Bluebird Fathers – Protective and Teachers ~ From Creation Moments (Re-post)
Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis) by S Slayton
PROTECTIVE, TEACHING FATHERS
And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:4)
The first scientific studies that showed essential differences between males and females were not well received by some. Many Christians have resisted the teachings that men and women are by nature the same. Christians have traditionally understood the Bible to teach that males and females each have essential, honorable, but different roles to play.
Unfortunately, many Christians have been unsure how to describe those roles. As we study the scriptural portrayal of the family, especially in Ephesians chapter 5, a picture begins to emerge. All the scriptural examples of motherhood and fatherhood can be distilled into one basic idea. What we call a healthy maternal instinct and a healthy desire on the part of the male to protect and prevent danger are only two sides of the same coin.
An example of what this means was recently discovered in bluebirds. Scientists have found that bluebird fathers offer their nestling daughters twice as much food as their sons. Of course, the sons are never allowed to go hungry. Scientists were puzzled by this until someone suggested that by doing this, father bluebird was teaching his daughters, by example, how to select a mate. Female bluebirds are very fussy about selecting a mate. One of the most important things they look for in a mate is the ability to provide plenty of food for the next generation.
In an age of declining parenting skills, it’s good to be reminded that our Creator has given human parents instruction in His Word.
Prayer:
Dear Father, I thank You that You are a perfect Father. Fill Christian parents among us with love and patience. Most of all, fill them with the instruction of Your Word so that they may teach their children about You in both word and deed. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Notes:
K.A. Facklemann. 1992. “Bluebird Fathers Favor Pink Over Blue.” Science News, Jan. 4, p. 7.
The Louisiana and Northern Waterthrushes – The flowing worship and the formal worship.. ~ by a j mithra
The Louisiana and Northern Waterthrushes
are very similar species
whose breeding ranges overlap slightly.
Their songs and their habitats, while similar,
differ significantly.
The pitch of the beginning notes
of the Louisiana’s song usually descend,
just as does the hilly stream
that is its preferred habitat.
The Northern Waterthrush prefers
bogs and waters that are flat,
just as its beginning notes stay
on the same pitch.
What sort of worship life
do we lead?
Does worship flow from within us?
Cos, when the Living Water flows
from within us,
our worship too would flow
like the Living Water.
When our life is stagnant
our worship too would turn
stale and stagnant…
Its time for us to switch on the
Search light to check,
if we have a flowing worship
or a formal worship…
Remember,
when worship flows
blessing follows…
“Whoever believes in me,
as the Scripture has said,
Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. (John 7:38)
Dan and I have been off on a trip to the mountains of Tennessee and made some interesting stops along the way. Haven’t always had an internet connection to be able to post new articles. Put the blog on “auto-pilot” before we left. (PS – We just got home and I thought I released this 2 days ago.)
We stopped at the Jacksonville Zoo in Florida to do some birdwatching. Have lots of photos to go through, but thought I would share a video I took of the Cape Thick-knee, as they call it. One reason I enjoyed these birds is because of the size of their eyes to their heads. They were so friendly and quite vocal. This is just one of the times they were “sounding off.”
Checked with Wikipedia to see what they say about the Thick-knee. It is actually the Double-striped Thick-knee (Burhinus bistriatus). They are related to the stone-curlews. They are in the Burhinidae Family which has ten species of Thick-knees and Stone-curlews. According to the Chicago Zoo, their Cape Thick-knee is the Double-striped and Wikipedia says it is the Striped Thick-knee. I am not sure if what we saw is the one or two striped bird, so we will call it the Cape.
It is a resident breeder in Central and South America from southern Mexico south to Colombia, Venezuela and northern Brazil. It also occurs on Hispaniola and some of the Venezuelan islands, and is a very rare vagrant to Trinidad, Curaçao and the USA.
This is a largely nocturnal and crepuscular species of arid grassland, savanna, and other dry, open habitats. The nest is a bare scrape into which two olive-brown eggs are laid and incubated by both adults for 25–27 days to hatching. The downy young are precocial and soon leave the nest.
The Double-striped Thick-knee is a medium-large wader with a strong black and yellow bill, large yellow eyes, which give it a reptilian appearance, and cryptic plumage. The scientific genus name refers to the prominent joints in the long greenish-grey legs, and bistriatus to the two stripes of the head pattern.
