A Bohemian Goose and a Saxon Swan

by James J. S. Johnson

Of whom the world was not worthy: they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. (Hebrews 11:38)

The ministry of God’s messengers sometimes reminds me of geese and swans, but why?

To explain why those two birds (the Goose and the Swan) remind me of God’s messengers, some background information on waterbirds, combined with some European history, is necessary. (See the earlier posting titled “Birdwatching in Iceland”, and notice especially the coverage of geese and swans.)

A Bohemian Goose (Jan Hus).

Many of this website’s readers are already familiar with the Christian Reformer and martyr, Jan Hus (a/k/a John Huss), for who the Hussites were named. Jan Hus was a Christian Bible scholar and teacher, in Bohemia (e.g., Prague), a land that today is called the Czech Republic. Jan Hus was a Roman Catholic priest whose studies of the Holy Bible led to him to protest against various unbiblical doctrines and practices that dominated the ecclesiastical politics of his generation. Until he was stopped, Jan Hus taught the Holy Bible’s doctrines (like John Wycliffe, whose writings Hus had studied) to the Bethlehem Chapel congregation (of about 3000 worshippers), in Prague. Hus also taught as a Bible professor at Univerzita Karlova (i.e., Charles University) in Prague.

But how is it fair to call Jan Hus a “Bohemian goose”?

The persecution and trial (for “heresy”) of Jan Hus, a “kangaroo court” by today’s Due Process standards, ended in his execution as an enemy of the Roman Catholic Church – Hus was burned to death on July 6th of AD1415. Since his family name was “Hus”, which means “goose” in the Czech (Bohemian) language, it was said that the Church of Rome had “cooked a goose”. [See church historian Ken Curtis, “John Hus: Faithful unto Death”, posted at http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1201-1500/john-hus-faithful-unto-death-11629878.html.]

Yet an interesting detail of Jan Hus’s last day on Earth is reported by an eye-witness, and corroborated by historical sources close in time to the historic event. (The reports contain slight differences in details, as authentic history accounts do.) Although Jan Hus’s accusers used “foul mouth” curses, Jan Hus could be said to have had a “fowl mouth” when he warned of the future:

With such Christian prayers, Hus arrived at the stake, looking at it without fear. He climbed upon it, after two assistants of the hangman had torn his clothes from him and had clad him into a shirt drenched with pitch. At that moment, one of the electors, Prince Ludwig of the Palatinate, rode up and pleaded with Hus to recant, so that he might be spared a death in the flames. But Hus replied: “Today you will roast a lean goose [i.e., Hus], but hundred years from now you will hear a swan sing, whom you will leave unroasted and no trap or net will catch him for you.”

[Quoting from hostile witness Poggius Florentini, Hus the Heretic, Letter 2 (an eye-witness account written to Leonhard Nikolai), page 60, quoted in Pastor Tom Browning’s “The Goose that Became a Swan” (Arlington Presbyterian Church), pages 6 & 19, at http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/browning/Lesson2.pdf.

The gist of this historic account is substantially corroborated by the research provided in Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, which recounts:
When the chain was put about him at the stake, he said, with a smiling countenance, “My Lord Jesus Christ was bound with a harder chain than this for my sake, and why then should I be ashamed of this rusty one?” When the fagots [i.e., pieces of wood] were piled up to his very neck, the duke of Bavaria was so officious as to desire him to abjure. “No, (said Huss;) I never preached any doctrine of an evil tendency; and what I taught with my lips I now seal with my blood.” He then said to the executioner, “You are now going to burn a goose, (Huss signifying goose in the Bohemian language:) but in a century you will have a swan which you can neither roast nor boil.” If he were prophetic, he must have meant Martin Luther, who shone about a hundred years after…

[Quoting from martyrologist/historian John Foxe, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, Chapter 8, (first translated into English during AD1563), as quoted in Pastor Tom Browning’s “The Goose that Became a Swan” (Arlington Presbyterian Church), pages 6 & 19, posted at http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/browning/Lesson2.pdf] *The slight differences in reported detail may result from translation/paraphrase limitations, and/or may be due to Hus making his prediction more than once, during his last hours, using slightly different words. Soon after a coin was minted, paraphrasing Hus’ strange prediction.

What could this mean?

Did a “swan” arise in place of the cooked “goose”, a hundred years later?

A Saxon Swan (Dr. Martin Luther).

From the region of Germany once called Saxony (or “Saxland”), came Dr. Martin Luther, the colorful leader of Germany’s Protestant Reformation and translator of Germany’s “Luther Bible”. After studying law (without completing law school), Martin Luther became a Roman Catholic priest. After earning four university degrees, that last being a doctorate in Bible, Dr. Luther became troubled by the clash between what the Bible itself taught versus what most of the religious officials taught. Like Hus, his personal studies of the Holy Bible led him to protest various unbiblical doctrines and practices (e.g., the ecclesiastical sale of “indulgences”) that dominated the ecclesiastical politics of his generation.

But how is it fair to call Martin Luther a “Saxon swan”?

