My name is Doug, and I am a mid-40s research scientist at the university. While my expertise is in quantum physics, I am also a passionate birder. One day I had an unexpected experience while out birding at the local nature preserve.
This particular nature preserve was a large, wooded area that backed up against a new student housing area. The diversity of bird life in the preserve was amazing. Over the past 10 years I had seen 156 different species of birds at the preserve.
On this particular day I was birding in the back part of the preserve well off the maintained trails. It's a much better way to see rarities. I was particularly hoping to see a Summer Tanager. I had heard one here, but I had not seen it yet.
I was walking very slowly and quietly through the woods looking up into the trees, binoculars around my neck. I was in a part of the preserve I didn't know as well, and I unexpectedly came across a ladder on a tree. It seemed to be a deer stand, one of those metal ladders with a platform on top that hunters used to hunt deer.
I pulled at it a bit, testing it. It was a bit rusty, but it seemed strong. Odd that it was here though. Maybe someone put it up, illegally I'm sure, to allow them to get up into the canopy to watch the birds easier?
I tentatively took a couple of steps up the ladder, thinking I might have better luck seeing birds from up there. It seemed strong enough so I shook it a bit. When it held I decided to go for it. I slowly climbed up to the platform and found a small seat.
I glanced around a bit and realized it was the perfect place to watch for birds. I was slightly higher than the second-floor apartments behind the preserve. I was still miffed that the university had built those. It used to be such nice woods over there.
I sat in the tree stand for a while taking note of the birds I saw. Pileated Woodpecker, Carolina Wren, Cardinal, and a bunch more. Then I saw it, my first sighting of a Summer Tanager at the preserve. I raised my binoculars and followed the beautiful bird as it flitted among the trees.
Watching the Tanager among the trees made my day. They were such beautiful birds! Then, as I followed the bird through the trees with my binoculars I abruptly stopped. My field of view, following the bird, had panned across the apartments. Due to the closer focal plane of the bird, the view was fuzzy, but was that a topless women?