I am not sure the wingspan of a coelacanth.
How about that ivory-billed woodpecker?
For 60-odd years we thought they were extinct in the United States (www.audubon.org) and then even in the world. But they’ve resurfaced in Arkansas – the birds, with wingspans more than 30 inches, were just hiding. Probably wisely.
I am not sure the wingspan of a coelacanth.
Truth be known, I’m a casual birder. I’m not as hardcore as my Aunt Betty, who goes traipsing across the globe with her binoculars, but thanks to her I’m a member of the Audubon society and know a thing or two about birdhouses.
Carolina chickadee houses. I’ve made bunches of them and have the design linked from my blog, www.shelbystar.com/blogs.asp . For a while I was using them instead of greeting and sympathy cards. I remember a great fellow I knew. He dad was passing away, so I made a birdhouse for him. But then his dad just kept hanging on.
I carried that birdhouse around for a long time, waiting.
I actually emailed some folks down at the NC General Assembly to get the Carolina chickadee (not the flamingo) designated as the state bird (they haven’t emailed me back). Seven states have the cardinal – where’s our originality in that? The perfect candidate would have been the colorful Carolina parakeet, but we killed those off in the 1920s.
Anyway, chickadees are rather small (just how big and intimidating does that name really sound? Scarier than the tufted titmouse?). When I wanted a real challenge, I made a nesting platform for a great horned owl (grunt when you say that – their wingspan can stretch more than five feet).
Is that a way to take care of a neighbor’s yappy little dog? Invite some large, silent predators to the neighborhood and just let nature take its course?
Relax – we never put the platform up.
There are other ways of attracting large birds. Like using small birds.
I had a birdfeeder hanging outside my college dorm window, attracting plenty of little sparrows and squirrels (the entertaining nemesis of birdfeeders everywhere).
One day I looked out my window and saw a healthy-looking red-tailed hawk sitting on a nearby branch.
I worry that just as the little birds had learned to come to my window for food, the bigger bird had as well – but not for sunflower seeds.
Occasionally the hawks went after bigger prey, zapping a squirrel on the quad to the horror of students on their way to biology class.
I personally thought such disembowelments added a touch of realism to offset the ongoing campus debates of how many angels could dance on the head of a pin. Quote: “Mary gave birth to Jesus, at least in some misogynistic interpretations.”
Hey, whether you think He was the Christ or not, it’s pretty well historically established that there was a Jesus of Nazareth.
And I’m pretty sure (and I don’t think I’m sexist for saying this) that it probably wasn’t Joseph as done the birthin’.
I should know. I took biology.
I know all about birth n’ babies.
For 60-odd years we thought they were extinct in the United States (www.audubon.org) and then even in the world. But they’ve resurfaced in Arkansas – the birds, with wingspans more than 30 inches, were just hiding. Probably wisely.
I am not sure the wingspan of a coelacanth.
Truth be known, I’m a casual birder. I’m not as hardcore as my Aunt Betty, who goes traipsing across the globe with her binoculars, but thanks to her I’m a member of the Audubon society and know a thing or two about birdhouses.
Carolina chickadee houses. I’ve made bunches of them and have the design linked from my blog, www.shelbystar.com/blogs.asp . For a while I was using them instead of greeting and sympathy cards. I remember a great fellow I knew. He dad was passing away, so I made a birdhouse for him. But then his dad just kept hanging on.
I carried that birdhouse around for a long time, waiting.
I actually emailed some folks down at the NC General Assembly to get the Carolina chickadee (not the flamingo) designated as the state bird (they haven’t emailed me back). Seven states have the cardinal – where’s our originality in that? The perfect candidate would have been the colorful Carolina parakeet, but we killed those off in the 1920s.
Anyway, chickadees are rather small (just how big and intimidating does that name really sound? Scarier than the tufted titmouse?). When I wanted a real challenge, I made a nesting platform for a great horned owl (grunt when you say that – their wingspan can stretch more than five feet).
Is that a way to take care of a neighbor’s yappy little dog? Invite some large, silent predators to the neighborhood and just let nature take its course?
Relax – we never put the platform up.
There are other ways of attracting large birds. Like using small birds.
I had a birdfeeder hanging outside my college dorm window, attracting plenty of little sparrows and squirrels (the entertaining nemesis of birdfeeders everywhere).
One day I looked out my window and saw a healthy-looking red-tailed hawk sitting on a nearby branch.
I worry that just as the little birds had learned to come to my window for food, the bigger bird had as well – but not for sunflower seeds.
Occasionally the hawks went after bigger prey, zapping a squirrel on the quad to the horror of students on their way to biology class.
I personally thought such disembowelments added a touch of realism to offset the ongoing campus debates of how many angels could dance on the head of a pin. Quote: “Mary gave birth to Jesus, at least in some misogynistic interpretations.”
Hey, whether you think He was the Christ or not, it’s pretty well historically established that there was a Jesus of Nazareth.
And I’m pretty sure (and I don’t think I’m sexist for saying this) that it probably wasn’t Joseph as done the birthin’.
I should know. I took biology.
I know all about birth n’ babies.
posted by John Derrick | 11:20 PM
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