On October 31st of AD1517 – 103 years after Hus was burned at Constance — Dr. Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses onto the door of the Wittenberg church, effectively firing a theological “shot heard ‘round the world” (to borrow a phrase from the American Revolution).

Although Luther’s friends warned him that Luther might be burned at the stake, like Hus (i.e., “cooked like a goose”), Dr. Luther continued to preach and teach what he believed to be the Bible’s teaching about God, truth, authority, salvation, faith, marriage, and many other important topics. And Luther’s own commentary includes his opinion that he fulfilled Jan Hus’s dying declaration:

However, I, Dr. Martin, have been called to this work and was compelled to become a doctor, without any initiative of my own, but out of pure obedience. Then I had to accept the office of doctor and swear a vow to my most beloved Holy Scriptures that I would preach and teach them faithfully and purely. While engaged in this kind of teaching, the papacy crossed my path and wanted to hinder me in it. How it has fared is obvious to all, and it will fare still worse. It shall not hinder me. In God’s name and call I shall walk on the lion and the adder, and tread on the young lion and dragon with my feet. And this which has been begun during my lifetime will be completed after my death. St. John Huss prophesied of me when he wrote from his prison in Bohemia, “They will roast a goose now (for ‘Huss’ means ‘a goose’), but after a hundred years they will hear a swan sing, and him they will have to endure.” And that is the way it will be, if God wills.

[Quoting from Martin Luther, in Lutherʹs Works (Vol. 34, Page 103-104). Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1999 (from Dr. Martin Luther’s Commentary on the Alleged Imperial Edict Promulgated in the Year 1531, After the Imperial Diet of the Year 1530), as quoted in Tom Browning’s “The Goose that Became a Swan” (supra), page 19, posted at http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/browning/Lesson2.pdf ] Ironically, the word “swan” etymologically connotes one who makes a sound, and the strong voice of Martin Luther would be heard, magnified by the newly invented movable-type printing press.

What an exciting time (and place) it was, during the Protestant Reformation (in Europe)!

What about today?

Jan Hus and Martin Luther were both spiritual pioneers who fearlessly championed God’s truth to a world dominated by hostile opponents.

Jan Hus was “excommunicated” and executed, being burned at the stake – as a “cooked goose”.

Martin Luther too was “excommunicated”; however, he was neither boiled nor burned. In fact, Dr. Luther married a good wife, raised many children with her, taught his family and others in his home and in various churches, pioneered new traditions in sacred music and Christian education, translated the Bible into German, wrote books and booklets (often demonstrating a merry and satirical wit), etc., — and eventually he died of natural causes.

Both Hus and Luther are appreciated by those who value the “sola Scriptura” principle (i.e., Scripture alone is the final authority) of the Protestant Reformation. Unsurprisingly, those who reject the Bible as the ultimate truth authority are often severe critics of both Jan Hus and Martin Luther (illustrating the saying that a man is known not only by his friends, but also by his enemies!).

Pioneers for God’s truth receive opposition nowadays as well, albeit on a less grand scale and in less dramatic confrontations than the “goose cooking” of AD1415 or Wittenberg’s 95 Theses of AD1517. Many who pioneer God’s truth in uncharted (worldview arena) territories will never be as famous as Jan Hus or Martin Luther, yet their brave efforts – swimming against the tides of popular idolatries — are well-known to the God they serve. The ongoing persecution that they suffer is expected, of course, because Paul forewarned us that “all who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2nd Timothy 3:12).

Mark Armitage.

One modern example of a godly truth pioneer, persecuted for promoting God’s truth, is electron microscope scientist Mark Armitage. Mark researched, photographed using SEM (scanning electron microscope), forensically analyzed, and published his observations of soft tissue located within the horn of a Triceratops dinosaur. Mark’s published micrographs and paleontological analysis of the Triceratops bone cells (within the dinosaur’s stretchy soft tissue) proves that the Triceratops was not so old – because such soft tissue cannot last intact and stretchy for the “millions” of years that evolutionists imagine.

In May 2012, Mark Armitage … uncovered one of the largest triceratops horns ever found in the Hell Creek Formation [in Montana], a legendary stack of fossil-bearing rocks that date to the last days of the dinosaurs. Armitage drove the horn back home to Los Angeles, California, where his microscopic examination revealed that it contained not only fossilized bone but also preserved layers of soft tissue. “They were brown, stretchy sheets. I was shocked to see anything that was that pliable,” he says. In February 2013, he published his findings in Acta Histochemica, a journal of cell and tissue research (M. H. Armitage and K. L. Anderson Acta Histochem. 115, 603-608; 2013). Two weeks later, he was fired from his job at California State University, Northridge (CSUN), where he had managed the biology department’s electron and confocal microscopy suite. Now he is embroiled in a long-shot legal fight to get his job back. In July [2014], his lawyers filed a wrongful-termination suit claiming that religious intolerance motivated the dismissal: as a young-Earth creationist, Armitage says that finding soft tissue in the fossil supports his [Bible-based] belief that such specimens date to the time of the biblical flood, which he puts at about 4,000 years ago.

