How Can a Mechanical ‘Cardinal’ Make ‘Selections’?

March 12, 2015 by James J. S. Johnson

How Can a Mechanical ‘Cardinal’ Make ‘Selections’?

For we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. (1^st Corinthians 4:9b)

But what about birds: can they be spectators?

What about fake birds: can they “select” when to sing?

Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) Male and Female ©WikiC

This unusual bird-watching report begins with a “no-brainer” observation that most birders already know well: we humans like to watch birds!

Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) Male and Female ©WikiC

Orni-Theology

In fact, it seems (based on a survey done by wildlife ecologists in Maryland) that we humans like to watch birds — moreso than any other kind of wildlife. People love birds, and well they should! Specifically, according to a U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service officer, birds are the main attraction when it comes to people viewing wildlife. “The 2011 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation noted that 71.8 million American participated in some kind of wildlife-watching recreation, including observing, feeding or photographing [wildlife]. Birds attract the biggest following of all U.S. wildlife. Approximately 46.7 million people observed birds around the house and on trips in 2001. A large majority, 88 percent (41.3 million), observed wild birds around the home, while 38 percent (17.8 million) took trips away from home to observe wild birds. Home birders averaged 119 days, while away-from-home birders averaged 13 days.” (Quoting from Kathy Reshetiloff, “Services Provided by Migratory Birds Don’t Come Cheaply”, Chesapeake Bay Journal, 24(3):1 (May 2014). As noted previously, birds often don’t notice when we are watching them – and that is when we see them acting true to character. [See https://leesbird.com/2014/10/06/busy-hummingbirds-oblivious-to-spectators/ ]

A plastic “toy” cardinal can make you wonder about motion sensitivity. (More on that below.)

Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) Male and Female ©WikiC

The Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis), a/k/a “redbird” is a beauty to behold – and to hear. Cardinals are so highly appreciated that seven states claim it as their official state bird: Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia!

Cardinals are songbirds that are easily seen (especially the males), due to their colored plumage contrasting with the green foliage of spring and summer, — or with the bright white of winter snow.

Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) Male and Female ©Zanawer

Surely a view of cardinals, eating safflower and sunflower seeds (or other cracked corn, peanuts, or even raisins!), will make you wonder at God’s creative genius and love of beauty, when He chose to make (see Genesis 1:21) the male and female of that beautiful songbird species!

Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) Male and Female ©WikiC

“The cardinal is a favorite bird of many people and it’s easy to see why. The brilliant scarlet plumage of the male and the subtle shades of the female, combined with their clear melodic song, make them enjoyable to watch (and to listen to] in any season.” [Quoting from Donald Stokes & Lillian Stokes, A Guide to Bird Behavior, Volume II (Little, Brown & Co., 1983), page 247.]

But, could it be that birds also like to watch humans? And could it even be that mechanical “birds” appreciate humans who move around in front of them?

Plastic Cardinal from ebay.com

[ plastic cardinal image from http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/251378388026?lpid=82&chn=ps ]

Lately my wife have been having fun at my expenses, using a “toy” cardinal. The cardinal was given to her by Marcia Webel (of Florida, wife of Chaplain Bob Webel). It is a smaller than life-sized bird shaped and colored like a male cardinal, and it can make “vocal” noises like one, too. But it is a “motion-activated” machine. In other words, it is “selective” in when it “chooses” to sound off its recorded chirping sounds (which do sound like a real cardinal). But it’s not really making decisions about when to chirp; it’s just a programmed machine that is designed with receptor features that sense motion nearby, and the inventor designed the machine to “trigger” its recorded sounds whenever its receptors “recognize” such motions.

So far, so good.

But here is the puzzle: my wife moves in front of the “cardinal” and he chirps for her, just like the toy’s inventor designed him to do. Then I dance (not in public, of course, — just in the privacy of our kitchen) in front of the “cardinal” and he is silent. Silent! So I dance again. Silent, silent! So I try a few Tae Kwon Do maneuvers (kicking, punching, whirling, bowing) – and he is still silent. If proving my body’s mobility was dependent upon the “cardinal” chirping I would be diagnosed as paralyzed or unconscious.

It seems like the “cardinal” is “selective” regarding which human he is “willing” to chirp for. But that can’t be, you say, and you are right.

A lifeless machine – even one that looks like and sounds like a male cardinal – cannot really “select” anything.

The very idea that anything lifeless can “select” anyone or anything is silly, because the English word “select” necessarily includes the actions of thinking and choosing. (Of course, the preprogrammed actions of the machine do reveal the thought and choices of the machine’s inventor.)

By now I’m sure you see the parallel to God our Creator, Who programmed all of creation to perform according to how He invented His creatures and the world that He put them in. (He made the planning and programming choices needed to invent all the birds, and ourselves, and everything else — God did it, not “nature”.)

It is both silly and deceptive to use the phrase “natural selection” to imply that nonliving substances (like sunlight, wind, rain, snow, lightning bolts, etc.) are a kind of “natural selection” that orders “nature”. In fact, the phrase “natural selection” is a science-fiction example of “bait-and-switch” [See “Bait and Switch”, at http://www.icr.org/article/bait-switch-trick-used-by-both-anglerfish ]

Yet that very misleading phrase (“natural selection”) is spun as a secular God-substitute, to explain the origin of species that inhabit our fine-tuned planet. [See “DNA and RNA: Providential Coding to ‘Revere’ God”, at http://www.icr.org/article/dna-rna-providential-coding-revere ] Obviously, the mechanical “cardinal”, with its puzzling actions that “react” to some (but not all) motions, was invented by a clever inventor. How much moreso is our Creator-God a clever inventor! It is God Who selected how to make our bodies, to eat food (Acts 14:17) and to grow (Psalm 139) and to do so many other amazing things during our earthly lives. And He also invented the real cardinals! (And sometimes real cardinals watch me, so there!)

Maybe I don’t have the kind of “walk” that causes a mechanical cardinal to “sing”. As we all know, you need to have the “walk”, not just the “talk”.

So who do you watch? If you only sang a song if and when someone walked in front of you, but not if he (or she) merely talked, who would you sing for?

The best sermons are role-modeled – those who “walk” their “talk” are truly the best communicators! When we consider the “talk” and “walk” of other Christians, as we do without consciously trying, we are evaluating which Christians we think are moving in step with God’s Word. Some are. Others aren’t. (And some we can’t be too sure about – see 1^st Timothy 5:24.)

Meanwhile, as we move through this world, from day to day, are our own lives worth watching?

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. (Matthew 5:16)

Orni-Theology

James J. S. Johnson

Cardinalidae – Cardinals, Grosbeaks and allies

Pond-side Birdwatching in Florida III

March 5, 2015 by James J. S. Johnson

Pond-side Birdwatching-Webel Backyard

Pond-side Birdwatching in Florida,

from Chaplain Bob’s Backyard: Part 3

by James J. S. Johnson

Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove: mine eyes fail with looking upward: O Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me. (Isaiah 38:14)

But they that escape of them shall escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity. (Ezekiel 7:16)

O ye that dwell in Moab, leave the cities, and dwell in the rock, and be like the dove that maketh her nest in the sides of the hole’s mouth. (Jeremiah 48:28)

Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura) by Daves BirdingPix

Doves (a kind of birds that include pigeons) are among the most commonly observed birds in the world. Doves display great variety (mourning dove, turtle dove, zebra dove, Inca dove, white-winged dove, etc.), the most popular variety being the pigeon (whose more formal name is “rock dove”). Doves illustrate 2 different nesting habits (both being mentioned in Deuteronomy 22:6-7): some nest in trees or other high places; others nest on the ground. Pigeons are often seen, due to their conspicuous habit of domesticating urban habitats (such as city buildings and bridges), nesting in high places (as indicated by , feeding, and flying in plain view of human spectators – often learning to accept food from humans, or to scavenge human garbage. However, other doves (such as mourning doves) nest on the ground, a more vulnerable lifestyle. Doves that nest on the ground, however, tend to be more reclusive (hiding in bushes and other thick vegetation), so they are more often heard than seen. For example, in this birding report, brief mention will be made of a cooing mourning dove – that was heard, but not seen.

As reported previously, at Lee’s Birdwatching Adventures, it was a wonderful morning in St. Petersburg, where 3 of us (my dear friends in Christ, Chaplain Bob and Marcia Webel, and I) were watching the duck-populated pond and its bird-visited shores, with coffee and feet propped up, in the Webels’ backyard — under a huge beach umbrella, shielded from occasional droppings (!) from ibises and ospreys (who were perched in branches hanging over where we were) sitting with binoculars, coffee mugs, healthy breakfast foods, and a bird-book. Mostly we were bird-watching, that morning, but also we were bird-listening!

Muscovy Duck

MUSCOVY (a/k/a “MUSCOVY DUCK” or “BARBARY DUCK”: Cairina moschata).

