Few people have ever even heard of the Unwanted Gimbo .. a species confined to the high Arctic wastes. The Inuit word "gimbo" means "a small bit of food" ..... and the Unwanted Gimbo is quite, er, small. So small,in fact, that it is unwanted. This is in contrast to it's larger counterpart, the Essential Jambo. So .... it was an incredible ( literally) surprise when, a few years ago now, I got a phone call from Mr G and heard the news that [a] one had turned up yesterday about 20 miles away and [b] it had been slightly injured and was being kept safely overnight and [c] it was going to be "displayed" and presumably released at a certain spot. That was interesting enough. But there's more. Over the evening various other callers relayed the news that the bird had actually been purchased at a cage-bird fair in the Midlands. Oo-er. But was it true ? It hardly matters .... everybody was going to go to see it.. [a] just in case ! [b] to experience the weird event..... oh yes !! Did me and Mr. G go ? ... of course we bloody did ! Did we see it ... of course we bloody did. It was all rather odd .. of course. There was a huge crowd there, for a start ...at least 100 people. Somewhere I've got a few photographs of them. And the Gimbo. Where they are is completely different matter. The "bird" and its handler paraded the UG ( Unwanted Gimbo... wake up there !) holding it in his/her meaty fist very ineptly in my humble opinion. Various feathers came off it and were quickly grabbed by souvenir hunters. After this undignified display, the bird was released and the rampant crowd of tick-grabbers, gogglers, girlfriends-of-gogglers and the rest of the assorted rabble followed it around various bushes, hedges, etc until it disappeared for good. Then the "finder" and "handler" drove off. There then ensued a long and interesting impromptu " post-mortem" on the event and the rumours surrounding the "source" of this incredibly unlikely find. What fun eh ? Except, of course, for the bird. And people dare to say that birding is boring and useless. What do they know ? This also raises questions ... [a] Was the rumour true ? [b] Is any of this article true ? [c] What does "Jambo" mean ? [d] Is the whole thing just made up to increase the readership ? [e] Is there actually a "readership " ? [f] Could " Unwanted Gimbo" be a real bird's name ? [g] Will I ever find those photographs ? [h] What language will be music be in today ? Well, in answer to question [h] , I've found a beautiful song in Inuit... so there ! I'm a persistent old Hector !
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
|