During his career, Jay Sharp has written some 250 documentary motion pictures, including an outdoor television series which ran nationally (111 markets) for three years. He has also scripted several productions which won international awards.
He has published many articles in the print media, including national and regional popular magazines, newspapers and scholarly journals. Most recently he has sold articles to Wild West, MotorHome, Roads to Adventure, Gateway and Texas Parks & Wildlife Magazine. Jay did the cover stories (two articles) for the TP&W Magazine April 1998, issue and has recently completed new articles which will appear in Wild West and the TP&W Magazine in 1999. He had two recent articles distributed through History News Service to some 50 major newspapers nationwide, and recorded one article for a radio broadcast. In years past, Jay has published in Southwest Historical Quarterly, the Texas Archaeological Society Bulletin, and the El Paso Archaeological Society Artifact.
Jay has recently completed a book, Texas Unexplained, for TP&W, and is working on a new book, Historic Trails of Texas.
Additionally, he has published a great many photographs, both with articles he has written and in special assignments for various publications. He contributed photographs to coffee table books on Texas, Houston, and Odessa. Through photographic agents, he has sold pictures to encyclopedias, text books, newspapers, annual reports and various other publications.
Jay is now at a stage in his career where he can focus on those subjects which excite him. Most often, this includes travel, history, archaeology/anthropology, natural history, and humor, although occasionally he wanders off into other kinds of good stories. His new book will be combination of history and natural history, an exploration of the human experience in a rugged natural environment.
Last spring, our second in Southern New Mexico, my wife and I discovered that this part of the country has the most shameless bunch of birds we have ever seen. I mean, it's disgraceful!
They sing all day, sometimes even into the night, and they want us to think they are a charming delight, but we know what they're really up to. It's caboodling. That's what they're really up to. Birds can't outsmart us!
I don't know which species is the most disgraceful.
The white wing dove, old "Johnny one note," may be the most persistent. All day long, these birds perch on power lines, fences, roofs and tree branches, and they call out to each other, over and over and over. Occasionally, they pair up and fly away together, right out in the open, where anyone can see them, with the "C" word on their minds.
The mockingbirds are a sight, too. They not only embarrass us with those libidinous avian operatic voices, they stake out a territory and lay claim to it like they were in the California gold rush. Heaven help you if you're a cat! Those mockingbirds not only cut up and carry on in public, they chase cats.
The house finches, which look as if they stuck their heads in a bucket of red paint, try to imitate the mockingbirds' song. It's not easy to mock a mockingbird. These little guys have a strange role model. If I sat in a tree and whistled at every lady bird around and chased after cats, my face would be red, too.
I guess my candidate for the most scandalous bird of them all, though, is the boat-tail grackle. (Heavens, I'm almost embarrassed to say the name.) They not only broadcast their intentions with an astounding array of lascivious noises, sounding like an audio tape run backwards, they strut and stretch and display themselves like they were something special. But even the mockingbird is more respected. Could you imagine a song called "Listen to the Boat-tail Grackle," or a novel named "To Kill a Boat-tail Grackle?"
I know that by this time, you must be terribly concerned and asking anxiously what we can do about all this. Well, I have several suggestions.
First, we have to form a committee. Anyone knows you can't do anything without a committee. Washington has taught us that.
Next, I think we should all write letters to our local newspapers and complain right out in public about the behavior of these birds. That will undoubtedly line up wide support.
Then, I think we should write letters to the mayors and the city councils and encourage, no, demand!, that they pass ordinances against such bird behavior. That should take care of it.
If we don't do something, we'll have to put up with the scandalous sights and sounds of these caboodling birds again next spring here in Southern New Mexico.