RTP @ 52-53 & 302-303

The Muscovy Duck is a strange looking fowl. (And its name refers to “musk”, so it must have a characteristic smell, too!) It is a duck, yet it is large – the size of a goose. Yet even stranger are the colorful growths of red flesh upon its face: the Muscovy looks like someone spilled some red bumpy-lumpy oatmeal on the sides of its bill, and on some of them the “red oatmeal” stuck to the face even around the eyes. This fleshy growth is wattle-like “caruncle”, something like what turkey faces display. Some people dislike the Muscovy Duck simply because its knobby (i.e., carunculated) face looks grotesque or diseased or “corrupted”! But Mallards don’t seem to disdain these beauty contest flunkies; often a Muscovy (or two) is seen amidst a group of Mallards, and it seems that maybe they sometimes hybridize. The coloring of a Muscovy Duck might be mostly white, or mostly black (with iridescent green tinting), or a quilt-patched mixture of black and white, with large white “patches” or “bars” on the wings. (See Roger Tory Peterson, A Field Guide to the Birds Eastern Birds: A Completely New Guide to All the Birds of Eastern and Central North America, abbreviated as “Eastern Birds” [Peterson Field Guides, Houghton Mifflin, 1980], at pages 52-53 & 302-303.) The Muscovy’s awkward gait, when waddling about, sometimes looks a clumsy-looking, but these strange ducks are hearty survivors. Regardless of where they came from (some say Latin America), these ducks are here to stay. A domesticated form of the Muscovy is bred as the Pato Criollo (i.e., Creole Duck), though it seems that many of these have figured out how to escape their intended culinary destinies, becoming semi-wild as escapees. Muscovy Ducks have been observed and studied for centuries. The Muscovy Duck was noted by two of the earliest (and most godly) eco-science geniuses, Konrad Gessner and John Ray, both being Bible-believing creationists. To appreciate just an introductory sample of their trail-blazing creation research, analysis, and scholarship, see: http://www.icr.org/article/christianity-cause-modern-science/ (mentioning John Ray), http://www.icr.org/article/graffiti-judgment/ (mentioning, in Footnote #3, both Konrad Gessner and John Ray), and http://www.icr.org/article/fossil-political-correctness-sixteenth-century (mentioning Konrad Gessner as a Bible-believing Christian ecologist).

Feeding White Ibises at Lake Morton

WHITE IBIS (Eudocimus albus).

The White Ibis is a white-plumed wading bird, with a reddish/orange-scarlet/pinkish/salmon-colored “decurved” (i.e., downward-curved) bill — shown here (with Dan Dusing, Baron Brown, and me — in a lakeshore photograph taken by ornithologist Lee Dusing) being fed bread crumbs. The White Ibis is a gregarious bird, nesting in colonies and often seen foraging as a group. Its homes are found in coastal mudflats, lakes and lakeshores, ponds and pondshores, and marshy areas. (Obviously this group of ibises have been fed bread crumbs before – they are quite ready for a tasty snack!) During the breeding season the White Ibis also has skinny pink legs (about the same color as its prominent bill, but at non-breeding times these legs are duller in color), — and this bird knows how to scurry about on those legs! The decurved bill, of course, is an excellent tool for probing around in shoreline mud or sand, for little things to eat, such as small crustaceans (like mudcrabs), frogs, or bugs. (Obviously God gets the credit, for designing the ibis bill to accomplish what it does for the ibis, as well as for supplying ibis populations with the food sources they need to carry on the business of life.) If the White Ibis bill snaps your fingers, as you feed him (or her) a bread-crumb, don’t worry! – the ibis’s bill is so light and gentle that its peck doesn’t hurt at all. The White Ibis is found all over Florida, year-round, as well as on the Gulf Coast and America’s East Coast as far north as North Carolina. (See Peterson’s Eastern Birds” [noted above, in entry for Muscovy Duck], at page M105.) Why do fishermen especially appreciate the White Ibis? The ibises eat a lot of shoreline crustaceans (like crabs and crayfish), which in turn eat fish eggs. So if the crustacean populations grow too much, eating lots of fish eggs, the fish populations decline – bad news for fishermen. Without consciously realizing it, therefore, the White Ibis is protecting the reproductive success of coastal fish populations — on which human fishermen (and their customers) rely. (See the National Audubon Society’s Field Guide to North American Birds – Eastern Region [Alfred A, Knopf, 1994 revised edition], co-authored by John Bull & John Farrand, Jr., at page 376.)

Great Egret at Gatorland by Dan

GREAT WHITE EGRET (Ardea alba or Casmerodius albus).

The Great White Egret (a/k/a “Great Egret”) is a large long-legged heron-like wading bird, white in plumage, with a yellow bill and black legs. (See Bull & Farrand’s Eastern Region [noted above, in entry for White Ibis], at page 368.) This truly “great” egret is often seen standing, like a statute, on the shoreline of a pond, waiting for movement that would betray the availability, in the shallow water or the shoreline weeds, of a quick meal – perhaps a fish, a frog, or even a snake. Donald and Lillian Stokes describe its eating habits as follows: “Primarily feeds by walking slowly, head erect, then striking prey. Forages in shallow water for small fish and amphibians [like frogs], but also on land for insects, reptiles [like snakes], and small mammals. May feed solitarily and defend feeding areas by displaying aggressively and supplanting intruders. Also feeds in large groups when food is concentrated. Has been known to steal fish from other birds.” (Quoting Donald W. Stokes & Lillian Q. Stokes, Stokes Field Guide to Birds – Eastern Region [Little, Brown & Co., 1996], page 34.) During summer this egret also frequents marshy grasslands, tidal mudflats, salt marsh beaches, and other wet habitats – all over America’s lower 48 states. During winter this fair-weather fowl routinely migrates to America’s East (northward to Delaware), Gulf Coast, and West Coast. It makes guttural-hoarse croaking noises, as well as loud squawking noises, but it is usually seen before it is heard – due to its large size and strikingly white color. Its flight is majestic and gracious — a marvel to watch, with or without binoculars.

Common Tern (Sterna hirundo) by J Fenton

COMMON TERN (Sterna hirundo).

The Common Tern is one of the many coastline-dwelling birds that get lumped into the term “seagull”. The Common Tern has been described as “White with black cap and pale gray back and wings. Bill red with black tip; tail deeply forked. Similar to Forster’s Tern, but lacks frosty wing tip. Also similar to Arctic and Roseate Terns.” (Quoting Bull & Farrand’s Eastern Region [noted above, in entry for White Ibis], at page 519.) This seagull likes to nest in colonies, often on sandy beaches or on small islands, near lakes, bays, or ocean tidewaters. Unsurprisingly, the males are the more aggressive sex, although a male intruder may be rebuffed by a male-and-female pair — so don’t mess with a Common Tern couple! (See “Common Tern”, by Donald W. Stokes & Lillian Q. Stokes, in Bird Behavior, Volume III [Little, Brown & Co., 1989], page 71.)

Mourning Dove by Reinier Munguia

MOURNING DOVE (heard cooing — Zenaida macroura).

Many books could be written about the Mourning Dove, and about its many cousins – such as the “pigeon” (Rock Dove) – that inhabit so many rural, suburban, and urban places around the world (as noted above, at the beginning of this birding report). But a better description and appreciation for this bird must wait another day, because this report is already too long! So, for now, this report closes with a passing mention that “mourning” was heard that morning – the plaintive cooing of the (well-named) Mourning Dove. But no need for sadness – because it will soon be (God willing) another day for pondside birdwatching in Florida!

On the morning of February 9^th, AD2015, from the pond-side backyard of Bob & Marcia Webel (while enjoying breakfast and Christian fellowship with the Webels), I saw 14 birds: Great Blue Heron, Brown Pelican, Mallard, Double-Crested Cormorant, Black Vulture, Wood Stork, Lesser Scaup, Osprey, Snowy Egret, and Florida Gallinule, as reported previously, — and, as reported hereinabove, Muscovy Duck, Great Egret, White Ibis, and Common Tern, plus the cooing of a nearby Mourning Dove was clearly recognizable. What a morning!

James J. S. Johnson loves duck ponds, having formerly taught Environmental Limnology and Water Quality Monitoring for Dallas Christian College, as well as other courses on ecology and ornithology. Limnology terms are not universal: what some call a “pond” others call a “lake”. [NOTE: Some use the temperature of the bottom water as the lentic nomenclature determinant: if the bottom water is the same temperature, year-round (i.e., regardless of whether it is winter or summer), it’s deep enough to be a “lake” – otherwise limnologists call it a “pond”.] Regardless of this semantic custom, the “pond” viewed in the foregoing bird-watching report is called “Lake Coronado” in Florida’s Pinellas County. J

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Pond-side Birdwatching in Florida I

Pond-side Birdwatching in Florida II

Other Articles by James J. S. Johnson

Pond-side Birdwatching in Florida II

March 2, 2015 by James J. S. Johnson

Pond-side Birdwatching in Florida,

from Chaplain Bob’s Backyard: Part 2

by James J. S. Johnson

Muscovy ducklings in the rain (photo credit: J Pat Carter / AP)

For He [i.e., God] maketh small the drops of water: they pour down rain according to the vapor thereof, which the clouds do drop and distil [literally, pour down and drop down] upon man abundantly. (Job 36:27-28)

For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and returns not there, but waters the earth, and makes it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. (Isaiah 55:10-11)

[photo above: http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02298/ducklings_2298053k.jpg ]

A pond is not a pond unless it has standing [“lentic”] water, — yet a pond will eventually dry up (and thus cease to be a “pond”) if cloud-dumped rains fail to refill its standing waters! (The same is true of running [“lotic”] waters – see 1^st Kings 17:7.) Why? Because rain-provided water is always escaping ponds by evaporation. (That’s why swimming pool owners must continually add more water to their pools.)

