I was inspired to write this post on hearing the news that Andy Davey once saw a possum on a fire escape. To quote the man himself:
I saw a possum on a fire escape/balcony in New York once. In a sort of pet-like scenario - people sitting with it and all. Nobody believed me.
It reminded me of a time when I saw a glossy starling on the nut feeder in my back garden. It was this fantastic, other worldly birdie which had joined in the flock of normal starlings. It was starling-like enough to reveal its starling origins (slightly sticky-up hairdo, pen covered with fish scales stuck behind its ear) and I did a Google search and there were lots of pictures of birdies like the one I'd just seen. I was pleased about this and put up a post about it on a BBC forum about birdies.
You couldn't put up a picture in those days - or at least if one could, I couldn't, and so I gave a description instead. At least two people informed me that I couldn't have seen a glossy starling. One told me it was a mynah bird (well, you do get lots of them on yer nut feeders, don't you?) and someone else said it sounded like a normal starling. In exasperation, I suggested that they, too, do a Google search on the glossy starling, which would reveal that a hamster with cataracts would be unlikely to mistake one for either a European starling or a mynah bird.
So my sympathies are entirely with Andy on this, and I believe he saw that possum.
Just to prove my point, here's a pic of a glossy starling:
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