Oh, you can't fathom the frustrations ProfessorRoush has endured this season while fruitlessly chasing this phantom, frustrations
built on a foundation of years of failure. I can't count the number of times I've tried to capture this feathered fiend in digital dots, a number that surely equals the number of times I've cursed over poor results. How many trips up and down the blacktop road in front of the house have I made, stalking this Scissor-Tail? How often I've glimpsed this graceful creature, camera-less, and how often he remained hidden when I had a decent camera at hand. Once, weeks past, I chased him down the road, coming close enough to capture a far off silhouette, but never close enough for more than a speck of fickle Flycatcher on the frame.
Tonight, we set off for a carryout pizza run, and there he was, perched boldly on the fence, not 30 feet from my driveway. And once more, there I was again, no camera at hand. When we returned, he remained still, warily waiting to tease me with failure. Always a masochist for the attentions of a sadistic bird, I ran inside the house, and returned with the camera and car, hoping that the familiar disguise of a Jeep Wrangler would allow me to get close enough for a decent photo.
But he was gone again, nowhere to be found on a pass up and down the road. I moved slowly, scanning fence and sky for movement, meadowlarks and swallows happy to oblige, but no sign of the Scissor-Tail. I prepared myself for another date with the demon of disappointment.
Then, just as I reached the driveway, another bird flushed him from the Osage Orange tree across the road and he flitted down, in his swooping scissortail way, to land again on the fence. A quick 3-point turn aided by the short turn radius of the Jeep, and I was on him, snapping feverish photos and praying that I wasn't trembling to the extent of blurring the shots. A few quick posed photos and he came to his senses, floating away on the wind, but leaving behind his soul, imprinted in my camera.
I sat still some seconds longer, stunned by the moment, my heart beating madly, my breath coming short as I savored my victory and tasted my triumph. At last, with a lingering look in the direction he took, I moved on with my life, forever changed by crossing his.
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