Quoting Christopher Kemp, “University Sued by Creationist”, Nature, 515:20 (Nov. 6, 2014).

[Regarding the news reports about Mark Armitage’s lawsuit, see http://www.afajournal.org/archives/2010-present/2014/october/issues/evolutionists-get-thin-skinned-over-dinosaur-tissue-discovery.aspx and http://www.worldmag.com/2014/07/trumpeting_a_dinosaur_horn. For Mark Armitage’s Christian testimony, see https://answersingenesis.org/ministry-news/ministry/the-things-that-are-not/ .]

On a more personal note, Mark Armitage told me, once, when he visited Dallas, that dug-up dinosaur bone finds are overpoweringly stinky — smelling detestably foul, apparently, due to the rotting organic material that was not fossilized. (The forensic implications of that are obvious to any honest forensic scientist – such dinosaurs lived centuries or millennia ago, but not millions of years ago.)
Like those who opposed Hus and Luther, Mark Armitage’s dinosaur tissue research and analysis conflicts with and contradicts the dogma of his detractors.

Dr. Randy J. Guliuzza.

A similar report – of truth-promoting resilience under censorial persecution — could be given for another Biblical creation pioneer, Dr. Randy Guliuzza (M.D., M.P.H., P.E.), a scientist who is both a medical doctor (having done surgery in Iraq, while serving the U.S. Air Force) and professional engineer (having served the U.S. Navy as an engineer), with a Bible college foundation (Moody Bible Institute).

Dr. Guliuzza has been persecuted and disparaged by theistic evolutionists (and even by compromised creationists) because he has debunked “natural selection” as a bogus phrase invoked to accredit geophysical “magic” for selectively “favoring” or “disfavoring” life-forms in competition. [For more about this creation science controversy, see Dr. Guliuzza’s science articles posted at

• http://www.icr.org/article/engineered-adaptability;
• http://www.icr.org/article/darwins-sacred-imposter-how-natural;
• http://www.icr.org/article/darwins-sacred-imposter-illusion-that;
• http://www.icr.org/article/darwins-sacred-imposter-natural-selections;
• http://www.icr.org/article/evaluating-real-vs-apparent-design;
• http://www.icr.org/article/natural-selection-not-natures-design; etc.]

Analytically and comprehensively, again and again, Dr. Guliuzza has consistently shown that the definitional reality of Darwin’s sophistic phrase “natural selection” is mere “magic words” shibboleths – see http://www.icr.org/article/unmasking-evolutions-magic-words.

In response to a careless bashing of Dr. Guliuzza’s critique of “natural selection” sophisms (by a mystical “genes-in-magic” advocate), Dr. Guliuzza published a 3-part rebuttal, with  point-by-point refutations of his detractors. [See Randy J. Guliuzza, “A Response to ‘Does Natural Selection Exist?’:  Creatures’ Adaptation Explained by Design-based, Organism-driven Approach, Parts 1, 2, & 3”, serially posted at:  https://answersingenesis.org/natural-selection/response-does-natural-selection-exist-part1/  —  followed by  https://answersingenesis.org/natural-selection/response-does-natural-selection-exist-part2/   —  followed by  https://answersingenesis.org/natural-selection/response-does-natural-selection-exist-part3/  .]   In short, Dr. Guliuzza’s refutations (cited above) illustrate how to apply the Biblical mandate of Proverbs 26:4-5  (see “How Do We Answer Fools?”  — posted at  http://www.icr.org/article/8354  ).

All of this may sounds fairly technical (and some of it is), but the bottom line is that inanimate “nature” cannot “select” anything or anyone. Only a being with an intelligent mind, decision-making powers, and some kind of preferential values (which provide a basis of choosing, from available options, one outcome as more valuable than another) can “select” anything or anyone. [See my article on “Bait and Switch”, posted at https://www.icr.org/article/6538/.]

In other words, only God can – and only God did — create creation (including you and me), and He told us (in Genesis) how and when He did it.

And, despite what 1st Timothy 6:20 calls “science falsely so-called” (such as popular myths that accredit Earth’s biodiversity to an imaginary god-substitute called “natural selection”), God intelligently, volitionally, and judgmentally did all of the “selecting” needed to pre-program all biological lives (including our own) to “be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the Earth”. Since God did all the creative “selecting” He should be given credit for doing so.

But until the time comes when all knees bow to God and His truth, and all tongues confess that the Lord Jesus is the Creator-Lord of all, we can expect to see persecutions of God’s messengers – some of them famous (like Hus and Luther) and some of them not-so-famous (like Mark Armitage and Randy Guliuzza).

Like the prophets of old, the obligation is the same – tell God’s truth to those who have “ears to hear”, and don’t let unpopularity or persecution censor God’s message. Don’t expect applause from worldly-minded people, whether they be theists (like the Pharisees) or atheists (like many evolutionists). The world is not worthy of God’s message, so it gives no welcome to God’s messengers.