Accordingly, every pond needs rain (or snow that melts into rain-like liquid water), sooner or later, to be a pond! Obviously, steady rainfall impedes birdwatching, so ideal birdwatching is done when it is not raining. Even so, all bird-watchers should appreciate the rains that God sends, from time to time! In fact, rain is a major part of God’s program for how our world and its diverse lifeforms function: birds need rain, other animals need rain, people need rain, plants need rain, even microörganisms needs rain, — and all of that water is continually recycled throughout the earth! In fact, Earth itself is mostly water!

As the prophet Isaiah noted [above]—and as every Gideon knows — God’s providentially sustained hydrologic cycle is comparable to how, all over the world, God carefully manages and orchestrates the specific influence and productivity of His written Word. For more Scriptures relevant to Earth’s water cycle, see also Deuteronomy 8:7 & 32:2; Job 26:8; Ecclesiastes 1:7 & 11:3; Amos 5:8 & 9:6; Psalm 19:1-2 (noting that solar heat affects the sky) & 65:9-10 & 72:6 & 104:10-18 & 135:7; Isaiah 30:23; Jeremiah 10:13 & 14:22 & 51:16; Zechariah 10:1; — and especially Luke 12:54.

This birding report follows “Part 1” of this mini-series. As noted in Part 1, I happily observed the busy birds at the pond that borders the backyard of Chaplain Bob and Marcia Webel (of St. Petersburg, Florida) on the morning of February 9^th (AD2015), a Monday, when we saw 14 birds and heard (but did not see) a mourning dove. As noted before, those birds were busy — quacking, splashing, swimming, perching on shoreline tree branches, dabbling, diving, and with several of them sporadically flying here and there.

Already, 5 of those lacustrine birds were described in Part 1 (Great Blue Heron, Brown Pelican, Mallard, Double-Crested Cormorant, and Black Vulture). This Part 2 will feature 5 more: Wood Stork, Lesser Scaup, Osprey, Snowy Egret, and Common Moorhen. (Hopefully, the remaining 5 birds will be mentioned in an anticipated “Part 3” of this series.)

Wood Stork (Mycteria americana) By Dan’sPix

WOOD STORK (Mycteria americana).

The Wood Stork (in some places nicknamed “Flinthead”, and f/k/a “wood ibis”) is a huge, long-legged wading bird, built somewhat like a large egret, heron, ibis, or spoonbill. This bird is tall! — with adults growing from 3 to almost 4 feet high! The Wood Stork sports a long, flexible, blackish-grey, featherless neck. Its ibis-like head is likewise featherless and not likely to be called beautiful (except by its mother). Its powerful and prodigious bill is stout and slightly curved, well-fitted for probing in mud or muddy water, and for gobbling up fish, frogs, snakes, bugs, and worms located in wetland mud. Storks sometimes eat small birds, small mammals, and even baby alligators! The feathers of the Wood Stork are mostly white, except for the tail-feathers and black edge of its wings, which trail behind when the stork is flying. Its feet are noticeably reddish in color.

Wood Stork (Mycteria americana) sitting by Dan

The Wood Stork is typically mute (i.e., no vocal calls), communicating in other ways, such as by “bill-clattering”. Being very large – and therefore heavy — birds, Wood Storks try to conserve their food-provided energy when flying. Like other heavy birds (e.g., eagles, vultures, hawks), storks locate and “ride” thermal air currents, soaring and gliding when they can. A true wetland bird, the Wood Stork is comfortable in a variety of wet habitats (such as ponds, marshy pastures, and swampy woodlands). Storks construct huge nests for their families, typically as part of a stork colony (which may include literally thousands of stork pairs), often adding size to them year after year – some being built to about 6 feet in diameter and about 10 feet in depth! Usually storks are monogamous (i.e., a male and female stay paired till one dies) although, for reasons not understood, sometimes pairs can get separated during a migration. The dependability of the stork, in its migratory movements, is reflected in its Hebrew name (chasidah) which means “faithful” — see Jeremiah 8:7, explained in “A Lesson from the Stork” (posted at http://www.icr.org/article/lesson-from-stork ). Although they often migrate – spending summer in the southeastern states, these storks are known to reside in Florida (and parts of Georgia) year-round. (See range map in Donald W. Stokes & Lillian Q. Stokes, Stokes Field Guide to Birds – Eastern Region [Little, Brown & Co., 1996], page 47, — as well as National Audubon Society’s Field Guide to North American Birds – Eastern Region [Alfred A, Knopf, 1994 revised edition], co-authored by John Bull & John Farrand, Jr., at page 379-380.)

Lesser Scaup (Aythya affinis) by Ray

LESSER SCAUP (a/k/a “LITTLE BLUEBILL”: Aythya affinis).

The Lesser Scaup looks a lot like the Greater Scaup, but there are two ways to distinguish these look-almost-alike ducks: (1) different shapes of their respective heads and bills; and (2) different winter ranges of territory where they live. Donald and Lillian Stokes note the following traits: “Head and bill shapes are most useful characteristics distinguishing [the Lesser Scaup] from the Greater Scaup … [on the] Lesser Scaup the head comes to a peak at the top or near the back [of the head]; [the Lesser Scaup] bill is slightly shorter and narrower [than that of the Greater Scaup].” (Quoting Stokes & Stokes, Stokes Field Guide to Birds – Eastern Region [noted above, in entry on the Wood Stork], page 75.) Regarding the respective ranges of scaups, the typical winter range territories of the Lesser Scaup includes the East Coast, Gulf Coast, West Coast, and non-mountainous regions of states (including most of Texas) that include the greater Mississippi River Valley’s tributary drainage basin.

Greater Scaup (Aythya marila) by Ray

The Greater Scaup, however, has a winter range that usually includes only the northern portions of the West Coast and East Coast, plus regions near the Great Lakes. (Compare the sparser ranges indicated in Stokes & Stokes, Eastern Region, at page 75, with the range maps in Roger Tory Peterson, A Field Guide to the Birds Eastern Birds: A Completely New Guide to All the Birds of Eastern and Central North America, abbreviated as “Eastern Birds” [Peterson Field Guides, Houghton Mifflin, 1980], at maps M43 & M44, with field notes at pages 58 & 72.) In other words, if it’s a scaup on a Florida pond, it’s probably a Lesser Scaup! The male of this duck has an easy-to recognize color pattern: its bill is pale blue, its head, breast, and tail are dark-blackish; its flanks are white, and its back is mottled grey. In bright sunlight the male’s head has a purplish iridescence. The female is mostly dark grey-brownish and black, with a noticeable white patch-like spots on both sides of her dark bill. (As with ducks generally, the easiest way to spot a female Lesser Scaup is to watch for a dark duck that pairs with a male Lesser Scaup!) These ducks are divers – they dive into pond-water to catch and consume submergent plant seeds, insects, snails, and small crustaceans. These duck are seen on ponds, lakes, rivers, and marshlands (including “prairie potholes” and estuarial saltmarshes). Lesser Scaups, like ducks generally, are social creatures – sometimes they aggregate in hundreds or even thousands! In many places, due to the availability of needed resources – which may be indicted by the size of a lake or pond, less than a hundred (maybe only a dozen) will group together. Bird-books sometimes allege irresponsible and irrational opinions about how scaups supposedly “evolved” (e.g., Bull & Farrand, Eastern Region [noted above, in entry on the Wood Stork], at page 403), without any forensic evidence for such science fiction. The real truth is that all Lesser Scaups (like all other ducks) ultimately descend from ducks that disembarked Noah’s Ark, about 4500 years ago, which Flood survivors were themselves s directly descended form ducks that God made on Day #5 of Creation Week (see Genesis 1:21).

Osprey at Circle B by Lee

OSPREY (a/k/a “FISH HAWK”: Pandion haiaetus).

The Osprey is rightly nicknamed the “fish hawk” – they love to catch and eat fish! And, to the delight of bird-watchers, ospreys are not afraid to display their fish-eating lifestyle to nearby humans. Donald and Lillian Stokes make this interesting observation about osprey behavior: “Among our birds of prey the osprey is one of the most amenable to living near humans. Its main requirements are open water [such as a Florida pond!] where it can hunt for fish and a platform or strong tree where it can build its nest. Ospreys have occasionally built nests [or use habitual perching sites] right next to homes [such as a large tree in the Webels’ backyard, bordering the pond], in parking lots, and in public parks. Although they do not prefer being near humans [especially busy humans who move around a lot, causing distraction], they do seem to tolerate human presence, an ability that is a big asset for the survival of any species.” (Quoting “Osprey”, by Donald W. Stokes & Lillian Q. Stokes, in Bird Behavior, Volume III (Little, Brown & Co., 1989), page 159.] The Osprey has a range that includes river systems in America’s Great West (e.g., Wyoming’s Snake River), a well as coastlines on the West Coast, Gulf Coast, and East Coast. (See Stokes & Stokes, Eastern Region [noted above, in entry on the Wood Stork], at page 94.) This “fish hawk” is relatively slender, for a hawk, but obviously stouter than a falcon.