The adult is about 46–50 cm long and weighs about 780-785 g. It has finely streaked grey-brown upperparts, and a paler brown neck and breast merging into the white belly. The head has a strong white supercilium bordered above by a black stripe. Juveniles are similar to adults, but have slightly darker brown upperparts and a whitish nape.
Double-striped Thick-knee is striking in flight, with a white patch on the dark upperwing, and a white underwing with a black rear edge. However, it avoids flying, relying on crouching and camouflage for concealment. The song, given at night, is a loud kee-kee-kee.
There are four subspecies, differing in size and plumage tone, but individual variation makes identification of races difficult.
The Double-striped Thick-knee eats large insects and other small vertebrate and invertebrate prey. It is sometimes semi-domestcated because of its useful function in controlling insects, and has benefited from the clearing of woodlands to create pasture.
Ian’s Bird of the Week – European Honey Buzzard ~ by Ian Montgomery
Newsletter – 10-14-12
I had a welcome email a couple of weeks ago pointing out an identification error on the Birdway website, thank you Tom of Luxembourg, pointing out that the photos I’d taken of a Buzzard in Alderney in the Channel Islands in 2005 was not a mere Common Buzzard but a much more interesting juvenile European Honey Buzzard. By way of excuses, they do look rather similar and at the time I had Common Buzzards on the brain as I had just been trying unsuccessfully to photograph Common Buzzards in Ireland.
Honey Buzzards are very rare nesting birds in Britain (30-50 pairs) but reasonably common in continental Europe. They are summer visitors, wintering in sub-Saharan Africa and often seen on passage and I was in Alderney in September, a good site for migrating birds including raptors. Both species have very variable plumage, but the Honey Buzzard is slightly larger, longer-necked, longer-tailed and has a slim neck and holds it head forward giving the bird a more cuckoo-like silhouette. It also supposed to hold its wings differently when gliding, second photo, but the subtlety of soaring on ‘smoothly down-curved flattish wings lacking an obvious bend at the carpal joints’ rather evades me.
They get their name from their preferred food, the larvae of bees and (mainly) wasps though they eat a more varied diet when these are not available. The specific name apivorus means ‘bee-eating’ – more accurate than ‘honey’ – and has the same Latin roots as the ‘vore’ part of carnivore and the ‘api’ part of apiarist. The generic Pernis comes from the Greek for ‘hawk’, but taxonomists are not too neurotic about combining different languages.
I saw very few raptors in Finland this year, but I did see several Honey Buzzards including this distant, slightly moth-eaten adult in the third photo. At least I identified this one correctly, though I was unjustifiably pleased in thinking I’d photographed a new species.
Back home in North Queensland, I’m working on the final revisions to the photographs for the digital version of the Pizzey and Knight Field Guide to the Birds of Australia which should be published soon – you may have seen the full page advertisement for it from Gibbon Multimedia Australia http://www.gibbonmm.com.au in the September issue of Birdlife Australia. I’ve recently received the mobile version of the equivalent South African product Roberts VII Multimedia Birds of Southern Africa http://www.sabirding.co.za. It’s a splendid product, a veritable encylopaedia, brilliantly organised and available across many platforms (iPad, iPhone, Android, Windows) so don’t go to Southern Africa without it. It augurs very well for the Australian product, but naturally I keep you posted on its progress.
After some time, when he returned to get her, he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion. And behold, a swarm of bees and honey were in the carcass of the lion. (Jdg 14:8)
Thanks, Ian, for the correction. Most of us have not seen either bird, so were upset by correction. It is also good to know that even you, whom I consider an expert, makes mistakes. Makes us feel better.
That aside, that is an neat looking bird. I like the third photo showing up under its wings. These Buzzards are part of the Accipitridae – Kites, Hawks and Eagles Family. There are six Honey Buzzards; the European, plus the Long-tailed, Black, Crested, Barred and Philippine.
These were the visions of my head while on my bed: I was looking, and behold, A tree in the midst of the earth, And its height was great. The tree grew and became strong; Its height reached to the heavens, And it could be seen to the ends of all the earth. Its leaves were lovely, Its fruit abundant, And in it was food for all. The beasts of the field found shade under it, The birds of the heavensdwelt in its branches, And all flesh was fed from it. (Daniel 4:10-12 NKJV)
What an interesting passage. Actually, this was part of the vision or dream that Nebuchadnezzar had and he is revealing it to Daniel. He is looking for an explanation for it. (See Daniel 4:19 + for the interpretation)
Daniel gives him the interpretation in the rest of the Chapter 4, but I want to concentrate on the tree and the birds. I have seen so many photos and witnessed birds enjoying themselves in the trees. The Lord created them all and provides for the tree, the beast, the birds, and us.