Of whom the world was not worthy: they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. (Hebrews 11:38)

The goal, of course, is the live as witnesses for God’s truth, with the courage and commitment of the Bohemian Goose and the Saxon Swan.

Dr. James J. S. Johnson (shown here with Chaplain Bob Webel, a bird-watcher in St. Petersburg) believes in the God of the Bible (not in Darwin’s god-substitute labeled “natural selection”) as biodiversity’s omni-intelligent “selector”. No stranger to forensic science, Jim frequently teaches forensic evidence analysis to Texas lawyers, and is a member of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. Also no stranger to birds, Jim previously taught ornithology and ecology-related courses at Dallas Christian College.

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• Birdwatching In Ireland (Part I)
• Orni-Theology
• James J S Johnson’s Articles
• Institute For Creation Research
• Answers In Genesis

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Birdwatching  in  Iceland

by James J. S. Johnson

The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad thereof.   (Psalm 97:1)

Islanders, like others, should rejoice in appreciation for the historic incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ – which incarnation we celebrate annually as Christmas.  It is that same Christ (John 1:1-3; Hebrews 1:1-3) Who made all the seabirds that visit and live on the world’s islands, and Iceland is no exception.

Orni-Theology

A recent email from Iceland reminded me of some birdwatching, years ago, that my wife and I did, while visiting Iceland.  Some might think that a place called “Iceland” would be so cold that birds, there, would be few and far between.  Thankfully, that is not the case, especially due to the moderating influence of the warm Gulf Stream current, which washes the southwestern shores of Iceland.  The birds of Iceland, like those of many other islands, are (unsurprisingly), are predominantly waterbirds, since islands are surrounded by water, typically ocean water.

What were some of the birds that my wife and I saw, then (September 17^th of AD2002), in Iceland?  A few examples are mentioned below, with special attention to Icelandic geese and swans (which is especially relevant to the sequel to this birdwatching report, which will report on a Bohemian goose and a Saxon swan).

Waterbirds live around (and sometimes in) bodies of water, sometimes saltwater and sometimes freshwater.  Waterbirds might habituate seacoasts, riverbanks, estuarial mudflats, lakes, ponds, swamps, and water-logged marshlands.  (Some are attracted to manmade water bodies, such as dam reservoirs, concrete canals, swimming pools, fountains, or birdbaths.)  Birds need water.

Think of the various waterbird categories, some wading shorebirds, some seabirds:  goose, gull, grebe, gallinule, gannet, guillemot, limpkin, loon, duck, dipper, brant, booby, bittern, coot, crane, crake, curlew, cormorant, kittiwake, kingfisher, plover, pelican, puffin, penguin, petrel, phalarope, flamingo, fulmar, frigatebird, albatross, anhinga, auklet, ibis, eider, egret, oystercatcher, osprey, mallard, merganser, murre, shag, shearwater, shoveler, smew, spoonbill, stint, stork, scoter, scaup, skua, skimmer, swan, sandpiper, sora, snipe, wigeon, tern, teal, tropicbird, turnstone,  jabiru, jaeger, jacana, heron, knot, noddy, rail, redshank,    —  the list could go on and on!

SeaGulls on Railing, by James J. S. Johnson

Seagulls.

Seagulls   —  such as gulls, terns, and fulmars  —  are one of the most typical kinds of seabirds.  For example, see the Great Black-backed Gull (Larus marinus), perching on the railing of the Royal Caribbean cruise ship (Jewel of the Seas), which I photographed as the ship approached the harbor of Helsinki, Sweden, during the summer of AD2006.

Ironically, many “seagulls”, such as herring gulls and ring-billed gulls, are observed far from the “sea”, living inland as residents or migrants, at huge distances many miles away from the closest saltwater shoreline. For example, during winter the Ring-billed gull (Larus delawarensis) is known to congregate in the parking lots of shopping centers near Dallas, hardly a “range” fit for a “seagull”!  However, visiting a saltwater beach, like the Gulf of Mexico or an ocean, provides opportunities for seeing many kinds of seagulls, at any time of the year.

While serving as a speaker on a cruise ship, during September of AD2002, the ship headed from Ireland’s Dublin to Iceland’s Reykjavik.  Along the way I saw a variety of seagulls, including:  Herring Gull (Larus argentatus), on a boat-dock in Dublin;  Fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis), in a Dublin estuary;  Storm Petrel (Hydrobates pelagicus), over the Irish Sea just north of Dublin;  Common Tern (Sterna hirundo), at sea somewhere between Scotland and Iceland;  Kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla), also at sea somewhere between Scotland and Iceland; Black-headed Gull (Larus ridibundus) and  Lesser Black-headed Gull (Larus fuscus), both of which I saw in the open sea somewhere between Scotland and Iceland.   In time our boat docked at Reykjavik (Iceland), where I would happily see some “lifers” (and other birds I’d seen before).