Osprey Catching Fish – Viera Wetlands by Dan

The Osprey is long-winged, white underneath (except the outer feathers of its wings, and its tail, which are brown), with a mottled brown pattern above; its head is mostly white, with a dark side-streak that passes “through” each eye and on the side of the hawk’s face. The talons of this fish-grabber are opened for prey, when the Osprey dives into water, tightly clutching any fish it succeeds in seizing after it splashes into the water. Sometimes a dead Osprey is seen hanging onto a riverine fish. How did that happen? Occasionally a strong fish flees when attacked by an Osprey, diving deeper with the Osprey still attached, as the desperate fish tries to avoid its avian pursuer. If the Osprey’s talons are embedded in the diving fish’s flesh, the fish may cause the Osprey to die by drowning, if the Osprey cannot shake loose its talons in time to escape. (Fishing always has its hazards, as any fisherman knows!) If the Osprey is successful, it quickly re-surfaces and flies off with its fish, adjusting its hold on the fish so that the fish’s face is pointed forward – for safe eating. Ospreys are sloppy eaters. If Ospreys eat chunks of their catch while perched in tree branches that spread over where you are sitting, watch out! Fish scraps may fall on your head – or something worse (!) might drop onto your head. Therefore, a wide beach umbrella (like one that Bob and Marcia Webel have, and use in their backyard, while bird-watching) is a good “shield” to have when Ospreys are eating above you.

Snowy Egret (Egretta thula) Notice Yellow Feet by Lee at Circle B

SNOWY EGRET (Egretta thula).

This beautiful white-feathered egret looks like a small version of the Great Egret (a/k/a Great White Egret), except it has its trademark “golden slippers” – i.e., its long skinny black legs end with feet that are conspicuously bright-yellow (unlike the black feet of a Great White Egret). Also, the slender Snowy Egret has a thin black bill, in contrast to the thicker golden-yellow bill of the stouter Great White Egret. (See Roger Tory Peterson, Eastern Birds [noted above, in entry on the Lesser Scaup], pages 102-103 & map M93 & M444.) Sometimes the Snowy Egret’s feathers, at the back of its head, “hang loose” (i.e., these feathers won’t lay down close to the bird’s head/neck), looking somewhat like a comb-over that won’t “sit down”). Its feet stir up opportunities to find food: “When feeding [it] rushes about, shuffling [its] feet to stir up food.” (Quoting Peterson, Eastern Birds, at page 102.)

Snowy Egret Circle B by Lee

Like other egrets, the Snowy Egret habituates the marshy edges of lakes and ponds, as well as other marshy areas, eating fish and almost anything else it can grab with its bill. The summer range of this elegant egret is broad – it can be found at and near many lakes, ponds, estuarial marshlands, and even wet pasturelands throughout America’s lower 48 states. During winter it can be found all over Florida , as well as all along the Gulf Coast, along the East Coast as far north as North Carolina, plus parts of California (See Stokes & Stokes, Stokes Field Guide to Birds – Eastern Region [noted above, in entry on the Wood Stork], at page 35.) notwithstanding taxonomic “splitting”, this is basically the same bird that Europeans call the “Little Egret” (Egretta garzetta), which winters in northern Africa. (See, accord, Chris Kightley, Steve Madge, & Dave Nurney, Pocket Guide to Birds of Britain and North-West Europe [British Trust for Ornithology/Yale University Press, 1998], page 19.)

CommonMoorhen (Gallinula chloropus) by Reinier Munguia

Candy-Corn

FLORIDA GALLINULE (a/k/a “COMMON MOORHEN” & “COMMON GALLINULE”: Gallinula chloropus).

This gallinule (i.e., chicken-sized marsh-fowl) is almost all black, with a characteristic and conspicuous yellow-tipped scarlet-red bill. (Actually the scarlet part of the bill can fade to a less vibrant reddish hue during winter.) Due to the specific color pattern and shape of this gallinule’s bill, ornithologist Lee Dusing aptly calls this the “candy corn” bird. (Some of us remember “candy corn” as a trick-or-treat candy.) This waterfowl makes a variety of noises, including chicken-like clucking noises (befitting its nickname “moorhen”). The Florida Gallinule is quite similar to the American Coot (which, though a similarly shaped black gallinule, is distinguishable by its all-white bill) and the Purple Gallinule (which is distinguishable due to its male’s iridescent peacock-blue, indigo, and slightly purplish breast and neck feathers, and its glossy green back feathers). The long “fingers” (i.e., toes) on their feet enable this gallinule to spread out their modest body weight so that they can “walk” on lily pads and similar vegetation that floats in marshy lentic waters. This gallinule (or “moorhen”) habituates lakes, ponds, and marshy wet places, often near cattails, summering in states east of and within the Mississippi River Valley, plus a few coastal place on the West Coast. (See Stokes & Stokes, Stokes Field Guide to Birds – Eastern Region [noted above, in entry on the Wood Stork], page 139; Bull & Farrand, Eastern Region [noted above, in entry on the Wood Stork], at page 459.) Its diet includes marshy vegetation (especially seeds), snails, land bugs, and water bugs. This rail-like bird is entertaining to watch, routinely bobs its head while swimming across a pond. Like coots they confidently swim in open-water contexts where they are easily observable to appreciative bird-watchers (like me).

Wow! That’s another 5 of the 15 birds that the Webels and I observed, that morning, from the Webels’ pond-side backyard. Stay tuned! God willing, the remaining 5 birds will be given their proper recognition, at this excellent bird-site!

On the morning of February 9^th, AD2015, from the pond-side backyard of Bob & Marcia Webel (while enjoying breakfast and Christian fellowship with the Webels), I saw 14 birds: Great Blue Heron, Brown Pelican, Mallard, Double-Crested Cormorant, and Black Vulture – as reported previously – plus Wood Stork, Lesser Scaup, Osprey, Snowy Egret, White Ibis, Common Tern, and Florida Gallinule, — as reported above — as well as Muscovy Duck, Great Egret, White Ibis, and Common Tern, plus the cooing of a nearby Mourning Dove was clearly recognizable. It is hoped (God willing) that one more report will supplement this one, so the remaining 5 birds will be properly recognized for their lacustrine appearances on that Monday morning.

James J. S. Johnson loves duck ponds, having formerly taught Environmental Limnology and Water Quality Monitoring for Dallas Christian College, as well as other courses on ecology and ornithology. The hydrologic cycle Scriptures (quoted at the beginning of this bird-watching report) are especially appreciated by Jim, as a Certified Water Quality Monitor, certified by and serving the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, providing reports on Furneaux Creek to the Trinity River Authority of Texas. Like us all, birds need clean water! Accordingly, backyard pond habitats are for bird-watching!

Pond-side Birdwatching in Florida I

Other Articles by James J. S. Johnson

Seventh Anniversary

February 26, 2015 by Lee

Flamingo by Dan’ at Flamingo Gardens

Wow! Has it now been seven years since I started writing the Birds of the Bible articles? February 2008 is the original beginning month of the blog. It was started using Blogspot, but moved here to WordPress in July of that year. If you take a look at the articles below you will see how the Lord has been blessing over these years.

Today with almost 1.3 million visits (with WordPress), over 1,100 followers and 216 Flags of countries that you have visited from, I am amazed. Here is a quote from the 1st Anniversary blog:

Our pastor just reminded us of a quote by William Carey, an English Missionary to India:

Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God.

I am not sure this was attempted as a “great thing,” but it was attempted to honor the Lord. That is a very great thing, and God has turned that attempt into a blog that has been visited over 10,000 times just since July. Many of those visits have come from around the world. Thank all of you for your visits.

Carey also said, “If I begin a thing I must go through with it!” This blog has been started and we trust we will continue to keep writing about God’s wonderful creation, especially His birds, and the joy of observing all God’s marvelous handiwork.

Because of this blog many you have become great friends that most we have never met personally, and you are from around the world, where Dan and I will never visit. Yet many of you will be sharing eternity with us and we will meet as we share the presence of Our Saviour. What a thought!

Thanks to the many writers that have added greatly to the blog; Ian, Dottie, Emma, Golden Eagle (Baron), James J S Johnson, Stephen, and others.

Thank you for your visits! Thank you for your friendships! Especially THANK YOU LORD!

I would like to use Paul’s words to express my feelings:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ; (Philippians 1:2-6 NKJV)

Yes, I do pray for many of you even by name. I especially pray for those of you who do not know the peace of knowing my Savior and the Creator of these fantastic birds.

Some of the previous articles about the anniversaries:

European Dipper, Norway’s National Bird

February 25, 2015 by James J. S. Johnson

White-throated Dipper (Cinclus cinclus) by Ian

European Dipper, Norway’s National Bird

by Dr. James J. S. Johnson

Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. (Matthew 6:34)

EUROPEAN DIPPER

Orni-Theology

The official bird of Norway is the White-throated Dipper (a/k/a European Dipper: Cinclus cinclus). Unlike the American Dipper (which is dark-black all over), it has a mix of colors: brown head, white throat/bib, chestnut belly, and blackish back and tail.

As the range map shows, this little bird is known to range over all of Norway, as a year-round resident. This bird needs running freshwater, because that is where its primary source of food resides. And Norway has lots of fast-running freshwater, especially as mountain snow melts and flows downhill, in crevices, waterfalls, streams, and other drainage pathways that lead westward to the sea.

White-throated Dipper aka European Dipper

This passerine (i.e., perching songbird) bird is thus deemed an “aquatic” bird, due to its familiar habit of dipping into freshwater for food – and “walking” across the streambed as it fishes (underwater) for insect larvae and other edible morsels found in streambeds.

