Listen Carefully, You Corny Bastard

When we visited The Hide in Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe, our guide was an exceptional naturalist. As I’ve written elsewhere, he knew more about different types of termites, their life cycles and habits, than you or I know about anything. Additionally, despite wearing glasses (or perhaps because of them), he was able to identify just about any camouflaged animal at incredible distances. Perhaps most importantly, even after spending years guiding people like us, he was still thrilled by each new wildlife sighting.

From the very beginning of our stay, we saw some serious National Geographic events –some even better – but our anxious for us to see more, and with his slight accent he kept referencing one particular bird.

Hanna and I both thought we heard him say, “I hope we see a corny bastard.”

I thought he was intrigued by some goofy bird.

Later we heard it again: “We should see one of those corny bastards soon.”

We shrugged it off.

Finally, on our last day he spotted one: “Look at that corny bastard there,” he said. Hanna snapped 392 pictures.

Finally, unable to find a “corny bastard” in our bird identification book, we asked our outfitter Steve Yatomi: “It’s a Kori Bustard,” he explained, laughing.

The lesson, as always, is that if something doesn’t sound right, you should probably swallow your pride and ask. We got another checkmark in the bird book.