i think we met the bird god
8 June 2025
tom and i have been religiously frequenting a stretch of river near us this past week in search of the elusive shag, which is a relatively uncommon species of cormorant that's a lot smaller, with a more serpentine neck. i'm almost certain we saw one splashing around there last week, but wasn’t able to properly identify it at the time for my life list and, sadly, have not come across it since in order to confirm suspicions.
on friday, we drove down as usual and walked along the blustery bank. we saw wood pigeons, herring gulls, little egrets, and a skylark having a dust bath on the walking path, but once again, no shag.
the sun was setting when we decided to finally give up and head back home. however, as we were nearing the car, a barn owl flying in the field across from where we were parked caught our eye and, without exchanging any words, we agreed in an instant to abandon any plans of leaving.
we ran back toward the river for a better vantage point, but stopped in our tracks when we saw a figure standing at the foot of the bridge. we had just come from that direction and hadn’t seen a soul for miles... i suddenly felt like i was in a dream.
by way of greeting, he said “looking for the owl?” (how did he know!?) we said yes, and he told us which direction the owl had flown in, and that if we were lucky, we might even see some little owls.
he couldn’t have been more than 35. he was short, i guess. average and nondescript, apart from a full-sized bottle of bourbon in his hand, which he was swigging from directly.
as we were about to part ways in pursuit of the owl, tom asked him if he had ever happened upon a shag in the area. i had also wanted to prolong our dreamlike encounter with this mysterious man, so was very pleased tom had spoken up.
without missing a beat, he replied, “we do get a few of the cormorant variants here, but they’re quite rare. i haven’t seen one in about 4 years.”
he then kindly offered us some of his bourbon (Wild Turkey — surely not a coincidence!) which we regretfully declined, and with that, he walked off into the dusk.
once tom and i had managed to catch up to the barn owl, we both agreed that that man was the most extraordinary stranger we had ever met. most definitely some kind of deity; a Bird God, perhaps.
there was just something so mythical and folklorish about that meeting. the question tom asked about the shag felt like the One Question we could ask and be granted an answer to (he chose it wisely).
i don't even mind that my hopes of seeing the shag have been dashed.