Specifically, this dipper has too behavioral movements that fit its name: (1) as it perches near quick-flowing stream-waters, it often (and suddenly – some say “spasmodically”) bobs, with its tail propped up (somewhat like a wren), near the splashing water; and (2) it dives into such lotic waters, sometimes after wading into the water’s edge: then submerges itself by quickly plunging in (or diving in), with a small splash. While underwater it seems to swim, though its wings actually “fly” underwater, or (at times when the current is stronger) the submerged bird vigorously “rows” its sturdy wings, like oars, to resist the under-current, in order to steady its underwater position.

Dipper under water by Getty Images

The Dipper can also use its strong prehensile toes (i.e., it can grip with its feet, almost like a human hand) to grab onto projecting substrates on the bottom of a stream, while simultaneously straining its muscles (and keeping its head bent down so that it can see what is on the streambed) to prevent it from rising to the water’s surface – thus giving the appearance that it is “walking on the bottom” of the stream!

While underwater the dipper collects its food (which is often “epibenthic”, i.e., located on top of the stream-bottom sediments), such as caddisfly larvae (and other insect larvae), as well as small freshwater mollusks, fish, and amphibians – and a favorite freshwater crustacean, the thin amphipod shrimp (of the genus Gammarus, a genus containing marine “scud”, estuarial, and freshwater shrimps known for their detritivorous / scavenging habits).

What a strange bird! Yet it is determined to use its anatomy and strength to get food for the day, even appearing to defy gravity while it does. It may not be a huge buffet banquet table, by our standards, but it is enough – so the bird eats what it needs, one day at a time.

Just face one day of challenges at a time – what a concept!

Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. (Matthew 6:34)

Orni-theology

James J S Johnson

Dippers – Cinclidae

Good News

Pond-side Birdwatching in Florida I

February 18, 2015 by James J. S. Johnson

Pond-side Birdwatching in Florida,

from Chaplain Bob’s Backyard: Part 1

by James J. S. Johnson

He turneth the wilderness into a standing water [’agam = “pond”], and dry ground into water-springs. (Psalm 107:35)

Another wonderful morning in St. Petersburg (Florida), gazing at the duck pond and its marshy shores, with mocha coffee, buttered rye toast, and my feet propped up, birdwatching from the pond-side backyard of Chaplain Bob and Marcia Webel — under a huge beach umbrella, shielded from the occasional post-digestion droppings (!) from several ibises and ospreys perched in branches that hung over where were sat, birdwatching, properly outfitted with binoculars, coffee mugs, breakfast foods, and a bird-book. That is what I was doing, by God’s grace, on Monday morning (2-9-AD2015) during February (which, by the way, is officially “National Bird-Feeding Month” – see 103^rd Congress, Volume 140, Congressional Record, for 2-23-1994, U.S. House of Representatives, Rep. John Porter speaking on “National Wild Bird Feeding Month”).

The lacustrine birds (in this backyard-and-pond setting) were busy, busy, busy, — and noisy! — with their morning activities. Most of them were ducks (mallards and lesser scaups). These lentic water-loving birds were busy: some were paddling across the pond, quacking, splashing, dabbling or diving, others were perching on shoreline tree branches, or loitering in the pond-edge marshy plants. Most of them were sporadically flying here and there, sometimes alone, sometimes as a group. (And they noticed the presence of turtles in the water, as well as a dog on the shoreline.) Sometimes tall wading birds (e.g., egrets and herons) perched atop the roofs of houses near the pond-shore. In that one morning, in just an hour or two, I saw at least 14 different birds, plus we heard the distinctive cooing of a mourning dove!

To memorialize the happy experience (which was all the more enjoyable because it was shared with my good friends Bob and Marcia Webel), please appreciate this quick report on those pond-side birds, blended with a few thoughts about those fair fowl — all of which birds were so carefully made and maintained by our Lord Jesus Christ. Of course, it would take too long to report, now, on all 15 birds that we then observed. So this report (God willing) will be just the first installment – reporting on the Great Blue Heron, Brown Pelican, Mallard, Double-Crested Cormorant, and Black Vulture, — within what should be a mini-series, eventually covering all 15 of those beautiful-to-behold backyard-pond-birds.

Great Blue Heron

GREAT BLUE HERON (Ardea herodias). The Great Blue Heron is a tall, majestic egret-like bird, poised and dignified. It can stand still as a statue for a long time, waiting for its food to become snatchable. When the heron spies its prey (likely a fish or frog – but maybe a small mammal, bird, lizard, or even a snake!), at the side of a pond, it stabs with sudden speed – the prey never saw that powerful, sharp, dagger-like beak coming – till it was too late! When in flight, the Great Blue Heron is graceful, purposeful, and dignified. The National Audubon Society’s Field Guide to North American Birds – Eastern Region (Alfred A, Knopf, 1994 revised edition), co-authored by John Bull & John Farrand, Jr., reports (at its page 367) this description of the Great Blue Heron: “A common, large, mainly [Confederate] grayish heron with pale or yellowish bill.” Its most habitat – which changes with seasonal migrations — is a pond’s edge, or that of a lake, stream, river, or marshland. What a regal bird! “For most of us, sightings of great blue herons are confined to a glimpse of the bird as it flies slowly and steadily overhead, wings arching gracefully down with each beat, neck bent back, and feet trailing behind. At other times we see it on its feeding grounds, standing motionless and staring intently into shallow water, or wading with measured steps as it searches for prey.” [Quoting from “Great Blue Heron”, by Donald W. Stokes & Lillian Q. Stokes, in Bird Behavior, Volume III (Little, Brown & Co., 1989), page 25.]

Brown Pelican and Laughing Gull by Dan MacDill Shore 2014

BROWN PELICAN (Pelecanus occidentalis). In their Field Guide to North American Birds – Eastern Region (noted above, in the Great Blue Heron entry), Bull & Farrand describe (at page 359) the Brown Pelican as a “very large, stocky bird with a dark brown body and a long flat bill”. The adult storks have an ivory-white head, dark throat pouch, with dark brown hindneck coloring during the mating season. The immature storks have dark brown heads and ivory-white breasts. These pelicans are year-round residents of Florida’s coastlands. Bull & Farrand (on page 359) also report that the Brown Pelican is the “only nonwhite pelican in the world”, describing its eating habit as follows: “…this marine bird obtains its food by diving from the air, its wings half folded as it plunges into the surf. During one of these dives, the pouched bill takes in both fish and water; the bird drains out the water before throwing its head back and swallowing the fish.” Donald and Lillian Stokes contrast this eating habit with that of the American White Pelican, which “feeds while floating on the water”. (See Donald W. Stokes & Lillian Q. Stokes, Stokes Field Guide to Birds – Eastern Region [Little, Brown & Co., 1996], page 25.) One characteristic behavior of pelicans – the world over (including the Holy Land) – is the practice of adult pelicans regurgitating partially digested food into the mouths of their young. “Pelicans” (Hebrew noun: qa’ath) are mentioned in Leviticus 11:18, Deuteronomy 14:17, and Psalm 102:6 [v. 7 in the Hebrew Bible’s verse numbering] – and apparently also in Isaiah 34:11 and Zephaniah 2:14. George Cansdale says: “All pelicans feed their young by partly digested food, taken by the chick as it puts its head down the parent’s throat. This regurgitation was the basis of the LXX and [Vulgate translation for] pelican, for [the Hebrew noun] qa’ath is said to mean ‘vomiter’.” (Quoting George S. Cansdale, All the Animals of the Bible [Zondervan, 1976], page 157.) Cansdale rightly notices this, because the Hebrew noun for “vomitus” is qa’ (an etymologically related noun, which appears in Proverbs 26:11).

Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) at Lake Parker By Dan’sPix

MALLARD (a/k/a “GREEN-HEAD”: Anas platyrhynchos). Mallards are nicknamed “green-heads”, due to the males’ iridescent green heads (which are bordered by a white neck ring). The mallard male’s breast is chestnut-hued. Mallards live both on the coasts and inland (at ponds, lakes, prairie potholes, marshlands, including saltmarshes), including the entirety of America’s lower 48 states, so they are common (and well-known to American birdwatchers), so commonly known facts about them will not be repeated here. Bull & Farrand [noted above, in the entry on Great Blue Heron] reports that the Mallard “is undoubtedly the most abundant duck in the world” (quoting page 392). Mallards are not only relatively ubiquitous, in their migratory or residential ranges (living or visiting in America, wherever migratory or residential ducks might be found), they are not shy around the habitat “edges” of human settlements. Mallards frequent parks and backyards near ponds or other water bodies (including manmade reservoirs), often learning (and anticipating) that humans might provide bread crumbs or popcorn. (But if you throw a piece of rotten banana into pond-water the mallards will not eat it.) Donald Stokes reports that males and females make different noises: “The quacking sound, which I had assumed that all Ducks made, can be made only by the female. The male has two other calls of his own – a nasal rhaeb sound and a short Whistle-call, the latter accompanying all of the group courtship displays.” (Donald W. Stokes, A Guide to Bird Behavior, Volume I (Stokes Nature Guides, Little, Brown & Co., 1979, page 31) Stokes goes on to say (pages 31-32) that this pattern of vocal behavior is not limited to Mallards – it also is observed in similar ducks including Gadwalls, Widgeons, Teals, Black Ducks, and Pintails. Remember, therefore, if you see a large group of Mallards on a pond, and you hear a lot of quacking, it’s the females who are making all that noise. (They might be trying to frighten of a turtle or other animal that is getting too close to their ducklings!)

