Quote of the day: "Bye, Uncle Donald. Thank you for the odd, hard to work present." -- Andrea

Journal of a Sabbatical

May 29, 2000

sexual dimorphism in black-capped chickadees
and odd, hard to work presents

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.

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...