Today's Bird Sightings:
Kevin's yard
black-capped chickadee
cardinal (m & f)
American goldfinch (m & f)
downy woodpecker (m)
eastern phoebe
common grackle
blue jay
red breasted nuthatch
barn swallow
white breasted nuthatch
chipping sparrow
great blue heron (fly over)
red-tailed hawk being mobbed by crows
along the back roads
killdeer
American robin
Today's Reading: The Birds of
Brewery Creek by Malcolm MacDonald,
Uttermost Part of the Earth by E. Lucas
Bridges
Today's Starting Pitcher:
The first place Boston Red Sox are off today.
2000
Book List
Plum
Island Bird List

Copyright © 2000, Janet I.
Egan
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Andrea
turned 9 years old on Friday, so we celebrated with a family
gathering today. As is the tradition throughout the US of A
on Memorial Day, Kevin grilled stuff in the backyard. The
menu, handwritten by Andrea, featured four different types
of mustard for the grilled materials.
Time
goes by so fast. I remember picking Andrea up at preschool
and playing the Barbies with her all afternoon until Lizzy
got home from school. She really made those Barbies seem
alive - and she'd demand that I "play them" for her when she
had to take a bathroom break. And that seems like
yesterday.
She
was interested in birds back then too. She would name the
birds at the feeder as she ran around the yard kicking a
soccer ball. "Black-capped chickadee, boy downy woodpecker,
nuthatch, boy cardinal..." When Kevin emailed me with the
party details this year I emailed him back: "She can't be 9.
Just last week she was 4 and asking me if girl black-capped
chickadees looked the same as boy black-capped
chickadees."
I
was reminded of that query when I got the new car. Andrea
made a big deal of crawling through the opening in the back
seat to get to the trunk. I remembered her doing that in my
old car one time when we were waiting in Mrs. Reed's
driveway to pick up Lizzy at piano lessons. There were
thousands of black-capped chickadees and a number of downy
woodpeckers at Mrs. Reed's feeders that day. She correctly
identified them (boys and girls for the downy woodpeckers)
and then got this puzzled look on her face and asked about
the chickadees. When I said they looked the same, she wanted
to check the book, which was in the trunk. Rather than
waiting for me to get out and unlock the trunk,
she folded down the back seat and crawled into the trunk,
returning with my backpack containing the bird book. I
showed her the book and she was satisfied that boys and
girls looked the same and then wanted to know if she could
see a Siberian tit (on the chickadee page) at Mrs. Reed's
feeder.
Birds are all over the place as we sit in Kevin's yard
munching grilled things with 4 kinds of mustard. I remind
Andrea that she used to announce the birds' names for me:
black-capped chickadee, boy downy woodpecker...
Andrea: "Do girl black-capped
chickadees look the same as boy black-capped
chickadees?"
Kevin: "I didn't show her that email!"
AJ: "You must have."
Nancy: "Obviously this question has been
burning in her mind for 5 years!"
After
I answered her question (they do) and showed her in the
book, she wanted to know why in most bird species the male
is more colorful. Lizzy came up with a wholly original
explanation about how the male is more brightly colored in
order to distract predators away from the female and the
babies to protect his family. Something Darwin hadn't
mentioned... I pointed out that in many species the sexes
look the same (black-capped chickadees spring to mind) and
in some the females are more brightly colored, for example
the belted kingfisher. I didn't think of the Wilson's
phalarope until I was on the road home. Too bad, 'cause the
female is brilliant and the male is sort of dull plus the
female does a lot of the usual male duties.
Birthday
presents, bon mots about the presents, and in-depth
discussion of sexual dimorphism in birds. Just another
typical day at Eganworld. Maybe Lizzy is onto something with
that predator distraction theory...
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