Mallard Duck army marching (I know it's not a King, but it's cute) ©WikiC

Mallard Duck army marching ©WikiC

Mallards have good memories (as do all birds, I assume), and I have personal knowledge of that fact. More than 15 years ago, my son and I would regularly feed the ducks (mostly mallards, plus lesser scaups during the winter months) at a pond near Furneaux Creek (in Denton County, Texas), in the evening. But one day we were in a hurry — I don’t recall why — so we drove straight home, bypassing the pond, then driving about a block, taking a right turn, then after another block taking another right turn, then driving down the hilly street to near the end of the cul-de-sac in our neighborhood, parking the car by our mailbox. However, as we got out of the car (and I approached our mailbox at the edge of our small front yard), and as we stepped onto the sidewalk toward our home’s front yard, we were greeted by a host of energetically quacking ducks! — apparently they wanted to know why we didn’t make our usual stop to feed them at the pond. Embarrassed, we quickly found something to feed them, and we quickly scattered food scraps on our front yard, to satisfy our avian guests (and they gobbled up all the bread scraps)! Yes, I felt a bit ashamed of myself, that day, for disappointing the mallards that day — but I’m pretty sure that they “forgave” us. Life gets busy — but that should not become an excuse for ignoring those whom we have an opportunity to be kind to (Galatians 6:10), even if they are mallards who live at a nearby pond.

Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus) by Lee at Honeymoon Is SP

DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT (Phalacrocorax auritus). The male of this bird is basically black, like a super-sized crow, with a goldish-orange bill and throat pouch, featuring a long neck that is usually posed in an S curve if perching. (The female’s coloring is lighter – somewhat brownish-grey.) But why is this bird called “double-crested”? Don’t expect to observe any “crests” on its head (like a cardinal or a Steller’s jay), much less two of them! Donald and Lillian Stokes inform us that the description “refers to crests that grow during breeding” that, even then, are “hard to see”. (Stokes & Stokes, Stokes Field Guide to Birds – Eastern Region [noted above, in entry on Brown Pelican], page 27.) Stokes & Stokes also note (on page 27) that this cormorant is the most common cormorant seen in the Eastern region of America, on Atlantic (and Gulf of Mexico) coasts and farther inland, often wintering throughout the eastern half of Texas, and residing year-round in Florida. (For example, the Heard Natural Science Museum and Wildlife Sanctuary — located in McKinney, Texas — is a good place to view these cormorants.) Cormorants are known to live in the coastal areas of the Holy Land. The darting-to-its-prey habit, of diving cormorants, fits the Hebrew noun, shalak, often translated as “cormorant” (see Leviticus 11:17 & Deuteronomy 14:17). Like anhingas, these dark birds perch with outstretched wings, to dry out their wings after diving into and swimming in water for food (usually fish). Like vultures, eagles, and hawks, these large birds have a bit of difficulty launching their heavy bodies from the ground, so after they do ascend high enough, to reach rising thermal air currents, they position themselves to “ride” those air currents (sometimes ascending as if riding an elevator), soaring and gliding whenever those air currents are conveniently available. The double-crested cormorant’s neck is crooked in flight, unlike other cormorants. These are gregarious birds – they nest in colonies and they often fly in groups, either in a straight line of in V formation. (See Stokes & Stokes, page 27; see also page 361 of Bull & Farrand [noted above, in entry for Great Blue Heron].)

Black Vulture by Lee Myakka SP

BLACK VULTURE (Coragyps atratus). This eagle-like scavenger’s grey face distinguishes it from its cousin, the Turkey Vulture, which has a reddish-pink face Both of those faces are wrinkled, somber-looking, and – to put it bluntly – ugly. The Black Vulture is distinguished by its conspicuously “short square tail that barely projects from the rear edge of the wings and by a whitish patch toward the wing tip”. (Quoting Roger Tory Peterson, A Field Guide to the Birds Eastern Birds: A Completely New Guide to All the Birds of Eastern and Central North America, abbreviated as “Eastern Birds” [Peterson Field Guides, Houghton Mifflin, 1980] page 160, with illustration on page 161.) Black Vultures are somewhat feistier than their slightly larger cousins; they are known to scare off Turkey Vultures when there is competition for carrion. (See Bull & Farrand [noted above, in entry for Great Blue Heron] at pages 416-417. On the average, a Turkey Vulture grows about 4 inches larger than a Black Vulture, — yet both are about 2 feet long, from bill tip to tail tip. Anyway, a vulture (sometimes colloquially called a “buzzard”) is a vulture is a vulture, and this is a vulture! Vultures eat dead stuff – and sometimes even defenseless live animals. Scavengers by God’s design (serving as garbage collectors/processors for this fallen world), vultures love to pick over and eat dead stuff! God gave it a “naked” (featherless) head, which may be an advantage for keeping rotten food from besmirching its head with contagion, which might be more likely if its head was covered in feathers. But Black Vultures — like other vultures — routinely consume flies-infested, rotting, bacteria-breeding dead animal carcasses — why do they not get sick and die themselves of botulism or some other kind of food poisoning? Dan “the Animal-man” Breeding has the answer:

“What is a vulture’s job? They find and eat what I call “road pizza.” They basically help keep the environment livable by limiting the build-up of dead animals and the spread of disease. God carefully designed vultures, giving them the needed tools to find, digest, and keep clean after eating dead animals. Most meat-eating animals can find their dinner because it is mobile. Movement makes finding things easier. Have you noticed that when someone walks through your peripheral vision, you are acutely aware of it? But if you’ve misplaced your keys, it can take hours before you find them. God gave Buzz and vultures like him two special designs to help them find their motionless dinner—keen eyesight and an extraordinary sense of smell.

Black Vultures at Saddle Creek by Lee

Vultures have very sharp eyesight. Even when they are soaring high above the ground, they can still see everything below them. God even provided them with sunglasses to protect their eyes against the sun’s harsh light. Vultures have dark lines around their eyes, which work the same way as the dark lines underneath a football player’s eyes. The dark color absorbs sunlight, reducing glare. This way, vultures don’t have to worry about missing a single detail. The lesser yellow-headed vultures have another advantage over most birds: a keen sense of smell. Their nares, or nose openings, look like holes in their beak. Wind from any direction funnels through the nares, which leads to the largest amount of sniffing possible. Each breeze is loaded with information, so God equipped these vultures with a very large olfactory lobe, able to handle all that information. Once the vultures find their dinner, how can they possibly eat it? Most other animals would get sick from eating dead animals. Why don’t vultures get sick all the time? God gave them a very special digestive system. The acid in their crop (which functions like our stomach) is one of the strongest in the natural world. Strong enough to kill the harmful bacteria found in their dinner, it keeps them from getting sick from pretty much anything! In fact, vultures can use their digestive juices to defend themselves. If you were to startle a vulture while it was eating, you’d better back up quickly—vultures will vomit on you if you’re not careful. This not only makes them lighter (so they can more easily escape), but with the addition of the digestive acid, their lunch now smells much worse.”

(Quoting from Dan Breeding, “Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture” [Answers in Genesis, 3-14-AD2012], posted at https://answersingenesis.org/birds/lesser-yellow-headed-vulture/ .)

Egyptian Vulture (Neophron percnopterus) by Nikhil

In the Holy Land proper (i.e., Israel), as well as in southwestern Europe and northern Africa to India, there is a vulture – the Egyptian Vulture (Neophron percnopterus – a/k/a White Scavenger Vulture) – that appears to match the Hebrew nouns rachma in Leviticus 11:18 (q.v.) and rachamah in Deuteronomy 14:17 (q.v.), and that same bird is nowadays known in Arabic as rachmah, essentially the same word. (See, accord, George S. Cansdale, All the Animals of the Bible [Zondervan, 1976], pages 145-146.) The Black Vulture soars high in the sky, with a wingspan of about 5 feet (!), often in wide circles, scanning the ground for carrion – something dead yet nutritious to eat. Scouting for rotting animal carcasses, vultures monitor the land below them: marshy coastlands, tree-spotted hillsides, grasslands and other open fields, not-so-dense forests, riparian shore-banks, bushy thickets, — and but I’m not sure about the famous Hinckley under-brush of Minnesota (that we have heard so much about from Dr. Stan Toussaint — although he has confirmed that at Hinckley “the men are men, pansies are flowers, and the women are slightly above average”). The Black Vulture’s body is heavy – like an eagle – so its wing-flappings are few, if possible, to conserve energy. “Note the quick labored flapping — alternating with short glides”, notices Roger Tory Peterson (Eastern Birds, at page 160). Its black-to-grey wings are two-tone-colored, with the flight feathers that trail behind the wings being paler (Peterson, Eastern Birds, page 160; — see also page 91 of Stokes & Stokes, Eastern Region, noted above in entry on Brown Pelican). These scavengers are both residents and migrants: they reside in most of the southern half of America’s lower 48 states, year-round, and summer in the northern half of those states. Vultures are not picky eaters! Roadkill, or even a partially picked-over animal carcass, is a wonderful “fast food” for a vulture. If the roadkill (or other available animal carcass) is large enough it might provide a quick picnic for a family of vultures.

Wow! That’s just 5 of the 15 birds we observed that morning, in the Webels’ pond-side backyard. Stay tuned! God willing, the other 10 birds will be given their proper recognition, at this excellent bird-site!

