Unless you are approaching the golden years of codgerdom, you may not remember comedian Jackie Vernon's appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show and his solemn pronouncement -- "A wet bird never flies at night".
Actually Vernon credited philosopher Sig Sakowitz for that gem of wisdom, but he believed it.
And so did I.
I believed the heavy hand of natural selection had weeded out wet birds that dared to fly at night.
Now I am starting to have doubts.
You see, it was night -- 9:40PM to be exact -- when this Western screech owl mirrored itself before the still waters of Poison Water Spring.
Five minutes later it waded into the murky shallows.
Okay, it was only a sitz bath, but the camera took two more pictures at intervals of 8 and 16 minutes.
Which makes me think it was a case of bathus interruptus -- in and out, always on the lookout, and all nervous like girls skinny dipping in the 60s.
This little joker, a recent fledgling showed up the next night . . . .
. . . . sipped bath water . . .
and definitely got his or her pantalones wet.
I can't prove that the birds flew wet into the night, but I doubt they left Poison Water in a state of popcorn dryness.
Sometimes you have to give up cherished beliefs.
Nowadays I'm inclined to believe that wet birds do fly at night.
