[cobirds] Disaster Help

I’m pretty sure that few of you know this about me, but 12 years ago this week I was stuck in Newfoundland.  On September 11, 2001 I was on a flight from London to Chicago that changed my life forever.  Shortly after our inflight lunch service, the plane slowed abruptly and made a sharp turn to the right toward Greenland.  The pilot came on the intercom with words that I will never forget.  “I want to assure everyone of the integrity of the aircraft, but there has been a situation in the U.S. that is causing us to land in Newfoundland.  I’ll let you know more when I can.” 

 

Shortly thereafter we landed in Gander, Newfoundland—the 42^nd of 43 planes to land there that day; and then we sat.  23 hours on the plane on the tarmac before we could finally get off the plane and enter that tiny airport.  Then off on school busses to Gambo, Newfoundland where I spent the better part of the rest of the week sleeping on a wooden pew in a Salvation Army Church by the side of a stony inlet in this little hamlet. 

 

It wasn’t too long before one of the wonderfully welcoming Gambo-ites came in and asked if anybody needed anything.   So that is how this group of stranded, frightened travelers got showers, did laundry and came to know the residents of Gambo.

 

For my part, I asked, “Can I borrow a pair of binoculars?”  So I was set up the rest of the week with my pair of borrowed binoculars to bird the rock shore and pine-wooded hills of Gambo.  Now I didn’t see all that much, of course.  That possible Ringed Plover (I was in northeastern Newfoundland, after all) was really only a Killdeer, but it kept my mind off of what everyone in the rest of the world was preoccupied with.  What a blessing a pair of non-too-great, but still functional binoculars was.

 

Sorry for the long intro, but that brings me to the point, does anyone need me to try to find some of the tools of our love for you?  Binoculars, bird books or whatever?  If any of you Cobirds readers needs some peace of mind that can only be afforded by being out in the field looking at birds, but you have, because of the events of the past week, lost your binoculars, field guides or even scope and tripod, please let me know and I will bring to bear all of the resources and compassion of the CFO to try to set you right for the time being.  I know how important that can be.

 

Bill Kaempfer

President, Colorado Field Ornithologists

Boulder