(On the morning of February 9^th, AD2015, from the pond-side backyard of Bob & Marcia Webel (while enjoying breakfast and Christian fellowship with the Webels), I saw 14 birds: Great Blue Heron, Brown Pelican, Mallard, Double-Crested Cormorant, and Black Vulture – as reported above – plus Wood Stork, Lesser Scaup, Osprey, Muscovy Duck, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, White Ibis, Common Tern, and Florida Gallinule, — plus the cooing of a nearby Mourning Dove was clearly recognizable. It is hoped (D.v.) that later reports can supplement this one, so the latter-listed 10 birds will be properly recognized for their lacustrine appearances that morning.)

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James J. S. Johnson loves duck ponds, having formerly taught Environmental Limnology and Water Quality Monitoring for Dallas Christian College, as well as other courses on ecology and ornithology. As noted in a recent comment to Emma Foster’s fascinating bird tale “The Old Man and the Ibises” (posted 2-11-AD2015), Jim enjoyed the habit of feeding ducks at a neighborhood pond during years when he lived near Furneaux Creek (in Carrollton, Texas). Nowadays, from time to time, Jim feeds ducks (mostly mallards) and geese (mostly Canada geese) that visit the pond at the edge of his present home’s backyard. Backyards and ponds are for bird-watching!

* Other Articles by James J. S. Johnson *

Color That Man Did Not (Could Not) Create

February 16, 2015 by Lee

Wood Duck and Mandarin Duck

COLOR THAT MAN DID NOT (COULD NOT) CREATE… ONLY THE MASTER CREATOR COULD

Received this in an email and thought I would share it. Not sure of the source of the photos, but absolutely know who the Master Creator was.

So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” So the evening and the morning were the fifth day. (Genesis 1:21-23 NKJV)

Click any photo to start the Gallery

Who Paints The Leaves?

Babbler For Who?

January 21, 2015 by Lee

Indian Scimitar Babbler (Pomatorhinus horsfieldii) ©WikiC

bab·bler – ˈbab(ə)lər/ – noun

a person who babbles.
a thrushlike Old World songbird with a long tail, short rounded wings, and typically a loud discordant or musical voice.

While reading in Ecclesiastes recently, I saw the word “babbler.” Working on the Birds of the World lists, that word caught my attention. Ahh! Maybe I could write an article about the Babblers that I had seen in the list.

A serpent may bite when it is not charmed; The babbler is no different. (Ecclesiastes 10:11 NKJV)

Chestnut-faced Babbler (Zosterornis whiteheadi) ©WikiC

What I did not know is that there are seven families that have “Babbler” birds in them. There are Ground Babblers, Wren Babblers, Thrush-Babblers, Scimitar Babblers, Jewel-babblers, Hill Babblers, Tit-Babblers, a Rail-babblers and regular just plain Babblers.

Then checking for more verses on “babblers,” I found two more. The verse above and this one both have a sort of negative meaning to the word.

Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets; therefore do not associate with a simple babbler. (Proverbs 20:19 ESV)

There is one more verse that will come later. First, what is a Babbler of the bird kind?

Rail-babbler (Eupetes macrocerus) by Peter Ericsson

“The Old World babblers or timaliids are a large family of mostly Old World passerine birds. They are rather diverse in size and coloration, but are characterised by soft fluffy plumage. These are birds of tropical areas, with the greatest variety in Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. The timaliids are one of two unrelated groups of birds known as babblers, the other being the Australasian babblers of the family Pomatostomidae (also known as pseudo-babblers).

White-browed Babbler by Ian (Australia)

Morphological diversity is rather high; most species resemble “warblers”, jays or thrushes. This group is among those Old World bird families with the highest number of species still being discovered.

Timaliids are small to medium birds. They have strong legs, and many are quite terrestrial. They typically have generalised bills, similar to those of a thrush or warbler, except for the scimitar babblers which, as their name implies, have strongly decurved bills. Most have predominantly brown plumage, with minimal difference between the sexes, but many more brightly coloured species also exist.

The systematics of Old World babblers have long been contested. During much of the 20th century, the family was used as a “wastebin taxon” for numerous hard-to-place Old World songbirds (such as Picathartidae or the wrentit). Ernst Hartert was only half-joking when he summarized this attitude with the statement that, in the passerines, (Wikipedia)

“Was man nicht unterbringen kann, sieht man als Timalien an.” (What one can’t place systematically is considered an Old World babbler)

They finally started trying to divide them into different groups and families. You will find those seven families below. Also, from the definition at the beginning, they are vocal with a “typically a loud discordant or musical voice.”

Nepal Wren-Babbler (Pnoepyga immaculata) by Nikhil Devasar

The last verse I found with “babbler” gives us a more positive emphasis. The Apostle Paul was in Athens and:

“Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there. Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, “What does this babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,” because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.” (Acts 17:16-20 NKJV)

Are we “babblers” for the Lord like Paul? When people listen to us (or read what we write), do they hear a loud “discordant sound” or a clear “musical note”? We have no control how the words are heard. Some may consider the Words of Jesus as just another belief system in the world, while others will hear the Words as joy to their souls. We are told to tell others about Christ. So, Who do we “Babble” for?

*
Eupetidae – Rail-babbler – 1

Pellorneidae – Fulvettas, Ground Babblers – 40+ Wren Babblers, Thrush-Babbler, Scimitar Babbler, Babblers

Pnoepygidae – Wren-babblers – 5 Wren-babblers

Pomatostomidae – Australasian Babblers – 5 Babblers

Psophodidae – Whipbirds, Jewel-babblers and Quail-thrushes – 4 Jewel-babblers

Sylviidae – Sylviid Babblers – 6 Hill Babblers, Thrush-Babblers, and Babblers

Timaliidae – Babblers – 55 Scimitar Babblers, Wren-Babblers, Tit-Babblers and Babblers

Orni-Theology

Sharing The Gospel

Eyes of the Heart

January 6, 2015 by Lee

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, (Ephesians 1:18 NASB)

For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. (Matthew 13:15-16 KJV)

Orni-Theology

After our devotions, Dan and I read from a book. Currently we are reading from Ray Pritchard’s Beyond All You Could Ask Or Think. In talking about prayer, (p78+):

“The heart has eyes. Did you know that? When Paul speaks of “your heart,” he’s not referring to the organ in your chest that pumps blood throughout your body. The term “heart” refers to “the real you,” the place inside where the decisions of life are made.”

He goes on to say that all important decisions are decided in your heart. The question then comes to whether your “eyes” are open or closed to God’s truth. When we explain something about God’s Word and the truth found there, the person listening will either understand or not, depending on whether the “eyes of their heart” are open or closed.

He then goes on to encourage us to pray for us and others to keep our eyes and theirs “open” and on the Lord. (My paraphrase)

So what does this have to do with birdwatching? I enjoy watching birds and many times they have their eyes closed, half-closed or open. If you have followed this blog very long, you also know I like to use e-Sword to help search through the Bible. I know that birds and eyes are mentioned somewhere. Let’s go see what we can find!

“That path no bird knows, Nor has the falcon’s eye seen it. (Job 28:7 NKJV)

“”From where then does wisdom come? And where is the place of understanding? It is hidden from the eyes of all living, And concealed from the birds of the air. (Job 28:20-21 NKJV)

Those verse don’t apply except that we know that wisdom and knowledge are concealed from the birds. The Lord just gave them a built in instinct to do as He created. They do not need to get out a Bible and study to learn.

It is amazing how many verses have “eyes” and “heart” mentioned in the same verse. Enjoy searching for them.

The slide show below will have an eye or eyes zoomed in and then the next slide will show the bird. See if you can ID the bird by the eye before the answer shows.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Here are more verses mentioning eye and heart in same verse.

They have not known nor understood: for he hath shut their eyes, that they cannot see; and their hearts, that they cannot understand. (Isaiah 44:18 KJV)

He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. (John 12:40 KJV)

Saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive: For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it. (Acts 28:26-28 KJV)

The light of the eyes rejoiceth the heart: and a good report maketh the bones fat. (Proverbs 15:30 KJV)

My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways. (Proverbs 23:26 KJV)

The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. (Psalms 19:8 KJV)

Some other articles mentioning the “Eye”:

Birds of the Bible – Eye Hath Not Seen
Golden Eagle – Eagle’s Eyesight
The Eyed Sparrow
Oriental White-eye – The Grace Seeker.. ~ by a j mithra
Birds of the Bible – Eyes and Birds
Birds of the Bible – Eye Hath Seen
Birds of the Bible – Dove’s Eyes and Voice
Birds of the Bible – Vulture Eyesight
Flamingo Gardens – Dan’s Photos

Of Robins, Wrens, and Monuments in AD2015

January 1, 2015 by James J. S. Johnson

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. (Matthew 6:20)

As the year of our Lord 2014 closed, all too quickly it seemed, I thought about what was done in those dozen months of busy-ness. What do we have to show for our journey through those pages of the AD2014 calendar? Was that year worth our time on Earth? Was that year one of fruitful service to our Lord? What good achievements, what valuable accomplishments, what worthwhile “monuments” are left in our wake, as we sail ahead into the year of our Lord 2015?

Thinking about these questions reminded me of robins and wrens, for reasons that follow.

But before exploring why earthly achievements (and “monuments”) remind me of wrens and robins, some attention to those birds is appropriate.