The trees provide food (fruit and seeds), leaves give shade for the animals and birds, the limbs provide a resting place, especially for birds, but I have seen a few leopards and koalas resting on them also.
Verse like:
Savannah Sparrow singing by Ray
By them the birds of the heavens have their home; They sing among the branches. (Psalms 104:12 NKJV)
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius) by Daves BirdingPix
The trees of the LORD are full of sap, The cedars of Lebanon which He planted, (Psalms 104:16 NKJV) (Many birds like the sap – Sapsuckers for one)
American Robin (Turdus migratorius) in nest by Ray
Where the birds make their nests; The stork has her home in the fir trees. (Psalms 104:17 NKJV)
And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” (Matthew 8:20 NKJV)
Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.” (Matthew 13:31-32 NKJV)
Cedar Waxwing on Cedar Tree at Birdwatchers Digest.
Also he spoke of trees, from the cedar tree of Lebanon even to the hyssop that springs out of the wall; he spoke also of animals, of birds, of creeping things, and of fish. (1 Kings 4:33 NKJV)
*
Our Great Creator has wonderfully designed so many things to work together to provide for each other. Birds need trees and trees need birds. He is worthy of our praise and thanksgiving. And don’t you just enjoy watching the birds in the trees?
For His merciful kindness is great toward us, And the truth of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD! (Psalms 117:2 NKJV)
Yes, they shall sing of the ways of the LORD, For great is the glory of the LORD. (Psalms 138:5 NKJV)
Scarlet Myzomela (Myzomela sanguinolenta) by Ian
Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite. (Psalms 147:5 NKJV)
For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe. (Deuteronomy 10:17 NKJV)
This bird is found mostly in the southern states. Here he is known by the more common name of Turkey Buzzard.
He looks like a noble bird but he isn’t. While he is well fitted for flying, and might, if he tried, catch his prey, he prefers to eat dead animals.
The people down south never think of burying a dead horse or cow. They just drag it out away from their homes and leave it to the Vultures who are sure to dispose of it.
It is very seldom that they attack a live animal.
They will even visit the streets of the cities in search of dead animals for food, and do not show much fear of man. Oftentimes they are found among the chickens and ducks in the barn-yard, but have never been known to kill any.
One gentleman who has studied the habits of the Vulture says that it has been known to suck the eggs of Herons. This is not common, though. As I said they prefer dead animals for their food and even eat their own dead.
The Vulture is very graceful while on the wing. He sails along and you can hardly see his wings move as he circles about looking for food on the ground below.
Many people think the Vulture looks much like our tame turkey.
If you know of a turkey near by, just compare this picture with it and you won’t think so.
See how chalk-white his bill is. No feathers on his head, but a bright red skin.
What do you think of the young chick? It doesn’t seem as though he could ever be the large, heavy bird his parent seems to be.
Now turn back to the first page of July “Birds” and see how he differs from the Eagle.
THE TURKEY VULTURE
From col. F. M. Woodruff.
THE TURKEY VULTURE.
URKEY BUZZARD is the familiar name applied to this bird, on account of his remarkable resemblance to our common Turkey. This is the only respect however, in which they are alike. It inhabits the United States and British Provinces from the Atlantic to the Pacific, south through Central and most of South America. Every farmer knows it to be an industrious scavenger, devouring at all times the putrid or decomposing flesh of carcasses. They are found in flocks, not only flying and feeding in company, but resorting to the same spot to roost; nesting also in communities; depositing their eggs on the ground, on rocks, or in hollow logs and stumps, usually in thick woods or in a sycamore grove, in the bend or fork of a stream. The nest is frequently built in a tree, or in the cavity of a sycamore stump, though a favorite place for depositing the eggs is a little depression under a small bush or overhanging rock on a steep hillside.
Renowned naturalists have long argued that the Vulture does not have an extraordinary power of smell, but, according to Mr. Davie, an excellent authority, it has been proven by the most satisfactory experiments that the Turkey Buzzard does possess a keen sense of smell by which it can distinguish the odor of flesh at a great distance.
