One of my favorite literary characters is Sherlock Holmes. I've often wondered what it would have been like if Holmes had taken up birdwatching instead of beekeeping. A birder with the sharp observing skills of Sherlock Holmes would be something to behold.
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| Sherlock Holmes in the field. Looking for birds? Dragonflies? |
I can just imagine an exchange between Holmes and Watson going something like this:
Watson: Look Holmes, a Hutton's Vireo.
Holmes: If you look closely, Watson, I think you will find that it is actually a Ruby-crowned Kinglet.
Watson: Why do you say that Holmes?
Holmes: Elementary my dear Watson. Notice the yellow feet, the delicate bill, and the light wing bar with a distinct black border, all sure signs of a kinglet.
Watson: By Jove, Holmes, you're right. I just saw it flash its ruby crown.
The other day I had a chance to repeat a famous line from the Holmes canon in the context of dragonflying. It was fun. The line, basically, is "I looked for it," and it occurs in a couple Sherlock Holmes stories.
One example is in
Silver Blaze, which is actually more famous for the following exchange:
Gregory (official police detective):
"Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my
attention?"
Holmes: "To the curious incident of the
dog in the night-time."
Gregory: "The dog did nothing in the
night-time."
Holmes: "That was the curious
incident."
Later in the story, Holmes lies on the ground and searches through the mud, finally finding a crucial clue – a small match.
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| Holmes on the prowl for clues. |
"I cannot think how I came to overlook
it," said the Inspector, with an expression of annoyance.
"It was invisible, buried in the mud. I only
saw it because I was looking for it."
Ah, he looked for it. Exactly.
A similar exchange occurs in
The Adventure of the Dancing Men. A key part of that adventure is a coded message written with dancing men, as follows:
At one point Holmes and a police inspector are investigating the scene of the crime when the following conversation ensues:
“… there are still four cartridges in the
revolver," said the inspector. "Two have been fired and two wounds inflicted, so each bullet can
be accounted for."
“So it would seem,” said Holmes.
“Perhaps you can account also for the bullet which has so obviously struck the
edge of the window?”
He had turned suddenly, and his long, thin finger was pointing to a hole
which had been drilled right through the lower window-sash, about an inch above
the bottom.
“By George!” cried the inspector. “How ever did you see that?”
“I looked for it.”
Indeed.
In my case, I was dragonflying at Cranberry Lake, when I saw a Happy-face Dragonfly in the bushes. It looked like this:
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| A male Happy-face Darner smiling up at me. |
A man walking by saw me looking intently at the bushes. He stopped and asked, "What do you have there?"
"A dragonfly," I replied.
"Oh, really? Where is it?"
"Right here," I said, pointing into the bushes. It took some time to help him find it in the tangle of branches.
When he finally found it he stepped back, looked at me, and said, "How did you ever find it there?"
"I looked for it," I said.
Notice the roughly "normal" distribution about the peak centered at September. I knew September was a good month for splash-dunking, but hadn't realized how much it stands out from the other months.