European Robin (Erithacus rubecula) by Robert Scanlon

ROBINS

The European Robin (Erithacus rubecula) is the unofficial bird of the United Kingdom. English settlers, seeing what we call the American Robin (Turdus migratorius), were reminded (perhaps nostalgically) of the European Robin, which is also a thrush-like brown-and-grey-backed bird with orange breast coloring. The American Robin is larger, and its coloring is less intense, but it is not hard to understand why the English settlers were reminded of the European Robin they knew from their native land.

The American Robin, as its scientific name denotes, is known for seasonal migration — its range covers most of America, plus parts of Canada and Mexico, with moderate climate regions hosting robins year-round. [See Donald Stokes, A Guide to Bird Behavior, Volume 1 (Little Brown & Co., 1979), page 221; see also Roger Tory Peterson, Eastern Birds (Peterson Field Guides, Houghton Mifflin, 1980), pages 220-221 & range map M267.]

Robin Eating by Jim Fenton

American Robins walk about with erect heads, sporting large dark eyes (with white eye-rings, if you look closely). Like other thrushes, American Robin juveniles have spotted breast coloring. The American Robin adult females have dull orange breast coloring, and dull brown backs, in contrast to the brighter almost brick-red breast coloring and darker brown backs of the adult males. Robins love to eat berries in winter.

European Robin juveniles, like their American counterparts, have spotted buff-colored bellies. Males and females look alike, unlike their Yankee cousins. These birds are known for hopping along the ground, with drooped wings, often pausing upright and alerted. Common year-round residents in the British Isles, these robins have a year-round range that includes most of Western Europe, except most of Norway and Sweden host them only during the mild months of summer. [See Chris Kightley, Steve Madge, & Dave Nurney, Birds of Britian and North-West Europe (Yale University Press, 1998), page 207.] Imagine how honored some European Robins must be, to visit and entertain Laird Bill Cooper (a noble birdwatcher in England, renowned for his godly scholarship as a Biblical creationist) and his family! Even birds can be granted great privileges during their little avian lifespans!

Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus) by Quy Tran

WRENS

Wrens are famous as small, short, energetic birds with slightly decurved bills and tilted-up tails. The tail is routinely cocked almost upright, as if flying a flag. Wren tails often are brown with black parallel stripes, with brown backs and wings, and white or ivory bellies. When not flying, here or there, wrens hop, creep, climb, and scurry. Examples of familiar wrens, often sighted by birders, include Bewick’s Wren (Thryomanes bewickii), Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus), House Wren (Troglodytes aedon), Marsh Wren (Cistothorus palustris), Rock Wren (Salpinctes obsoletus), Sedge Wren (Cistothorus platensis), Winter Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes – common also in the British Isles and Western Europe), etc. [See Roger Tory Peterson, Eastern Birds (Peterson Field Guides, Houghton Mifflin, 1980), pages 214-215 & range maps M254 through M259.]

House Wren (Troglodytes aedon) by Ray

One popular wren, known for its warbling song, is the House Wren (Troglodytes aedon). Males try to attract females, vibrating their wings and singing with a squeaky high-pitched voice when a prospective mate approaches the male’s nest site. If she adds a lining of soft grass to a male’s nest, that means “yes”. Soon the female will be incubating eggs as her mate brings food to her. Often two broods will be hatched and fledged during the spring-to-autumn months. [See Donald Stokes, A Guide to Bird Behavior, Volume 1 (Little Brown & Co. 1979), pages 175-176.]

Bewick’s Wren (Thryomanes bewickii) by Daves BirdingPix

Years ago a Bewick’s Wren (Thryomanes bewickii) built a nest inside a decorative wreath, a wreath that my wife hung on our Texas home’s front door. When we walked out our front door the nervous mother wren would flutter and fly away, as we tried to gently shut the door so that the nest was not unnecessarily jostled. The mother wren would quickly return, satisfied that we were not bothering her nest’s nestlings. Baby wrens were hatched and fledged from the wreath on our front door! This arrangement worked nicely, for us and for the wren family, for weeks if not months. But one day Mama Wren got confused, as someone opened the door – she flew into the house – and then panicked as she tried to discern how to undo what she had done! Eventually we coached her out – she never tried that again!

Obviously robins and wrens are delightful birds. But now, robins remind me of “Christopher Robin”.

CHRISTOPHER ROBIN

Many children know about Winnie the Pooh (originally written Winnie-the-Pooh), a fictional bear cub who acts a lot like a human child. (The original “Winnie” was a real bear that A. A. Milne saw at the London Zoo.) Pooh’s imaginary adventures have amused children of many generations — what fun it is to romp about on a “blustery day”! Winnie the Pooh’s adventures (“Winnie-the-Pooh”, “The House at Pooh Corner”, etc.) began in newspaper serials, and later books, authored by Alan Alexander Milne (and illustrated by Ernest Howard Shepard). Later, the adventures of Pooh and his friends (Eeyore, Christopher Robin, Tigger, Piglet, Kanga, Roo, Owl, etc.), and later were dramatized by animated cartoon movies. Pooh’s literary creator, A. A. Milne, had a son named Christopher Robin Milne, obviously the source of Mr. Milne’s concept for the Christopher Robin” who appears as Pooh’s friend and co-adventurer in the Pooh book series. The Milne family life was an ongoing tragedy, apparently, and the available evidence points to a pessimistic eternal destiny for Christopher Robin (Milne), “and probably also for his father, author A. A. Milne (who despised the Old Testament – see John 5:45-47).

Winnie the Pooh has made millions of dollars for several individuals and businesses, but what lasting value is that, by itself? It is inferior to treasures laid up in Heaven, which neither corrupt nor disappear to human thievery. Childhood memories – and gentle stories for toddlers — are valuable, of course, but how much more precious are experiences and deeds that honor the Lord, which become “gold, silver, and precious stones” in eternity.

CHRISTOPHER WREN

The name “Christopher Robin” reminds me of a similar name, featuring a different bird: Christopher Wren. Sir Christopher Wren was an expert in engineering science, a science professor and (better known as) the leading architect of his generation. Wren was the architect responsible for building dozens of English churches after London’s Great Fire (of AD1666), including St. Paul’s Cathedral, as well as England’s Royal Observatory, the Wren Library at Cambridge’s Trinity College, Chelsea Hospital, Windsor Castle’s reconstructed state room, works at Kensington Palace and Hampton Court, Oxford’s Sheldonian Theatre, Cambridge’s Pembroke College’s chapel, etc.

But the crowning architectural achievement of Christopher Wren, from 300+ years ago, is the Anglican church titled St. Paul’s Cathedral, which rests atop Ludgate Hill, the highest part of London – at a site said to have hosted an earlier church building (named for the apostle Paul) founded around AD604, — ironically, by an invader/activist named Augustine of Canterbury (who is infamous for persecuting the British Celtic Church to the point of orchestrating slaughter of their presbyters at Bangor).

Christopher Wren’s greatest earthly memorial, of course, is St. Paul’s Cathedral itself, which includes a Latin inscription upon the black marble beneath its central dome, that translates to English as:

Here in its foundations lies the architect of this church and city, Christopher Wren, who lived beyond ninety years, not for his own profit but for the public good. Reader, if you seek his monument – look around you. Died 25 Feb. 1723, age 90.

St Paul's Cathedral Dome Interior ©WikiC

The Latin inscription was composed by Christopher Wren, Jr., his son. Thus his greatest professional accomplishment, the grandiose design and successful construction of St. Paul’s Cathedral, became Christopher Wren’s gargantuan “monument”, more dignified than any cemetery gravestone.

But what kind of achievements will constitute the “monuments” of our earthly lives? Will our deeds, done last year, stand the test of time and eternity, as deeds of faith like those reported in Hebrews chapter 11, the “Hall of Faith”?

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. (Matthew 6:20)

Last year, good or bad, is behind us – so it is this new year that we must try (under God’s good grace) to be worthy stewards of, so that each day becomes another “monument” of gratitude and testimony to our great God and Savior. How we use this new year will be a “monument” to what we really value.

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. (Matthew 6:21)

By James J. S. Johnson

Orni-Theology

James J. S. Johnson

2014 in Review

December 30, 2014 by Lee

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 220,000 times in 2014. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 9 days for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Thank you for all your visits to this blog during 2014. This is encouraging and keeps us motivated to “keep on keeping on.” May we all have a great 2015!

“That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works. (Psalms 26:7 KJV)

Lord Bless You In 2015!

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas 2014

December 25, 2014 by Lee

“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. (Revelation 3:20 KJV)”

Merry Christmas to all our readers, visitors and writers of Lee’s Birdwatching Adventures Plus. I am no longer the only writer and all of us who are involved wish you the best Christmas ever.

My thanks go to Ian, Baron Brown (Golden Eagle), James J. S. Johnson, Emma Foster, Dottie Malcolm, and other guest writers. Also, thanks to Dan, of course, and for all the photographers who have given permission to use their fantastic photos.

The best Christmas present you can ever receive is to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior. Have you put your faith and trust in the Lord and accepted Him?

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6 KJV)

(This video is narrated by Pastor Nathan Osborne and the music is played by Sean Fielder)

See:

Sharing the Gospel

Gideon

Lee's Birdwatching Adventures Plus

Birdwatching from a Christian Perspective

Category Archives: Orni-theology

How Can a Mechanical ‘Cardinal’ Make ‘Selections’?