The yellow haired parakeet

In Dr. Seuss book, Scrambled Eggs Super, Peter Hooper, goes around the world, collecting eggs from rare birds, to make his scrambled eggs, but in real life, last weekend, in Colombia, I met the "bird lady" Colombia's most famous ornithologist, who saves the rare eggs.

Of Colombia's 162 endangered birds, her favorite is the yellow haired parakeet. One time when she was in the jungle a bothrops atrox, (a pit viper) was in the nest of her favorite bird, so she had to remove the venomous snake. She used her net to delicately remove it, and toss the viper and protect the bird's nest and egg.

But no sooner had she removed the viper, that she was confronted by one of the more serious side; one of Colombia's gun toting guerrillas, who had amusingly been watching her.

They asked her what she was doing in the jungle; and she told them, and she gave the names of those in their territory that had given her permission to be allowed in their jungle. (Guerrillas have property rights, its just that most people don't bother trespassing on their land!)

They asked her, if she was afraid of the jungle. She said, "No, I'm not afraid of the jungle but I'm afraid of your guns." They laughed, and then looked at her, sized her up, and not having any female companionship, they told her to come with them. They then proceeded to give her a "tour" of the jungle, and did their best to be charming.

She saved the birds, got her stories, and made the guerrillas day, all the while being protected by machine guns.

Because she was saving a rare birds egg.

And that night, she restfully slept in a hammock, tied between two trees, by the edge of the water.

She was awoken early in the morning, by a crocodile, eating a fish dinner, underneath a hammock.

Compared to the guerrillas, it was restful!