Dr. Roger Lederer

Stool Pigeon

September 28, 2020 by Dr. Roger Lederer

Dr. Roger Lederer

Earlier, I wrote a blog on pigeons with missing toes. It got me wondering about pigeons in general and especially why we call a police informant a “stool pigeon.” The phrase originally comes from the practice by hunters of tying a dead, stuffed, or replica pigeon to a stool to…

Birds and Smoke

September 21, 2020September 21, 2020 by Dr. Roger Lederer

Dr. Roger Lederer

There was a recent report (August 2020) of hundreds of thousands of birds found dead in New Mexico. Biologists figure it has something to do with the wildfires that are plaguing the western states. Dead birds are also being found in Colorado, Texas, and Mexico. Many of them were migratory…

Pigeon De-toed

September 14, 2020September 20, 2020 by Dr. Roger Lederer

Dr. Roger Lederer

A few years ago I received an email from someone in Hawaii wondering why so many pigeons on Maui were missing toes. I had no idea so I emailed the ornithologist at the University of Hawaii and she responded that with many people with long hair lying on the beaches…

Leaf it Be

September 7, 2020 by Dr. Roger Lederer

Dr. Roger Lederer

I was sitting on my garden bench the other day and watched a small flock of Lesser Goldfinches land on my sunflower plants and peck at the leaves. What they were eating I didn’t know so when they left I searched the leaves for bugs. No bugs. Turns out the…

Where Are My Birds?

August 31, 2020August 31, 2020 by Dr. Roger Lederer

Dr. Roger Lederer

Regularly I get emails asking why there are fewer birds in one’s backyard this year, or why there are fewer blackbirds, or why hummingbirds are not coming to their feeders, or something like that. The answer is complicated. First of all, there are about 3 billion fewer breeding birds in…

Never Too Old

August 24, 2020August 24, 2020 by Dr. Roger Lederer

Dr. Roger Lederer

I’ve written before about hearing impaired birding. It’s a challenge and I speak from personal experience. Unlike birds whose cochlear hair cells in the ear, which transmit sound to the brain, grow back, ours never do. As we age our hair cells die and our hearing diminishes. But that doesn’t…

The Meaning of Feathers

August 10, 2020August 10, 2020 by Dr. Roger Lederer

Dr. Roger Lederer

What do feathers mean? In many cultures, feathers represent a connection to spiritual realms. Coming from birds, feathers symbolize freedom, both mental and physical, from the bounds of the earth. In Native American cultures, feathers have always been significant parts of ceremonies, often used for clothing, decorations, tools, weapons and…

The First Bird Guides

August 3, 2020August 3, 2020 by Dr. Roger Lederer

Dr. Roger Lederer

It wasn’t until my junior year in college when I took ornithology and started watching birds. My first bird guide was a Peterson. We didn’t ask for a bird guide when we wanted to look up that bird on the fence post, we asked for a Peterson. If you were…

Eponymous and Other Bird Names

July 27, 2020September 16, 2020 by Dr. Roger Lederer

Dr. Roger Lederer

In 1851, John P. McCown, an amateur ornithologist and army officer stationed in Texas, shot a group of birds. Examining his kills, he noted two birds he’d never seen before and sent specimens to an ornithologist friend, who named it McCown’s Longspur. Ten years later, McCown joined the Confederate States…

Bird Blogs

July 20, 2020 by Dr. Roger Lederer

Dr. Roger Lederer

There’s a new, to me at least, podcast about birds called Bird Banter. Dr. Ed Pullen, retired family physician of Tacoma, Washington, interviews birders from around the country. I have to admit that I didn’t know about his podcast or that there were so many other podcasts about birds. Like:…

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