‘The Journey to Ukazoo’ Book project: Third of the 37 stories/images for preview before the Kickstarter Launch on March 4th.

Slide Three: ‘Birdbath’

After several days of gorgeous “made for beach weather”, I left Ocracoke on a much cooler, gray, overcast day. I drove the van onto another Ferry, headed to Cedar Island, and while just 16 miles away, the ride took an hour to reach its destination. It was my intent, if possible to take as many off roads as I could while still taking into consideration drive time and the ultimate fixed completion date of the Journey to Ukazoo. As much as I wanted to hug the coastline, I started with a coastal drive till I arrived at Wilmington, North Carolina. Then I altered my route to I-95, a main interstate highway, for the rest of the drive to my next stop in Savannah, Georgia.

This stop was chosen to not just for its tourist merits but for friends, originally met in Baltimore, Maryland, that had since relocated to Savannah. I contacted Judy and Bob before I left so I was expected. With an offer to stay at their place, I passed up a Bed & Breakfast opportunity.

For this stop, I spent a few days in pure tourist mode, visiting Savannahs historical district, parks, shops, and in complete awe of the many, some expansive and hundreds of years old, ‘live oak’ trees covered with Spanish moss. The botany aspect is a ‘live oak’ is named “live” because it is an evergreen oak (keeps its leaves) rather than a deciduous (loses its leaves every year) tree as most oaks are.

Then there is the music, lots of music. I was able to listen to some excellent folk music, hosted by the Savannah Folk Music Society, in an acoustical rich church one evening. The next day was a visit to hear the musically renown Savannah’s World-Famous Crabettes. A treat, given that Judy was one of the members and the Crabettes also included the talents of one member who plays a mean slide whistle and trombone kazoo.

During the tail end of my stay, I dropped down into a more relaxed fashion and took to wandering the outlining neighborhoods. One area I drifted into was of an antique flavor, weathered, moss covered brick border walls, pitted cast iron gates, large screened-in porches, workable stutters, gingerbread trim and well-manicured lawns.  Up ahead, the quiet I had grown accustom to during my meandering, started to evolve into a sense of excitement coupled with bursts of chirping sounds.

As I grew closer I came upon the front yard of a stately residence that was host to the LXIV National Bird Olympics. As I made my way pass numerous onlookers and a vast array of birds in attendance, I stopped to take this picture of the Free Style diving event that was in progress. Finding a clear spot on the lawn, I sat to watch a varied collection sizes, species, and colors of birds lining up to take their turn to dive from a tree’s branch into a waterfilled birdbath. After having watched a few dives, I felt that on this one particular dive that I just witnessed, I disagreed with the judges scores. It was my opinion that this wonderfully executed triple flip warranted a much higher score than the 7.5 he was rewarded with. A 9.5 would have been more reasonable, without a doubt!

Expressing my mild displeasure of this score to a couple of nearby feathered bystanders, they and a few more their friends, after introductions, of course, offered a few short but very informative lessons on how a triple flip was to be performed. They preceded to acquaint me with other types of dives I might observe and the different qualities the judges were looking for. My lessons included the finer points about “Beak Angle” “Wing Tilt” “Tail Feather Spread” and the all-important “Branch Bounce Vibration”. At the end of all this informational chirping, I sorely realized I lacked the required Birds Eye view needed to offer a truly educated opinion. It was best to just relax and enjoy.

I stayed a while longer and witnessed some fabulous dives but after watching all the diving activity I became a little famished. With a casual glance, I noticed all they had for sale at the local ‘food’ booths were no less than 22 different varieties of seed and 16 varieties of insects. Nothing against seed and insects, mind you, but I left to find something a little more substantial.

Tonight, I pack up and in the morning, I will say my fond farewells with hopes of visiting again.

Copyright Craig L Haupt

Ukazoo: Tradmark Ukazoo Books with permission.

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