Pipits Need Jandals

[Pat Miller]

On Friday last week I was wandering around the giant Te Paki sand dunes in the Far North. It was a hot day and the brown sand that these dunes are made up of was uncomfortably hot. At one stage I noticed a small bird (which later proved to be a pipit) running very fast over the sand in the direction of a sandstone outcrop. I thought to myself, "Looks like it's got hot feet, I bet it's going to stop on that outcrop," and sure enough it did. But, half a metre from the large outcrop, was a small sandstone "rock" quite big enough for a pipit to stand on and it stopped on this piece as that was what it came to first. This to me, confirmed my surmise that it was running so fast over the sand because the sand was burning the soles of its feet. I spent the rest of the day designing in my mind jandals for pipits!

To give you an idea of the heat of the sand; afterwards I went to climb the tallest sand-dune at Te Paki about half or three quarters of a kilometre away. The sand was too soft to climb in jandals and I had to climb in barefeet. I could only manage a couple of metres (if that) at a time, with the soft sand flowing over the top of my feet and my feet being burnt from top and bottom, before I had to get on hands and knees on a sarong I had with me while I lifted my feet off the sand to cool down. I did make it to the top.

Back to the pipit! I also wondered about the pipit's reluctance to fly - given a few thousand years, will the pipit become our next flightless bird? And finally, any ideas about how to market jandals to pipits?

Pat

[Adam C]

Best post for ages!
...and im working on it. I take it they'll want retro striped brown.