The flight of the Turkey Vulture is truly beautiful, and no landscape with its patches of green woods and grassy fields, is perfect without its dignified figure high in the air, moving round in circles, steady, graceful and easy, and apparently without effort. “It sails,” says Dr. Brewer, “with a steady, even motion, with wings just above the horizontal position, with their tips slightly raised, rises from the ground with a single bound, gives a few flaps of the wings, and then proceeds with its peculiar soaring flight, rising very high in the air.”
The Vulture pictured in the accompanying plate was obtained between the Brazos river and Matagorda bay. With it was found the Black Vulture, both nesting upon the ground. As the nearest trees were thirty or forty miles distant these Vultures were always found in this situation. The birds selected an open spot beneath a heavy growth of bushes, placing the eggs upon the bare ground. The old bird when approached would not attempt to leave the nest, and in the case of the young bird in the plate, the female to protect it from harm, promptly disgorged the putrid contents of her stomach, which was so offensive that the intruder had to close his nostrils with one hand while he reached for the young bird with the other.
The Turkey Vulture is a very silent bird, only uttering a hiss of defiance or warning to its neighbors when feeding, or a low gutteral croak of alarm when flying low overhead.
The services of the Vultures as scavengers in removing offal render them valuable, and almost a necessity in southern cities. If an animal is killed and left exposed to view, the bird is sure to find out the spot in a very short time, and to make its appearance as if called by some magic spell from the empty air.
“Never stoops the soaring Vulture
On his quarry in the desert,
On the sick or wounded bison,
But another Vulture, watching,
From his high aerial lookout,
Sees the downward plunge and follows;
And a third pursues the second,
Coming from the invisible ether,
First a speck, and then a Vulture,
Till the air is dark with pinions.”
Summary:
TURKEY VULTURE.—Catharista Atrata.
Range—Temperate America, from New Jersey southward to Patagonia.
Nest—In hollow stump or log, or on ground beneath bushes or palmettos.
Eggs—One to three; dull white, spotted and blotched with chocolate marking.
Turkey Vulture flying by – LPP
Lee’s Addition:
There is a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture’s eye hath not seen: (Job 28:7 KJV)
We see Turkey and Black Vulture quite frequently here. I only disagree with one part of the article. “The Vulture is very graceful while on the wing. He sails along and you can hardly see his wings move as he circles about looking for food on the ground below.”
The way I distinguish the Turkey and Black Vultures apart is that the Black (BV) is steady on the wing, but the Turkey TV) is wobbly on the wing. They have a rocking motion, even when it is not windy. Another way to tell the two apart is the V of the Turkey and the flatter wings of the Black, who also has white on the tips of their wings.
The above article is the first article in the monthly serial that was started in January 1897 “designed to promote Knowledge of Bird-Live.” These include Color Photography, as they call them, today they are drawings. There are at least three Volumes that have been digitized by Project Gutenberg.
Ian’s Bird of the Week – Brent/Brant Goose ~ by Ian Montgomery
Newsletter – 9-27-12
My apologies for the long delay since the past posting on the Barnacle Goose. I’m now back home in North Queensland after the unplanned trip to Ireland following the death of my brother in law Gerald and resuming my normal life.
On 6 September we took the dogs for a walk along the strand at the Bull Island in Dublin Bay. As we were leaving, I was surprised to see a flock of Brent Geese, close relatives of the Barnacle Goose so early in the season. Brent Geese are common winter visitors to Ireland but do not usually arrive until much later in September or early October. A week later we visited a strand just north of Clogherhead in Co. Louth and there was another, more accessible flock there and the first photo shows three adults feeding on ‘sea lettuce’, a green alga of the genus Ulva which, along with the sea grass Zostera, often called eel grass, is the main food of Brent Geese in winter.
These are adults, recognisable by the white ‘necklaces’ and the dark, unstriped wings. Different races of Brent/Brant Geese – ‘Brent’ in the British Islands, ‘Brant’ in North America – vary mainly in the colour of the breast. These are Pale-bellied Brent Geese – race hrota – and most of these nest in Greenland and winter in Ireland, one of few species with a transatlantic migration. The nominate Dark-bellied Brent Goose (bernicla) breeds mainly in Russia and winters in northeastern Europe, including Great Britain, and is rare in Ireland. Just after seeing these birds, I read an online newspaper article about the early arrival of Brent Geese in Strangford Lough in Co. Down, Northern Ireland and the writer suggested that favourable tail winds during migration had maybe caused the birds to skip their normal stopover in Iceland, and fly straight to their wintering grounds.
