Unfinished Business
Text and photos by Will Bird
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seems that any time a project is undertaken or a goal is set, there always
remains one final task or
one last detail that must be attended to in order to properly finish the job.
More often than not, this final detail will either never come or will take
longer to acquire than all the other necessary things put together.
To many this is reason enough to not even bother to put forth an effort. I relish in this necessary annoyance, however, for it supplies a reason to spend all of my free time and money on projects that will never be finished. Once I have photographed every species in Kentucky I will either move on to every sub-species, or to photographing every Kentucky species in every Kentucky county. And of course by that time Collins will have a whole new list of species to discover and I will have to start all over again! “When will this ever end!?!?” my wife
always asks, but she knows it never will! |
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There is nothing I enjoy more than meeting and searching with like-minded
people. It is hard to predict what the outcome will be when two or three or
four persistent field herpers get together, and what does happen is often
more strange and dramatically bizarre than anything my feeble imagination
could ever concoct.
For these and many other reasons that I will soon reveal, it has been a
great pleasure to meet and search for the Kentucky spring salamander with
Dick Bartlett. |
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I first met Dick in the basement of the snake house at The Louisville Zoo where I was employed. He and his wife Patti had traveled to Kentucky from Florida to photograph snakes and such. Patti and I struck up conversation right away. It must have been the deranged look in my eyes that so many field herpers have that drew her attention. After a few words she was tugging on Dick’s sleeve in an effort to draw his attention away from the political discussion he was sharing with my supervisor.
Patti finally shouted, “Dick, this kid knows where copper bellies are!” This
method of shouting was most effective, and she soon had his full attention.
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Copperbelly water snake Having never met these folks, I was not about to direct them to a site for copper belly water snakes here in Kentucky. Instead, I sent them up to wander Indiana. They apparently had quite a bit of luck, as I was soon mentioned in one of Dick’s Reptile Magazine articles. As I read the article I noted that Dick had protected the location of the site I had referred him to. I appreciated that. |
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