death, is a dick.  Konrad disagrees (having met him once) and warns David, "Birds are my muses.  And I strive to be a true watcher. I can remember when I spotted my first greater prairie chicken...but not my own daughter's birthday....I'm 63 years old and very much alone.  I guide assholes for money.  I have one leg and no driver's license.  Please do not confuse me with a role model."

David asks, "Why don't you have a driver's license?"

Konrad replies, "A bit of a mix-up...between what I thought was an albino nighthawk and a high-speed police chase."

I also adored a scene in which the teen birders encounter a couple of asshole birders (indeed, two of the assholes that Lawrence Konrad guides for money) in a bird/nature store and get into an awkward conversation about what birds they see.  When David lists some birds he sees in his hometown, one of them is all, "Wait, you saw a yellow-winged vireo is New York?"  "Yeah."  "Yeah? Wow. Wow wow wow."  His friend says, "Don't be an asshole, Jeff."  David then realizes he misspoke and says, "Oh, I'm sorry. I mean a yellow-throated vireo."  The two assholes are condescendingly like "There you go," "There it is," etc. 

When David asks them what they see, it's "We just had a great trip to Tanzania. Saw an usambara eagle-owl, among other things.  Not bad for our first year."  One of the teens says, "First year?"  The guy responds, "Last year we climbed the Seven Summits.  This year we're going for the world big year record."  David's more aggressive friend says, "Oh, so you're not birders.  You're more like Mountain Dew ads."  Jeff says, "More like extreme hobbyists.  That means in 10 months, we've seen over 350 endangered species, including finding only the sixth-known nest of a grauer's broadbill."

I'm glad I've never run into these jerks in the field.