“So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 5:6-8 NKJV)
Dr. Jim and Sherry Johnson
Dr. James J. S. Johnson, “Dr. Jim” as I always refer to has been a regular writer here on the blog. He “joined his Lord in heaven on the night of July 19, 2025. ” We will dearly miss him here on the blog. He has posted many articles about birds which came from his love of birdwatching.
We, Dan and I, first met Dr. Jim, in person, when he came to our church and presented one of his presentations about Creation. He was writing articles here on the blog before that visit. He found this blog, Lee’s Birdwatching Adventures Plus, while looking for one of the articles he had written about birds. I had seen it, and with permission had copied and posted it here. That incident started our friendship and him posting many birdwatching articles here. He has been writing articles here at least since 2013.
“We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”
(2 Corinthians 5:8-10 NKJV)
Links to many of Dr. James Johnson’s post here:
I have to admit that these pages are not totally up to date. Search under these links to find many of Dr. Jim’s articles:
According to Birds and Bloom magazine site, there are Birds of the Month.
“You’ve probably heard of birth month gemstones and birth month flowers, but have you heard of birth month birds? It might come as a surprise to learn every month of the year has not only a representative jewel and flower, but also a bird. From owls to ravens, here are the birds that represent everyone’s birthdays.”
More from Birds and Bloom:
Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) by Ray Barlow
July: Eagle
Eagles are regal birds. They’re fierce in flight and stunning to see, with hooked beaks and wide wingspans. In the United States especially, a bald eagle is a prized sight. Watch for white feathers on the head and brown plumage on the rest of the body, as well as yellow talons.
“It was a drizzly fall day on the Potomac Eagle train ride in Romney, West Virginia. I didn’t have high hopes for good photos, but I got lucky,” says Robin Bell.
But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel. (1st Timothy 5:8)
There she was, that shameful sneak! An unmotherly and irresponsible female Brown-headed Cowbird!
Cowbird egg deposited into “foster home” nest (National Audubon Society photo credit)
Why do I say “sneak”? Because the female Brown-headed Cowbird is the most prominent example of a “brood parasite” in North America. Cowbird mothers refuse to raise their own young; they use deceit to “dump” their kids on other mothers (and fathers) to raise. Shame on them! In fact, about half of America’s Lower 48 states are year-round residence range for these brood-parasitic icterids.
RANGE of Brown-headed Cowbird, with green = year-round resident (Wikipedia image credit)
In other words, the mother cowbirds sneakily deposit their eggs into the nests of other bird mothers – so that the involuntary “foster mothers” are left with the responsibility of raising the cowbird hatchlings. The ornithologists at Cornell University describe the cowbird mother’s habits:
The Brown-headed Cowbird is North America’s most common “brood parasite.” A female cowbird makes no nest of her own, but instead lays her eggs in the nests of other bird species, who then raise the young cowbirds. …
Brown-headed Cowbird lay eggs in the nests of more than 220 species of birds. Recent genetic analyses have shown that most individual females specialize on one particular host species. …
Cowbird eggs hatch faster than other species eggs, giving cowbird nestlings a head start in getting food from the parents. Young cowbirds also develop at a faster pace than their nest mates, and they sometimes toss out eggs and young nestlings or smother them in the bottom of the nest. [Quoting “Brown-headed Cowbird: overview”, posted on Cornell Lab’s AllAboutBirds.org website]
1 Cowbird egg inserted into a Phoebe nest (Wikipedia photo credit)
In other words, unlike the noble stepparent, who intentionally and unselfishly accepts the child-rearing responsibility for a (typically ungrateful) child who was procreated by someone else, avian “foster parents” who raise undocumented alien offspring (of Brown-headed Cowbirds) do so unawares.
Of course, not all nest-managing birds are fooled by brood parasite birds — regarding Australia’s Superb Fairywren, who uses a parental “password” to vet her nestlings for legitimacy, see “Pushy Parasites and Parental Passwords“, posted at http://www.icr.org/article/pushy-parasites-parental-passwords .
Also, the statistical prospects for cowbird babies is unimpressive: out of about 40 eggs laid/abandoned per year, by cowbird mothers, only about 2 or 3 survive to adult maturity. [See Donald Stokes & Lillian Stokes, “Brown-headed Cowbird”, A GUIDE TO BIRD BEHAVIOR, Volume II (Boston, MA: Little, Brown, & Company), page 213.)
Earlier this month, enjoying fair weather, I went birdwatching with my son, in some suburban parks of Dayton (Ohio).
COX ARBORETUM park in Dayton, Ohio (TripAdvisor photo credit)
The above-noted birdwatching experience was enhanced by my son’s smart-phone’s usage of an “app” called MERLIN (Merlin Bird ID, by Cornell Lab: https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org ) which identifies (by name) bird calls, plus provides a color photograph, when a bird’s calls are recognized by the app. Most of the recognized birdsongs were from American Robins or various sparrows (e.g., Chipping Sparrow, English Sparrow, etc.), but more than once the songbird was a female Brown-headed Cowbird.
Of course, male Brown-headed Cowbirds are easy to recognize, as shown below.
Brown-headed Cowbird MALE (Wikipedia photo credit)
However, female Brown-headed Cowbirds are much less conspicuous in plumage, because the soft-brown-hued females do not have shiny iridescent plumage that make males so easily recognizable.
The Cornell Lab’s Merlin app also identifies birds visually – you just “zoom [in] until your bird fills the box” (on your smart-phone), then the Merlin app identifies the bird, plus it supplies some basic information about the bird that you are photographing on your smart-phone. Nice!
Brown-headed Cowbird: female (L) & male (R) Wikipedia photo credit
There’s even more features to the Merlin app – but this is enough to suggest its usage. In other words, the main point (of this blogpost) is simple enough: get out there, and appreciate God’s Creatorship as you do some birding!
Lee's Birdwatching Adventures Plus 