Brent/Brant Goose (Branta bernicla) by Ian 2
Among the 70 or so birds in the flock, there were several juveniles including a party of 2 adults and 3 juveniles that stayed together and were maybe a family. The second photo shows three of these birds. The one on the right in the foreground is an adult with dark wings, even though its necklace is rather indistinct. The other two lack the necklace (or are just beginning to acquire one), have stripy wings and have darker mottled rather than scaly breasts. At this age, the juveniles are indistinguishable from Dark-bellied Brent Geese and I initially mistakenly identified them as Dark-bellied. The third photo shows this party coming in to land, looking for all the world like a Peter Scott painting. The mountains in the near background on the left are the Cooley Mountains in northern Co. Louth with the Mourne Mountains in Co. Down in the background.
Brent/Brant Goose (Branta bernicla) by Ian 3
With a length of 55-62cm/22-24in, these are smaller than Barnacle Geese and comparable in size to Mallard. Juvenile birds acquire the necklace and breast colour of the adult birds in late September or October, but retain the white wing stripes and are referred to as first winter birds. The fourth photo, taken a few years ago on a wintry January day, shows a first winter bird, complete with necklace and and striped wings being followed by two dark-winged adults.
Brent/Brant Goose (Branta bernicla) by Ian 4
I’ve never seen Dark-bellied Brent Geese, but in northern Alaska in June 2008 I came across the western North American race, the Black Brant (nigricans) on its breeding ground on the tundra, fifth photo. The Brent Goose breeds as far north as any bird species in the world at locations such as Ellesmere Island, the northernmost in Canada, and in Spitsbergen, only 10º or 11º from the Arctic Pole.
Brent/Brant Goose (Branta bernicla) by Ian 5
This has a very broad necklace and dark brown breast almost merging with the dark brown neck. This is easier to see in the sixth photo. This has sometimes been treated as a separate species.
Brent/Brant Goose (Branta bernicla) by Ian 6
In recent decades the populations of Brent Geese have increased greatly. There are about 115,000 Black Brants and about 40,000 Pale-bellied winter in Ireland and 90,000 Dark-bellied winter in Britain.
Best wishes
Ian
**************************************************
Ian Montgomery, Birdway Pty Ltd,
454 Forestry Road, Bluewater, Qld 4818
Tel 0411 602 737 ian@birdway.com.au
Check the latest website updates: http://www.birdway.com.au/#updates
Lee’s Addition:
And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” (Genesis 1:20 ESV)
Again, Ian, Our deepest sympathy over your loss. We are glad you are back safely at home.
These geese and all the information about them is very interesting and informative. See all of Ian’s Anseranatidae & Anatidae Family. He has quite a selection of them that he has photographed over time.
Cranes know when it’s time to move south for winter. And robins, warblers, and bluebirds know when it’s time to come back again. But my people? My people know nothing, not the first thing of GOD and his rule. (Jeremiah 8:7 MSG)
As far as I know, the only Version of the Bible (English) that used the word “bluebirds is the Message. It is not a version I use, but that verse makes for chance to write about the Bluebirds. In many of the other versions, “Thrush” is used. Bluebirds are in the Turdidae – Thrushes Family. There are three species; the Eastern, Western and Mountain Bluebirds. In a completely different family, the Irenidae – Fairy-bluebirds Family you will find the Asian and Philippine Fairy-bluebirds. These are not “thrushes” per se.
This verse has been written about in Birds of the Bible – Thrush and Thrushes II. It mentions that the birds know more about migration than the people know that much about God and His dominion.
Do the Bluebirds migrate? Only the Eastern Bluebird. Here is their range map. Yellow is summer, blue – winter and green is year round. The summer breeding range extends as far north as the Pacific Northwest, British Columbia, and Montana. The northern Western Bluebirds can migrate to the southern parts of the range; southern birds are often permanent residents. The mountain bluebird is migratory. The Mountain Bluebird range varies from Mexico in the winter to as far north as Alaska, throughout the western U.S. and Canada. Northern birds migrate to the southern parts of the range; southern birds are often permanent residents. Some birds may move to lower elevations in winter.
