Many people feed or just watch birds out their kitchen window; that’s a treat but one might eventually get bored with watching the same conglomeration of birds from day to day. After all, having a mob of a few dozen Eurasian Collared Doves, a throng of jays, and a coterie of House Sparrows visiting one’s …
From the Middle English meaning very small or Middle Dutch meaning small copper coin, we get the term mite. Mites are small arthropods (joint-legged animals like insects, crayfish, and spiders) belonging to the class Arachnida (spiders and allies). Most mites are tiny, less than 1 mm in length, and have a simple, unsegmented body plan. Their small size makes them easily …
Even though Big Bird was 8 feet two inches tall, he wasn’t the biggest bird we know about. The biggest bird that ever lived was the Elephant Bird of Madagascar that stood nearly 10 feet tall and weighed about 1700 pounds. Its egg weighed 22 pounds. Extinct since the 17th century, there were reports by …
Namibia, with the second least dense human population (after Mongolia), sits on the southwest side of Africa, just above South Africa. I have been fortunate enough to visit this country twice in the last 14 months and of course took some time to birdwatch. Nambia is not particularly known for its bird life although it …
Just today I received an email from a reported at a British newspaper in Yorkshire, England, asking if I knew anything about babies (human babies) being attacked by seagulls. No, I hadn’t, so I looked it up. Couldn’t find any information on baby attacks, but I read about others. One woman complained that her Chihuahua …
This is an old blog from 2011 you might not have seen but I think it’s one of the funniest, so here it is. A while back, I listened to a radio show (Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me) and heard Wayne Newton being interviewed about his “Casa de Shenadoah”, a 42 acre ranch on which …
In 1889 a religious book emphasized the spur provided by the possession of a song. This notion matched the quotation under examination: A bird sings because it has a song and must sing it. In 1902 a column in “The Brooklyn Daily Eagle” of Brooklyn, New York suggested that duty was not the key motivator: …
A common winter visitor is the White-crowned Sparrow. This bird nests all over northern North America and the western mountains, wintering in most of the lower 48 states and Mexico. It’s a common bird at bird feeders and in grassy and shrubby areas. The black and white striped head is distinctive although the immature have …
I’ve always known that birds’ eggs are pretty amazing structures. Encased in a shell with everything it needs to produce a new bird, an egg does so in 10 to 60 days, depending on the species. You can get an overview of the development of an egg here or a much more detailed discussion of …
From NPR: The new Secretary of the Interior, responsible for the protection of our natural resources, is a former gas and oil lobbyist. Bernhardt says that responsible energy development on public lands is good for both American taxpayers and towns dependent on oil, gas or coal. The Department of the Interior manages one-fifth of all …
