One Bird I Missed

It's dawn at The Weaver's Nest in Wakkerstroom, in northeastern South Africa, and Ystvan is telling me in his thickly accented English that there is a nesting pair of secretary birds in the trees on the hill above us. His excited words come out of his mouth and turn to smoke in the cold morning air. This is a bird I have always wanted to see. He and Tommy found these birds yesterday. Giant birds with long legs walking around on the ground looking for snakes.

I scan the trees and the ground around them. My eyes squint and water at the intense dawn sunlight striking my irises. Nothing. Just the antic screams of the hadeda ibises flying in from their nighttime roosts. I snap a photograph of the sun hitting the distant trees along the ridgetop. That's where I should be going--I can just feel it.

Sounds of bodies shuffling, gear clanking, and an engine starting. The dawn is opening up to day and our bus is loading to go. I cannot seek the secretary bird, though I know it is there, just a few miles away up the hill toward the rising sun. We must go elsewhere and I have no choice. Swallowing my frustration, I lurch aboard the combi van. We see many fabulous birds during our daytrip. But my mind is still set on seeing the secretary bird.

Later in the day, as the sun's light fades and the afternoon cools, we make a desperate attempt to find the birds, scanning from the road (once again lacking the time to hike the hills--really the only way to find them). I somehow know we won't find them and yet I know they are there. It's not meant to be now, not on this journey.

And I cannot be disappointed--having seen so many species and life birds and animals on this South Africa trip.

But I will return here again and seek this bird. And I will find it and rejoice in the finding. And in the journey between today-here and someday-there. Every day is a step closer to another wonder.