So, not so sure that was a good choice of birds to use especially since they aren’t even anywhere near the Middle East. Nevertheless they are beautiful birds that the Lord has created for His pleasure and our enjoyment. The majority of their diet is “insects and other invertebrates. The remainder of the bird’s diet is made up of wild fruits. Favored insect foods include grasshoppers, crickets, katydids, and beetles. Other food items include earthworms, spiders, millipedes, centipedes, sow bugs and snails. (Eastern) Bluebirds are very helpful with pest control in the territory surrounding the nest.”
Mountain Bluebird (Sialia currucoides) by Daves BirdingPix
All three of them are cavity dwellers or nest box residents. They are all territorial and “Bluebirds can typically produce between two and four broods during the spring and summer (March through August in the Northeastern United States). Males identify potential nest sites and try to attract prospective female mates to those nesting sites with special behaviors that include singing and flapping wings, and then placing some material in a nesting box or cavity. If the female accepts the male and the nesting site, she alone builds the nest and incubates the eggs.”
“The bluebirds are a group of medium-sized, mostly insectivorous or omnivorous birds in the genus Sialia of the thrush family (Turdidae). Bluebirds are one of the few thrush genera in the Americas. They have blue, or blue and red, plumage. Female birds are less brightly colored than males, although color patterns are similar and there is no noticeable difference in size between sexes.
Western Bluebird (Sialia mexicana) juvenile by Quy Tran
Western Bluebirds are sometimes confused with other bluebirds, however they can be distinguished without difficulty. The Western Bluebird has a blue (male) or gray (female) throat, the Eastern Bluebird has an orange throat, and the Mountain Bluebird lacks orange color anywhere on its body.
Wilson’s Phalarope for Birds Illustrated by Color Photography
WILSON’S PHALAROPE.
ERHAPS the most interesting, as it is certainly the most uncommon, characteristic of this species of birds is that the male relieves his mate from all domestic duties except the laying of the eggs. He usually chooses a thin tuft of grass on a level spot, but often in an open place concealed by only a few straggling blades. He scratches a shallow depression in the soft earth, lines it with a thin layer of fragments of old grass blades, upon which the eggs, three or four, are laid about the last of May or first of June. Owing to the low situation in which the nest is placed, the first set of eggs are often destroyed by a heavy fall of rain causing the water to rise so as to submerge the nest. The instinct of self preservation in these birds, as in many others, seems lacking in this respect. A second set, numbering two or three, is often deposited in a depression scratched in the ground, as at first, but with no sign of any lining.
Wilson’s Phalarope is exclusively an American bird, more common in the interior than along the sea coast. The older ornithologists knew little of it. It is now known to breed in northern Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Dakotas, Utah, and Oregon. It is recorded as a summer resident in northern Indiana and in western Kansas. Mr. E. W. Nelson states that it is the most common species in northern Illinois, frequenting grassy marshes and low prairies, and is not exceeded in numbers even by the ever-present Spotted Sandpiper. While it was one of our most common birds in the Calumet region it is now becoming scarce.
The adult female of this beautiful species is by far the handsomest of the small waders. The breeding plumage is much brighter and richer than that of the male, another peculiar characteristic, and the male alone possesses the naked abdomen. The female always remains near the nest while he is sitting, and shows great solicitude upon the approach of an intruder. The adults assume the winter plumage during July.
Wilson’s Phalarope (Phalaropus tricolor) by J Fenton
Lee’s Addition:
Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him. (Genesis 2:19-20 NKJV)
What another fantastically created bird. The Phalaropes belong to the Scolopacidae – Sandpipers, Snipes family. There are 96 species in the family, with 3 of those in the Phalaropus genus; the Wilson’s, Red-necked and Red Phalaropes. Phalarope are sometimes called “wadepipers.” They are especially notable for two things: their unusual nesting behavior (see above), and their unique feeding technique. When feeding, a phalarope will often swim in a small, rapid circle, forming a small whirlpool. This behavior is thought to aid feeding by raising food from the bottom of shallow water. The bird will reach into the center of the vortex with its bill, plucking small insects or crustaceans caught up therein.
The Wilson’s Phalarope, Phalaropus tricolor, is a small wader. This bird, the largest of the phalaropes, breeds in the prairies of North America in western Canada and the western United States. It is migratory, wintering around the central Andes in South America. They are passage migrants through Central America around March/April and again during September/October. The species is a rare vagrant to western Europe.