Manx Shearwater (Puffinus puffinus).  Near the Reykjavik dock there was a rocky shoreline where a colony of busy Manx Shearwaters could be seen, apparently not far from their summer nests in rocky crevices.  These are seabirds are sooty black on top and white underneath, except for a white bar on the upper side of their underwings. These low-flying birds are pelagic (staying at sea most of the time), often accustomed to following boats, coming to shore at sunset to breed.  Their diet includes fish, aquatic crustaceans, carrion, and whatever seafaring humans dump or throw overboard (i.e., human garbage or donated food-scraps).

Manx Shearwater

Arctic Skua (Stercorarius parasiticus).  One of the tourist stops in Iceland is the world-famous geyser named Geysir – this is the namesake of all geysers, translating literally as “gusher”.  (Iceland has been volcanically active for more than 1000 years, so geysers, fumaroles, and volcanic lava-flows are always foreseeable there.)  Like Yellowstone’s “Old Faithful”, this famous geyser has lost power over the centuries, but it is still an impressive hydrothermal spring that intermittently expels boiling hot mineral waters from its surface vent.  Near the gushing geyser Geysir, I saw Arctic Skua, a seabird that often frequents boggy tundra fields, especially damps heathland areas alogn island coastlands.  [See Jürgen Nicolai, Detlef Singer, & Konrad Wothe, Birds of Britain and Europe (Collin Nature Guides, 2000; trans. By Ian Dawson) at page 122.]  The Arctic Skua is rather aggressive, robbing other birds of their fish, and sometimes taking their nest eggs; skuas are also know to eats small rodents, such as mice.  This skua is brown-winged, brown-legged, and brown-capped, but is otherwise mostly white, resembling a Common Gull in size and body shape, except its dark brown tail feather assembly has two pointed projections. If seen closely some yellowish tint accents its neck and cheeks. It is usually at sea except during the breeding season (May to July).

Arctic Skua

Iceland Gull (Larus glaucoides).  Near Reykjavik, at the edge of a pond, a group of Iceland Gulls were loitering about.  The Iceland Gull is not bashful about human settlements.  This gull often “winters” at fishing boat harbors, manmade reservoirs, or coastal waste dumps.  Like other gulls (including the Glaucous Gull mentioned below), the Iceland Gull is a resourceful scavenger of fish waste and other human food-scraps.  This gull has plumage similar to that of the Glaucous Gull (described below) except smaller and less robust in shape, thinner, with narrower wings.

Glaucous Gull

Glaucous Gull (Larus hyperboreus). “Flying busily about the bay-waters of  Reykjavik were a group of Glaucous Gulls, whose habitats and dietary habits resemble those of the Iceland Gull (noted above). This gull is larger than most, dominated by pale white except for grey wings and back, plus freckle-like buff-hued blotches on its neck.  Its legs are salmon-pink.  Its bill is salmon-peach-colored except for a black tip.”

Glaucous Gulls

Ducks.

Ducks are certainly a favorite waterfowl for many.  Ducks don’t limit their ranges to oceans and seacoasts; they are found (as residents or as migrants) in wetlands of all kinds, including prairie potholes, swamps, wet woods, lake, ponds, and fields watered by streams and agricultural irrigation systems.

American Wigeon flocks

In Texas’s Denton County, for years (since the early AD1990s), I have (sometimes with family,  college students, and/ or other birdwatchers)  enjoyed watching the behaviors of ducks that winter in our part of the Lone Star State, including (but certainly not limited to):  American Wigeon (Anas americana, a/k/a “Baldpate”), a gregarious and gentle duck that frequently winter in northern Texas pond habitats;  Lesser Scaup (Aythya affinis, a/k/a “Bluebill”), which has a conspicuous light-blue bill;  and  Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata), which is known for its extra-large shovel-shaped bill, many of which over-winter in wetlands of northern Texas.  [And, as Lee Dusing recently mentioned in “Fantastic Weekend” (her birdwatching report posted at https://leesbird.com/2014/11/10/fantastic-week-end/ ), four of us Christian birdwatchers enjoyed watching a variety of palustrine and lacustrine birds, including Ring-necked Duck (Aythya collaris), a “lifer” for me, at Lakeland’s Morton Pond, on 11-8-AD2014.]

Ring-necked Duck male

Ring-necked Duck female

Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos).  Near Reykjavik, at the edge of a pond, not far from a group of loitering Iceland Gulls, this famous (and far-ranged) duck was present, looking just like their cousins who inhabit northern Texas  —  it was like a piece of “home away from home”, to see the iridescent green heads of the mallard drakes.  Mallards are not particularly shy around the habitat “edges” of human settlements, so they frequent parks and ponds, often learning that humans might provide bread crumbs or popcorn.  [More on that in another posting, hopefully.]

Mallard

Mallard

Cormorants.

Earlier in this (summer AD2002) trip I had observed two kinds of cormorants.  In an estuarial waterway of Dublin, 4 days before visiting Iceland, I saw Great Cormorant (Palacrocorax carbo, a/k/a “European Cormorant”) as well as Shag (Palacrocorax aristotelis, ), a smaller cormorant known for its dark-to-greenish-black hue).

