Bare-faced Go-away-bird vs. Lying dog-faced pony soldier

 Remember when Joe Biden called a woman a lying dog-faced pony soldier in 2020? He wasn't sued because no one had a clue if his slur was racist, sexist or homophobic, so the media gave him a pass. Our Page a day bird calendar for Feb. 5 has a bird that could have been named by Joe Biden. It's a "Bare-faced Go-away-bird. " It doesn't have a mask and it's difficult to tell the males from the females. It was named by a German and is found in a number of African countries.

Bare-faced Go-away-bird - eBird

Today's New Word--casque

1: a piece of armor for the head : HELMET

2: an anatomical structure (such as the horny outgrowth on the head of a cassowary) suggestive of a helmet

Our bird calendar provided us with a very strange one; Oriental Pied-Hornbill (Anthracoceros albirostris). It looks strange to us, but the females seem to like it.

 A close look at an Oriental Pied Hornbill - Bird Ecology Study Group (besgroup.org)

The 13 Hornbills of Indonesia (rekoforest.org)

Fairywren on my table

The calendar bird on my kitchen table today is a Splendid Fairywren. https://animalia.bio/aplendid-fairywren Isn't that a splendid name? We see tiny birds I've been calling wrens (but probably aren't) when we eat dinner on our deck, but they don't look like this although pretty. If we were lunching in Australia, we might see them. Males and females of most species are dimorphic (2 forms), and usually the males are the showiest to attract the females. The girly birds are attracted to the best and biggest show-offs so they can have great babies and continue the breed/ race/ species.

Whether you are a creationist like me, or an evolutionist like most are taught in schools, you know males and females in all human cultures are different so that the race can continue. Until recently, that is. Only the leftist ideologs of the late 20th, and early 21st centuries don't want the human race to continue. Yes, they hate Christians and conservatives, but apparently, they also hate themselves.

Bird watching

I've never made it a priority, but I thought it would be nice to know more about birds. God must have had such fun designing them. My fellow librarians gave me binoculars as a retirement gift, thinking I'd lounge on the deck and view birds. About 12 years ago I participated in some morning birding group walks at Lakeside. Great people. We even went to the Black Swamp Bird Observatory in Magee Marsh Wildlife Area for a lecture and bird watching. Some could identify 100s of birds. Me, not so much. I think I learned about 5 more birds than I knew at age 10. So when I saw a bird calendar at Marc's this morning for $1, I thought it was a bargain and I could look at a page a day. And now I feel really smart, because earlier they were $16.99 according to the web site. Audubon Birds Color 2023 Page-A-Day Calendar - Calendars.com

Julie Zickefoose

It has been a delight to have Bill Thompson III (Bird Watcher's Digest) and wife Julie Zickefoose, artist, writer and naturalist, here this week. I went to his lecture on Tuesday and the early morning bird watch with him on Wednesday. Today I went to her slide show and lecture and heard excerpts from her forthcoming book about rescuing injured birds and nestlings. The rescued baby chimney swifts (5) story was just the best. It was wonderful and I think will be a terrific Christmas book for any of you who love a good story, great art, and animals.

Ohio Magazine article on Julie Zickefoose

Our garage

I'm not bragging. It's a fact. We live in one of the prettiest condo complexes in all of metropolitan Columbus, with beautiful vistas no matter where we look. And we work hard keeping it that way with a very involved community board, landscape committee and maintenance company. Unless of course, you're driving through our NORC (naturally occurring retirement community) and notice the Bruce's garage. Something, and we aren't sure what, causes the bottom panel on the garage door to rot and peel. We've been here 8 years and have replaced it once already and now it's worse than when we replaced it the first time. Then within the last 2 weeks, a bird has pecked a huge hole and a small hole in the decorative door (not sure what it's called, but it doesn't go anywhere) above the garage door. I assumed in that space there are baby birds.

Traveling south

Purple Martins on June 30

Purple Martin house on Aug. 30
We have five Purple Martin houses at the end of our street. In June, they were all full occupancy, with parents raising families and busy eating insects. Now they are empty. Gone to winter in Brazil.

I'd planned to go back to Columbus this week, but the weather forecast was fabulous, so I decided to stay. This is Senior Venture Week at Lakeside and the theme is "Ohio history: from the Ice Age to Ice Cream." There are two days of lectures on Ohio canals, two on various ice age topics (our under a glacier period for you g-warmists), and lectures on our 8 Presidents and Toft's Dairy (my favorite ice cream). Maybe there will be samples? Love that Moose Tracks!

Last night after the movie, "My sister's keeper" based on a Jodi Picoult novel, we had a discussion on biomedical ethics led by a local pastor. Some people in the audience had read the book, and weren't happy with the change in ending. SPOILER--don't read this:

"The Book: Anna wins her case, but before she can announce whether she's decided to give her kidney to Kate, she's involved in a car accident and becomes brain-dead. Her lawyer, who has power of attorney over Anna, grants the kidney to Kate, who lives -- believing that she was given a second chance because Anna took her spot in heaven.

