Extra tomatoes, and I think I'll have raspberry vinaigrette dressing. On the side.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
A nice LONG recording of me!
Laura Erickson put 3 recordings of me and my friends on her podcast--and one is over 5 minutes long!
5:48 recording
1:00 recording
26 second recording
5:48 recording
1:00 recording
26 second recording
Cool! You can hear ME on the Internet!
Laura Erickson just added some pure, unadulterated recordings of ME and my friends (really--she took my picture when she was making the recordings!) to her podcast. You can hear several choices here:
1:43 recording
1:57 recording
2:49 recording
37 second recording
1:43 recording
1:57 recording
2:49 recording
37 second recording
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Mike's Back!
I'm not a photographer--a Canon EOS 50D (just the body, without any lens on it) weighs more than 24 TIMES what I weigh! And even a tiny PowerShot weighs five times what I weigh. And forget spotting scopes! The only camera I could manage would be a James Bond cuff link kind of thing, and even then it would be rather a burden for a 31g. bird to lug about.
But I do love looking at photos, especially of other Hermit Thrushes, and so the only other blog I follow, other than this one, of course, is Mike McDowell's. (And he has a lovely photo of one of my friends on it right now!) He's been having some trouble with some company that "hosts" him or something, so he had to move over to www.birddigiscoper.com. I hope he doesn't lose too many followers!
But I do love looking at photos, especially of other Hermit Thrushes, and so the only other blog I follow, other than this one, of course, is Mike McDowell's. (And he has a lovely photo of one of my friends on it right now!) He's been having some trouble with some company that "hosts" him or something, so he had to move over to www.birddigiscoper.com. I hope he doesn't lose too many followers!
Friday, March 27, 2009
Even educated fleas do it...
But what exactly do birds DO? If you're trying to explain the birds and the bees to your children, get the answers from the Dr. Ruth of Ornithology, who explains the nitty gritty facts of life on her own blog. But she said we could quote it for you birds out there:
OK. Equipment on male birds: two testes, both internal (so avian sperm must be able to survive at very high temperatures, and they don't need to worry about their fertility if they jump on a bicycle now and then) that lead through the vas deferens to a chamber called the cloaca. The cloaca is sort of the vestibule entry into the whole house, with those two hallways to the testes, the ureters leading to the kidneys, and the large intestine. So it's very important for birds to poop before having sex, to clear out the vestibule before company arrives, so to speak, but since birds can poop at the drop of a hat (meaning on your head the moment your hat falls off) this does not represent any hardship.
Equipment on female birds: They have only one functional ovary (if they had two, and managed to ovulate through both, they'd end up with scrambled eggs inside), which is connected to the cloaca via the oviduct. During the nesting season, female birds usually ovulate about once a day. The ovary looks quite a bit like a teenie tiny cluster of grapes, only a couple of grapes are double the size of the rest, and one is HUGE. That is actually the whole yolk of the next egg to be ovulated.
So now the birds are feeling romantic -- maybe they're cranes and have been singin' and dancin' in the rain, maybe they're red red robins who've been bob-bob-bobbin' along -- and now the moment arrives! He flutters his wings in eager anticipation, and this time she doesn't flitter off saying she has a headache -- she actually flutters her wings back at him! So he hops aboard her back, and she's twisted her tail a bit to get the bottom to face the side, and he twists his tail to get the bottom to face the side, and their two cloacas meet in what ornithologists romantically call the "cloacal kiss." And a packet of sperm from him passes over into her cloaca. Then he flies off, she remains where she's sitting for a bit, and they each pull out a tiny little cigarette.
The sperm swim, as sperm are wont to do, and head up her oviduct. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, she's ovulated one yolk that morning, which is in the high reaches of the oviduct. One lucky sperm wins the race, and the rest go over into the pool hall and shoot a few rounds, hoping they'll have better luck the next day, and they sometimes do, because as I noted, they can survive warm body temperatures. As the fertilized egg works its way down the oviduct, the cells secrete the proteins that make up the albumen, and then secrete the calcium that will form the shell. And eventually, usually by early the next morning, the egg has reached the vestibule, which makes the female bird very uncomfortable and she heads for a nest (if her own isn't built, she'll take any port in the storm) and dumps that egg out. And it eventually hatches into another bird who will one day ask his parents to tell him where he came from, and they'll say, "The stork brought you," or "Toledo," depending on how much of a sense of humor they have.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Make your carbon footprint smaller
I have just a teenie tiny carbon footprint, but if you're one of those people who want to make your carbon footprint smaller, to protect the air we all breathe and at least try to reduce climate change, please Power Down for the Planet.
Remember, producing electricity from coal destroys habitat, pollutes waters, and is the largest source of mercury in the air--which comes down to accumulate in water and fish. Don't squander energy!
Remember, producing electricity from coal destroys habitat, pollutes waters, and is the largest source of mercury in the air--which comes down to accumulate in water and fish. Don't squander energy!