Great Cormorant

Since I was concentrating of finding “lifers” I did not try to find any cormorants in Iceland.  However, both of these cormorant types include Iceland in their ranges.  Like me, cormorants love to eat fish.  (American cormorants are often seen in manmade reservoirs, thriving on their catch of fish; of course, ocean-caught fish are more typical of cormorants, globally speaking.)

Shag

Herons, Egrets, and the like.

Because my backyard includes a pond, and that pond connects to a spill-over drainage ditch flanked by hydrophilic plants, it is not uncommon for the pond-shore to host herons and egrets.

The most frequent of these tall waders are the magnificent Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) and the majestic Great White Egret (Casmerodius albus), plus sometimes the pond is visited by the “golden-slippered” Snowy Egret (Egretta thula) or the “mustard-dabbed” Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis), plus, albeit rarely, by the clandestine Green Heron (Butorides virescens, a/k/a Butorides striatus).

Grey Heron by Ian

But the Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea) that I saw outside the city of Glasgow (Scotland), on a beach of the River Clyde (9-14-AD2002), was a “lifer” for me, so I took special notice of that particular heron.  Apparently the Grey Heron is occasionally sighted in Iceland, as an “accidental” stray (i.e., rare migrant), but I did not see it or any other kind of heron.

Sandpipers, Plover, and the like.

Ringed Plover (Charadrius hiaticula) was a “lifer” for me, when I saw such on a beach of the River Clyde, outside of Glasgow (Scotland), 9-14-AD2002.

But that was Scotland, and this report of mostly about Iceland waterbirds, so without further ado I’ll report the sandpiper I saw 3 days later.

Curlew Sandpiper (Calidris ferrugines).  The Curlew Sandpiper is a small and quite gregarious wading bird, mottled grey-brown on top and white underneath, with a conspicuously pointy bill.  (During breeding the underparts change to a reddish-brown/chestnut-colored tint.)

Notice the long, thin beak.  These sandpipers eat a lot of bugs and other small invertebrates (worms, leeches, snails, and mussels), often picking and probing for them on water-drained mudflats located close to arctic tundra.

Curlew Sandpiper

These migratory sandpipers are known to hybridize with other sandpipers, proving that they trace back to common ancestors who disembarked Noah’s Ark about 4½ thousand years ago.  (Avian “taxonomy” is a fairly arbitrary classification scheme, so hybridizations are the real key to discovering created kinds among bird groupings.)

The Curlew Sandpiper was seen on the open (and slightly marshy-grassed) tundra, near the so-called “summer home” area just outside of Thingvellir [Þingvellir], historic site of the ancient Althing [Alþingi], the assembly-valley of Iceland’s parliamentary politics since AD930.  [See info posted at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Althing ].  A photo of me, taken that day at Thingvellir, appears below.

Dr Jim in Iceland

Geese.

The goose that I see most frequently – sometimes a dozen congregate on the east side of my home – is the Canada Goose (Branta Canadensis).  Since my neighborhood (in the “cross timbers” region of northern Texas) has several ponds, most of which are ringed by hydrophilic emergent plants, it is not surprising that these huge honking migrants winter in such places.  However, in Iceland I was privileged to see some “lifers”, including four geese.

Greylag Goose with chicks

Greylag Goose (Anser anser).  This “classic” wild goose has dark brown-grey feathers topside and silver-grey feathers beneath, with an orange-salmon-hued bill and pink-salmon-hued feet.  Many of these geese emigrate from Iceland by or during October, not to return till late spring, so visiting Iceland during mid-September was good timing.  [Lars Jonsson, Birds of Europe (Princeton University Press, 1992; translated from Swedish by David Christie), page 80.]  Domesticated geese are said to derive from wild ancestors of this variety.  Greylag geese habituate lakes and ponds, especially those with goose-friendly fringing wetland plants, such thick rushes and reeds. Nearby marshy meadows and pastures also attract these geese. The Greylag Geese that I saw were seen wandering about near Geysir geyser.

Greylag Goose

Pink-footed Goose (Anser brachyrhynchus).  This goose was seen in mossy lava-fields by a pond outside of Reykjavik.  The Pink-footed Goose prefers arctic tundra, as well as estuarial wetlands.  This goose is more beige-brown than most geese, with a pink-salmon bar on its bill, pinkish feet, and a dark brown head that could be called dark chocolate (but it’s not as dark as “UPS brown”).

Pink-footed Goose (Anser brachyrhynchus)

Lesser White-fronted Goose (Anser erythropus).  This goose, with a noticeable white front to its face (above its orange bill on its otherwise dark brown face), has red-gold eyes (depending upon how light shines off it), is known for eating dwarf willow grass (that grows where taiga transitions into tundra).  Most of the bird’s body is covered in brown plumage, except the rump is white.  This goose was spotted ambling about near a bank of the Elliðaá River just east of Reykjavik, one of Iceland’s many “salmon rivers”.  [Note: this “Salmon River” is not to be confused with the more famous Lax River that runs through the Lax-dale (“salmon valley”) region of Iceland, the early pioneer history of which is chronicled in the Laxdæla Saga.]

