This month I saw many birds for the first time on a trip to Semuliki National Park, so choosing the artist's choice wasn't easy. I finally just went with the most recent lifer, the White-spotted Flufftail. Unlike the experience outlined in the video above, my sighting was completely unsought. The bird just walked in front of me on the path. It was beautiful, with its deep red color and its spotted sweater. It was my first flufftail, and the place that shows on my life list is: "Semuliki National Park -- Red Monkey and Hot Springs Trails," so that is obviously also enormously cool. And it was even more exciting that I had seen this guy once I started learning about how secretive they are and how hard it often is to observe one.
Sometimes you look everywhere for joy.
You try to forget what makes you sad,
focus on the good,
and yet although the world is full of a number of things,
you're gloomy.
And then one day it just appears in front of you,
when you aren't particularly looking,
right there in the path ahead,
red and white and black
like a White-spotted Flufftail.
It's hustling on by,
and you can't hold onto it,
but somehow seeing it there is enough.
It keeps you going.