How are you spending Robert Frost's birthday?
Pretending to be asleep so those friggin' chickadees will leave me alone.
How are you spending Robert Frost's birthday?
I'll be reading "The Oven Bird," since he died before he finished what would definitely have been his magnum opus, "The Black-throated Green Warbler."
Poisoning Postponed "for now"
The U.S. Border Patrol has decided to allow "further study" before lacing a stretch of the bank of the Rio Grande River with herbicides to wipe out all the plants so illegal immigrants, as well as birds and other wildlife, can't hide from them. The people in the nearby communities are naturally concerned about how dangerous the pesticides are, and that's as good a reason as any to stop such a project. But hello? Plants are essential along a river bank for all kinds of water quality issues--and a lot of humans as well as birds get their drinking and irrigation water from the Rio Grande. Plants are essential along a river bank for all kinds of other ecological reasons, too. We birds need them for food and shelter.
Here's the newest story from CNN.
Here's the newest story from CNN.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Monk Parakeet saves toddler's life!
Boy, sometimes we parrots amaze even ourselves. The parrot who was honored for saving a toddler's life by yelling, "Mama, Baby" when the baby was choking is a "Quaker"--just another name for one of us Monk Parakeets. Read about it or listen on NPR.
It's not so easy for us to avoid the Texas border, either
Oh, my. That Houston Chronicle story about the border patrol wanting to poison all the plants along a stretch of the Rio Grande river has us all upset. How, exactly, are we supposed to avoid the border when we migrate?
Map by Lanny Chambers from hummingbirds.net
Map by Lanny Chambers from hummingbirds.net
Crossing borders
You know, I'm as territorial as the next guy--probably MORE territorial--but holy crap! Poisoning the plants along the border?? What am I supposed to eat? Where am I supposed to rest? People may have some rocket scientists among them, but where are their brains??
Help!
Oh, my gosh! They're talking about poisoning plants along the Mexican border to make it easier to spot illegal immigrants! What the @$#%^&!! I mean, we birds NEED those plants! And ::ahem:: don't people learn from their past mistakes???
Today's Houston Chronicle tells the story:
Today's Houston Chronicle tells the story:
The U.S. Border Patrol plans to poison the plant life along a 1.1-mile stretch of the Rio Grande riverbank as soon as Wednesday to get rid of the hiding places used by smugglers, robbers and illegal immigrants.Read the whole distressing story at the Houston Chronicle Online.
If successful, the $2.1 million pilot project could later be duplicated along as many as 130 miles of river in the patrol’s Laredo Sector, as well as other parts of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Although Border Patrol and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials say the chemical is safe for animals, detractors say the experiment is reminiscent of the Vietnam War-era Agent Orange chemical program and raises questions about long-term effects.
“We don’t believe that is even moral,” said Jay Johnson-Castro Sr., executive director of the Rio Grande International Study Center, located at Laredo Community College, adjacent to the planned test area.
“It is unprecedented that they’d do it in a populated area,” he said of spraying the edge of the Rio Grande as it weaves between the cities of Laredo and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico.
Ivory-billed Woodpeckers
I know this is politically incorrect, but I personally hope they're extinct--every last one of them. And for all I care, Pileated Woodpeckers could disappear tomorrow and we beetles would sleep a lot better. (Shhh! We insects aren't supposed to post on an all-bird blog!)
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Car Talk Puzzler!
Okay--I don't own a car, don't drive, and don't even like cars. But I do love last week's (week of 13/16/09) Puzzler on Car Talk, because it's about cardinals! Well, ex-cardinals, but so what? Check out "Last Week's Puzzler."
Chimney Swift migration map
If you can believe it, Laura Erickson doesn't have a single photograph of a Chimney Swift! I mean--those are basic backyard birds for her!!!?? So I'm the one who has to tell you about the Chimney Swift migration map. We hummingbirds belong to the same order as swifts--Apodiformes. But as you can see from the photo, we hummers do, in fact, have feet, and so do swifts. You can't believe every scientific name!
Anyway, check out the map. I'll be sad when the Chimney Swifts are done passing over Costa Rica, but they have to nest up your way in order to fly over my neck of the woods each spring and fall.
Anyway, check out the map. I'll be sad when the Chimney Swifts are done passing over Costa Rica, but they have to nest up your way in order to fly over my neck of the woods each spring and fall.
Such goings on!
I sit down here in Costa Rica watching all the hanky panky among various ostensibly happily married couples. Oh, my! They talked about one situation on Morning Edition. Tsk tsk tsk.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Guess where we are...
I know everyone gets all excited about the first hummingbirds, but really, we Purple Martins are WAY cooler. If you want to know where we've been seen by people, check out the map at the Purple Martin Conservation Association website here: http://purplemartin.org/scoutreport/
Oh, man--I can't wait till the grass greens up
I am so sick of gumming up my beak serrations with mud.
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