Lesser White-fronted Goose (Anser erythropus)

Brent Goose (Branta bernicia). This relatively small-sized arctic tundra goose resembles the coloring of a White-fronted Goose (see above), except the Brent Goose has a completely brown face, plus it sports a white bar-like marking on the side of its otherwise brown neck.  During winter this goose prefers mudflats providing eelgrass and algae.  It was in the marshy tundra just south of Thingvellir where I saw this goose.

Brent Goose (Branta bernicia)

Swans. 

The first swan I remember seeing close-up was the huge Trumpeter Swan (Cygnus buccinators, yet a/k/a Cygynus cygnus buccinator), which can exceed 22 pounds in weight, the heaviest “native” bird of North America, considered to be a close cousin of the Eurasian Whooper Swan (Cygnus cygnus, noted below).  These huge birds breed in southeast Alaska; when present, they are easy to see with binoculars.  Another white swan, that I have seen on prior occasions, is the Tundra Swan (Cygnus columbianus), the national bird of Russia.  When this swan is found in North America it is called the Whistling Swan, but many call it the Bewick’s Swan (as if it were a subspecies Cygnus columbianus bewickii, commemorating the famous bird illustrator-engraver Thomas Bewick), whenever it appears in Eurasia or Iceland. Unsurprisingly, this swan is known to habituate arctic tundra habitats.

Black Swan at Lake Morton

The Black Swan (Cygnus atratus), originally from Australia and New Zealand, has been introduced to other parts of the world (arriving sometimes in captivity as “ornamental” transplants, followed by some of the later generations escaping or being released to the wild (such as the Black Swan colony in Dawlish, Devon, in County Exeter, England), or as being “semi-released” as quasi-domesticated swans, i.e., permitted freedom to fly yet being attracted to stay by repetitive feedings (such as the Black Swan family at The Broadmoor [hotel] in Colorado Springs, Colorado  — which I saw during the summer of AD2000, while I was there to present a Biblical history paper on the Moabite Stone, to the Evangelical Theological Society).  As its name suggests, the Black Swan is black all over, except for a large band of white flight feathers on its wings.

Whooper Swan (Cygnus cygnus, pronounced “hooper”) is the “classic” white swan of Eurasia, famous for its V (“wedge”) formation when a “bevy” of these migrants are in flight, although sometimes they are seen flying in an oblique line.  [Lars Jonsson, Birds of Europe (Princeton University Press, 1992; translated from Swedish by David Christie), page 76.]  Besides its large white body, the Whooper Swan has a golden-yellow beak accent-tipped with black.  The summer range for Whooper Swans includes Iceland, Scandinavia, Northern Russia (including Siberia), as well as tundra or taiga regions of northeastern Asia (such as Japan, northern China). The Whooper Swan is the national bird of Finland.  Like other large swans, the Whooper Swan’s diet is mostly plant material (such as grasses and immature cereal grains), sometimes supplemented by some very small aquatic animals.  This majestic swan was seen on a pond near the edge of Reykjavik (and was confirmed by a local Icelandic guide).

Whooper Swan (Cygnus cygnus)

Mute Swan (Cygnus olor).  The white Mute Swan resembles the Whooper Swan (see above) in its appearance, except the Mute Swan has a conspicuous black basal “bulb” on its bill, and its bill is an orange-red hue noticeably darker than the golden-yellow bill of the Whooper Swan.  Also, the Mute Swan has a black “mask” bordering its eyes and bill.  Its primary food is submerged plant material.  As its name suggests, it is unusually quiet for a swan, though it is known for a “hoarse hissing” when pressured into a self-defense situation.  The Mute Swan is the national bird of Denmark. It was at a tundra pond near Gullfoss (“Golden Falls”) where my wife and I saw the dignified Mute Swan.

Mute Swan (Cygnus olor) by Dan

Iceland is a cool place to watch birds! 

Coming soon, God willing: a sequel regarding a Bohemian goose and a Saxon swan!

Dr. James J. S. Johnson (seen here visiting Chaplain Bob Webel, a birdwatcher in St. Petersburg) believes in the God of the Bible (not in Darwin’s god-substitute labeled “natural selection”) as biodiversity’s omni-intelligent “selector”.  No stranger to forensic science, Jim frequently teaches forensic evidence analysis to Texas lawyers, and is a member of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. No stranger to birds, Jim previously taught ornithology and ecology-related courses at Dallas Christian College.

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A Bohemian Goose and a Saxon Swan (Part 2)

Orni-Theology

James J S Johnson’s Articles

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Strangers and Pilgrims ©WikiC

Strangers and Pilgrims

by James J. S. Johnson

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.  (Hebrews 11:3)

Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.  (1^st Peter 2:11)

The phrase “strangers and pilgrims” occurs twice in the New Testament (KJV), in Hebrews 11:3 and in 1^st Peter 2:11, as quoted above.

