Looking at missing birds

My Christmas stocking included a copy of “Lost Stolen or Shredded” by Rick Gekoski about missing works of art or literature. It begins by introducing Franz Kafka’s concept of ‘invisible curiosities’ – things he had failed to see. The case in point is his travelling from Milan to Paris to join the large crowd that gathered to look at the empty space on a wall in the Louvre from which the Mona Lisa had been stolen. I can’t imagine birders driving from Milan to Paris (851 km by road) to see where a rarity had been sighted, but was *known *to have left. A trip of equivalent trip distance be Adelaide to Werribee via Mt Gambier. However there would seem to be some scope for a collection of long trips which failed to deliver the target species: perhaps a working title would be “The Big Dip”. — Martin Butterfield http://franmart.blogspot.com.au/ _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org