The Movie: Before the case is decided, Kate and Anna's brother Jesse reveals that Kate no longer desires to undergo operations. Their mother comes to terms with the impending demise of Kate. After Kate dies, Anna's lawyer visits the house with legal papers claiming she has won the case and now has medical emancipation from her parents."

But it was a good discussion even with the movie ending. Sept 3-6 is "Julie and Julia" at our movie theater (the only one in the county). Our book club is reading My life in France by Julia Child this year, and so far I've barely been able to read a page, so maybe the movie will help.

Bird Walk at Lakeside

Can you believe it? I left my binoculars at the cottage! Oh well, it was still a great event. Our leader: "Bill Thompson III is the editor of Bird Watcher's Digest by day. He's also a keen birder, the author of many books, a dad, a field trip leader, an ecotourism consultant, a guitar player, the host of the "This Birding Life" podcast, a regular speaker/performer on the birding festival circuit, a gentleman farmer, and a fungi to be around. His North American life list is somewhere between 667 and 669. His favorite bird is the red-headed woodpecker. His "spark bird" was a snowy owl. He has watched birds in 25 countries and 44 states. But his favorite place to watch birds is on the 80-acre farm he shares with his wife, artist/writer Julie Zickefoose. Some kind person once called Bill "The Pied Piper of Birding" and he has been trying to live up to that moniker ever since."

What I knew about birds could be written on my little fingernail, so I'm a whole lot smarter than I was at 7:30 a.m. We saw sea gulls, of course, which Bill told us are misnamed--they live mainly on lakes, and he told us the many names; a Caspian Tern, which lives all over the world but is named for the Caspian Sea; a male House Finch, a descendant of the 40 some that were illegally let loose in NYC and are now everywhere in the US and southern Canada; a Cormorant; Great Blue Heron; a Grackle and Starling; some Bank Swallows lined up on a wire; and finally, we gathered around our 5 Purple Martin houses, one of which had been invaded by a sparrow family. Bill told us funny stories about Purple Martin "landlords" which are a special class of bird watchers.

Now this is the way to see a bird!
She's been on lots of bird events
The Midwest Birding Symposium will be at Lakeside, September 17-20 with wonderful programs and performances by leading bird watchers, vendors, a boat cruise and other fun stuff. There will even be events for beginners like me, like a "bird sit." Based on the vast knowledge I picked up today, I think that's a Caspian Tern on the poster.

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Ohio Birds and Biodiversity

is the title of an interesting blog with some great photographs by Jim McCormac. Great photo of the paparazzi who just found a dragonfly. Britney and Paris look out!


Really terrific photos of unusual flora and fauna with explanations. I didn't know frogs attacked and ate birds, but he's got a photograph of one doing it.

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Crow droppings

Have you ever lived in an area where the sky turns black on a sunny day and the grackles or blackbirds or crows descend and roost in the trees dropping a white slimy goo on everything? I remember visiting someone in Annandale, VA and it literally was not safe to breathe the air outside her condo. Dried droppings everywhere, driveway, sidewalks, patio, lawn furniture, flowers, shrubs under the trees; and where it wasn't dry, it was wet, smearing the windshields, covering the lawn, disfiguring the trees, a threat to human health and driving away native song birds.

That's what Sheryl Crow wants for us with her one square of toilet paper per visit to the rest room idea, and special sleeves for nose blowing and mouth wiping. Not for her of course, she has people. To wait on her. Do her laundry. Mop up the floors her bathrooms.

Then in some residential areas, the pest control comes out and tries to scare away the birds with loud noises, gun shots, firecrackers or music. They try to dislodge the birds and make them go elsewhere, to become someone else's problem.

Sheryl Crow needs pest control.

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Robins who winter here

When I was a girl growing up in Illinois, we always watched for the first robins as a sign of spring. Because I see so many robins in central Ohio all year, I thought it was just our more mild climate. When we had that terrible cold snap a few weeks back I was surprised to see so many dead robins in the street. They didn't seem to be able to get out of the way of the cars, and the streets were snow packed so I wasn't sure why they were in the road. Then in today's Columbus Dispatch I noticed an article about robins staying around because of the spread of the honeysuckle bush. Its red berries provide winter food for them when there are no worms or bugs. The plants are foreign to our area (you might call them illegal immigrants who have gotten out of hand) and have killed off some native species. When I checked Google, I see that robins are also wintering in the western suburbs of Chicago, but those may have come south from Wisconsin.

Whatever is keeping them here in the winter--dried fruit and berries from ornamental trees or invasive species--our terrible cold snap must have been too much for them. It either covered up or iced over their food supply or disoriented them enough that they weren't able to fly.