The English word “pilgrim” is a translation of the New Testament Greek noun parepidêmos, which refers to a foreigner who immigrates as a settler, taking up residence in a new land, beside the original inhabitants of that place.  A similar thought appears in 1^st Peter 1:1, which refers to believers who are “strangers”, dispersed (“scattered”) like seeds in foreign lands belonging to other peoples.

Even today Christians live in and among lands dominated by nonbelievers (Psalm 73:12).  Because we are “in” the world, yet not “of” the world (see John 17:14-17), we live “near” our non-Christians neighbors, yet our Christ-focused lives are noticeably separate from “the world” (e.g., in our beliefs, priorities, moral values, etc.).

A similar word appears in the Old Testament, translated as “pilgrimage” (Hebrew: magûr, derived from the Hebrew verb gûr, meaning to “sojourn” or “migrate”). The noun “pilgrimage” appears in Genesis 47:9 (twice); Exodus 6:4; and Psalm 119:54.  [See Young’s Analytical Concordance, page 752, column 3.]

Like the English Pilgrims of old, our “pilgrimage” is a holy journey, through this earthly lifetime, adventurously walking with our great God, in spiritual fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ.  That “pilgrimage” is an ongoing  witness to the watching world (1^st Corinthians 4:9)  – because we each live our lives in the presence of observing nonbelievers “near” us, whose lives are spiritually separate from us (Daniel 5:22-23).

During Thanksgiving season, in America, we remember God’s historic providence at Plymouth Plantation, which was celebrated by a thanksgiving feast, a sacred occasion where the Pilgrims (a/k/a “Separatists”) shared their harvest bounty with many local Indian tribesmen, who themselves contributed quite a bit of wild game to the festive event.

The American Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo).

But is there any historical record of the Pilgrims’ first Thanksgiving feast (AD1621) really featuring wild turkey?

Yes.  One of the original Pilgrims, William Bradford, kept a careful chronicle of the important events at Plymouth, and he reported the context of the Pilgrim’s harvest-time during the fall of AD1621:

[During the autumn of AD1621 the Plymouth Pilgrims, with the help of Squanto] found the Lord to be with them in all their ways, and to bless their outgoings and incomings, for which let His holy name have the praise forever, to all posterity.

They began now to gather in the small harvest they had, and to fit up their houses and dwellings against winter, being all well recovered in health and strength and had all things in good plenty.  For as some were thus employed in affairs abroad, others were exercised in fishing, about cod and bass and other fish, of which they took good store, of which every family had their portion.  All the summer there was no want; and now began to come in store of fowl, as winter approached, of which this place did abound when they came first (but afterward decreased by degrees).  And besides waterfowl there was a great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc.  Besides they had about a peck a meal a week to a person, or now since harvest, Indian corn to that proportion.  Which made many afterwards write so largely of their plenty here to their friends in England, which were not feigned but true reports.

Quoting  William Bradford,  Of Plimouth Plantation  1620-1647  (Alfred A. Knopf, 1989; edited by Samuel Eliot Morison), page 90.

But it was another Pilgrim, Edward Winslow, who reported (within a letter dated December 11^th of AD1621) on the specific activities at the Pilgrim’s historic Thanksgiving feast that season:

Our harvest being gotten in, our Governor sent four men on fowling (i.e., hunting wild birds, such as turkeys, quail, etc.), so that we might after a more special manner rejoice together, after we had gathered the fruit of our labors.  They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the Company almost a week.  At which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms [i.e., used their firearms for target practice], many of the Indians coming amongst us, and amongst the rest their [i.e., the Wampanoag tribe’s] greatest king, Massasoit with some 90 men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted.  And they went out and killed five deer which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our Governor and upon the Captain [Miles Standish] and others.

Quoting Edward Winslow, in Mourt’s Relation, pages 60 et seq., as quoted by Samuel Eliot Morison in Footnote 8 on page 90 of Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation 1620-1647 (noted above).

The first Thanksgiving was spontaneous.  Years later the Pilgrims celebrated other days of thanksgiving, sometimes at the direction of the colonial governor. [See above, William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation, at page 132.]

By combining William Bradford’s report of the “wild turkeys” (as the most notable wild-fowl hunted by the Pilgrims) with Edward Winslow’s report of the wild fowl hunting for the first Thanksgiving feast, we can fairly conclude that America’s wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) rightly belongs as part of the American Thanksgiving feast tradition.

But Thanksgiving is not just about being thankful for harvested food  –  we should also be thankful as “pilgrims and strangers” who are now living “in” the world, yet not “of” the world, because our true citizenship is actually in Heaven (Philippians 3:20), where our Lord Jesus Christ, Who Himself is our greatest Blessing, is seated at the right hand of God our Heavenly Father  –  until the day He returns, as King, to the world that He created.   Maranatha!

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More Thanksgiving post coming.

More James J. S. Johnson’s Articles

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