My cometary in red.
Having a good birding companion makes this pastime more enjoyable. Normally this companion shares the pure excitement, enthusiasm, discovery, and the countless stories that arise from Birding, let alone someone to bird with. One constant companion for the past 14 years has been Old Gray.
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| Old Gray at Pickerington Ponds |
Old Gray and I have seen over 600 plus birds from Texas to the East Coast, birding the plains, mountains, hills, swamps, the shorelines and the open seas. Or should I say, taken me to see these places. You see Old Gray is my car, a 1987 Chevrolet Celebrity wagon with 300,000 miles on it and still going strong.
Over the years, Old Gray has made two weekends trips to Texas, from Ohio; now this is a three-day weekend. Old Gray went once below Corpus Chrisiti for Northern Jacana(spring 1993). I went on this trip. Driving through the rains/floods in Houston on the way back, water was coming into the floorboard through the gas pedal hole, but still driving behind a Semi for wake. Once pass the deep water, later we run out of gas, Dad get's picked up, leaves me, comes back with a 5 gallon bucket with gas, and a paper funnel, wheh?!?. and a Masked Duck with a 2-hour turn around and visit with my parents who had driven up from the Rio Grande Valley to meet us. This included the now famous find a fast food stop with a 30 minute oil change place next door so Old Gray could get juiced up on the way back. The other trip was for a Blue-footed Booby(1994. I did not go) below Austin, Texas. A two hour birding tour in the area, and then turn around and head back. If you can make Texarkana by nightfall, then it's only a 13-hour drive back to Ohio. This included a Wal-Mart stop, 30 minute oil change at the store, you can get food, travel snacks, cowboy hats, Patsy Cline's Greatest hits and Willie Nelson tapes to play on the way back, one is set ready to go, rested refueled and back behind an old friend.
She went on several trips to Maryland and North Carolina for pelagic good birds on these forays where Herald's Petrel, White-faced Storm Petrel, White-tailed Tropicbird, Kelp Gull, Black-tailed Gull, Yellow-footed Gull, Fork-tailed Flycatcher along with the regular standbys. From Ohio, Old Gray has birded Maryland, Virginia, Delaware and North Carolina extensively, totaling up states lists in these regions. Old Gray is not limited just to the states; she has seen Mexico but never ventured that far and visited Canada several times. Birds seen there on weekend trips were Variegated Flycatcher, Boreal Owl and Northern Hawk Owl, missed the Fieldfare both days.
How about a quick trip up to Michigan for the Green Viloet-eared Hummingbird with the parents? Oh, they had already seen two in Texas, but why not, we can stop on the way back at Metzger Marsh on Lake Erie in Ohio and see a Piping Plover. A two hour diversion, but Old Gray doesn't mind. She gets us there an can rest when we get home.
Not to be limited to just birding, the wagon took my son and his friends to spring break in Florida one year(1995). I'm sure a birding trip was much better wear than this, but the car stuck it out, brought them all back minus some luggage and a thermostat, which by the way I had to replace after the son broke the housing trying to replace it. This is also my work car, 6 days a week, 12 months a year, with the only reprieve when we go overseas to bird. On repairs, the key word is "lifetime", second pair of shocks for the rear, lifetime Monroe's, lifetime alignment, twice a year, 4 mufflers, replaced free, all my brakes and rotors replaced free, which is really great whenever they say you need work done. Firestone doesn't make money on Old Gray. I have replaced the DogBone engine mount 5 times, and started doing that myself, 4 batteries, 6 sets of tires, the medium range of 40/50K seem to work well. Replaced one cog(plastic) in the transmission. I change her oil every 3000 miles, and it leaks a little power steering fluid, but besides that it has been a good car.
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| factory publication of new wagon |
Old Gray is always ready to go. Under the front seat are a pair of Bausch&Lomb Elites 8x42, old style 2nd year production, great pair of bino's, kept in leather case, important for storage and wear. Under the passenger seat an old Sportmaster spotting scope 25/60 zoom with a window mount. In the rear, 2nd edition National Geographic guide, just in case along with 3 large binders that contain all the ID guides gleaned from Birding, American Birds, Fieldnotes, Bird Watching Digest, North American Birds and various Internet sources for reference. This all at hand, one is always ready to safari. Safari(an Ohio trip) it has, a quick 2 hour trip after work to catch a Marbled Murrelet in waning light, a Violet-Green Swallow in a late evening birdwalk, a Yellow Rail again after work, the Christmas Eve run for a Say's Phoebe as I was shopping, only a 3 hour diversion. This doesn't include all the chases that panned out, hours of driving only to hear it just left, more than I want to recall. The Internet has made Old Gray work a little harder with daily/hourly updates. Out of the 331 Ohio birds Old Gray has taken me to about 325ish, on the weekends we have started using the other cars, also gray, to give the work horse a repress. I still have maybe three more years before retirement, and I'm hoping she'll take me through, after all in the other cars the binos and the spotting scopes don't fit under the seats.
If I go out today to start the old car and she doesn't start, I'll have no regrets and give her a hug for taking me to a lifetime of birding and adventures. The spot where Old Gray turned 300,000 miles was the first spot, Pickerington Ponds, that I ever birded with her back in 1987, and I think the Ring-billed Ducks and Lesser Scaups were there that day also.
Written in 2001, the year of his passing.
Thank you so much Sharon Gambill for giving me these things of his.
They will keep me retracing the steps.
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