The King of Pointland

True Story

This morning I called the Rancocas Nature Center to see whether they still sold a particular type of bird feeder, a small adapter that screws onto an inverted 2-liter soda bottle. The volunteer checked that they still did, discovered there was only one left, and set it aside for me.

When I arrived at the nature center this afternoon the volunteer, an older gentleman with a bald head and a white beard, was helping another customer. While waiting I browsed through the book section and then took a gander at some of the wildlife in the back room, including a beautiful black rat snake that repeatedly flicked its long, forked, black tongue at me. What a tongue.

When I returned to the shop section the volunteer was still helping the first customer, but upon seeing me he pulled the bird feeder from a drawer and placed it on his desk. "This must be for you!"

"Do I look like the person who called earlier?" I joked.

"No, you look like somebody who would use a plastic bottle as a bird feeder."