Birdtober Day Seventeen: Booby

 

 

Today's poem is a story from my childhood, and it's followed by a must-see video of the Blue-footed Booby's courting dance. 

 

Photo Source: eBird.com

Blue-footed Booby

I must have been ten or eleven
when, looking at a bird picture,
I announced to my family
that this was a
Blue-footed Booby.

My parents laughed,
assuming, I’m sure,
that I had made up the name.

Clearly,
the bird was
blue-footed;
any booby could see that.
Baby blue feet
gleamed in the sun,
standing out against
the gray rocks.

But a booby?
Really?
Well, yes,
according to
National Geographic,
probably where
I first encountered this bird.
The name comes from bobo,
stupid in Spanish.

The story
became an instant part
of family lore.
I, no booby,
knew a Blue-footed Booby
when I saw one.
(I wasn’t quite as proud of that fact
as a Blue-footed Booby
is of its
glorious
cerulean
feet.)

 

©Ruth Bowen Hersey

 

Sources: Silversea, National Geographic