Salting the Bird

  Back when I was a kid, I was told that old fable that made the rounds with most kids of age 5 or 6.  "If you sprinkle salt on a bird's tail, you can catch it!"  I cannot remember if this bit of wisdom came from one of my parents or from my grandparents but I do have a smidgen of an idea that it was Granddaddy.  He was always telling us some bit of quirky nonsense to keep us busy.  He would get a distinct twinkle in his eye and start spouting something of this nature.  Needless to say, my brother and I chased birds around  Granddaddy's garden for quite some time. Now that I look back, I ponder if it was merely to get us to chase the birds that were pecking the tomatoes!  On the other hand, Pop would have just told us to chase the birds from the garden and would have reprimanded us for wasting salt.  Had to be Granddaddy!

  Photographing the ospreys in flight is just about as hard as sprinkling salt on a bird's tail.  They are quick about gliding on the air currents and have a billion and one maneuvers that always take them out of range of the camera lens.  I can get the osprey in focus but by the time the shutter snaps, the bird is long gone.  Such was the predicament I met yesterday.  A gorgeous osprey was hunting directly above the Bayou and I had grand thoughts of getting an "in-flight" photo.  It did not happen.  I never could focus on the bird before it went sailing out of range. 

  Come to think of it, if that old adage was correct and I could have sprinkled salt on the osprey's tail, I would have been near enough to get a prized photograph.  With this one, though, Pop would have been proud.  I did not waste the salt.  Still, the age old adages such as this are going the wayside because most folks are too overprotective to let their kids play outside.  It is sad.  There always seemed to be some magical property about the salt to render the bird flightless.  By the way, if you get close enough to sprinkle the salt on a bird's tail.....JUST GRAB THE BIRD!