This species is often very tame and approachable. Its common name commemorates the American ornithologist Alexander Wilson. Sometimes, it is placed in a monotypic genus Steganopus.
Wilson’s Phalarope (Phalaropus tricolor) by Daves BirdingPix
Wilson’s Phalarope is slightly larger than the Red Phalarope at about 9.1 in (23 cm) in length. As are all 3 phalaropes, it is a unique, dainty shorebird with lobed toes and a straight fine black bill. The breeding female is predominantly gray and brown above, with white underparts, a reddish neck and reddish flank patches. The breeding male is a duller version of the female, with a brown back, and the reddish patches reduced or absent. In a study of breeding phalaropes in Saskatchewan Providence in Canada, females were found to average around 10% larger in standard measurements and to weigh around 30% more than the males. Females weighed from 68 to 79 g (2.4 to 2.8 oz), whereas the males average 1.83 oz (51.8 g).
Young birds are grey and brown above, with whitish underparts and a dark patch through the eye. In winter, the plumage is essentially grey above and white below, but the dark eyepatch is always present.
The above article is the first article in the monthly serial that was started in January 1897 “designed to promote Knowledge of Bird-Live.” These include Color Photography, as they call them, today they are drawings. There are at least three Volumes that have been digitized by Project Gutenberg.
The Skylark – Birds Illustrated by Color Photography
From col. F. M. Woodruff.
THE SKYLARK.
This is not an American bird. I have allowed his picture to be taken and placed here because so many of our English friends desired it.
The skylark is probably the most noted of birds in Europe. He is found in all of the countries of Europe, but England seems to claim it. Here it stays during the summer, and goes south in the winter.
Like our own Meadow Lark, he likes best to stay in the fields. Here you will find it when not on the wing.
Early in the spring the Skylark begins his song, and he may be heard for most of the year.
Sometimes he sings while on the ground, but usually it is while he is soaring far above us.
Skylarks do not often seek the company of persons. There are some birds, you know, that seem happy only when they are near people. Of course, they are somewhat shy, but as a rule they prefer to be near people. While the Skylark does not seek to be near persons, yet it is not afraid of them.
A gentleman, while riding through the country, was surprised to see a Skylark perch on his saddle. When he tried to touch it, the Lark moved along on the horse’s back, and finally dropped under the horse’s feet. Here it seemed to hide. The rider, looking up, saw a hawk flying about. This explained the cause of the skylark’s strange actions.
A pair of these Larks had built their nest in a meadow. When the time came for mowing the grass, the little ones were not large enough to leave the nest. The mother bird laid herself flat on the ground, with her wings spread out. The father bird took one of the little ones from the nest and placed it on the mother’s back. She flew away, took the baby bird to a safe place, and came back for another.
This time the father took his turn. In this way they carried the little ones to a safe place before the mowers came.
Like our Meadow Lark, the Skylark builds her nest on the ground—never in bushes or trees. Usually it is built in a hole below the surface of the ground. It is for this reason that it is hard to find.
Then, too, the color of the nest is much like that of the ground.
Four or five eggs are usually laid, and in two weeks the little larks crack the shells, and come into the world crying for worms and bugs.
Eurasian Skylark (Alauda arvensis) by Ian
THE SKYLARK.
HE English Skylark has been more celebrated in poetry than any other song-bird. Shelley’s famous poem is too long to quote and too symmetrical to present in fragmentary form. It is almost as musical as the sweet singer itself.
“By the first streak of dawn,” says one familiar with the Skylark, “he bounds from the dripping herbage, and on fluttering wings mounts the air for a few feet ere giving forth his cheery notes. Then upward, apparently without effort he sails, sometimes drifting far away as he ascends, borne as it were by the ascending vapors, so easily he mounts the air. His notes are so pure and sweet, and yet so loud and varied withal, that when they first disturb the air of early morning all the other little feathered tenants of the fields and hedgerows seem irresistibly compelled to join him in filling the air with melody. Upwards, ever upwards, he mounts, until like a speck in the highest ether he appears motionless; yet still his notes are heard, lovely in their faintness, now gradually growing louder and louder as he descends, until within a few yards of the earth they cease, and he drops like a fragment hurled from above into the herbage, or flits about it for a short distance ere alighting.” The Lark sings just as richly on the ground as when on quivering wing. When in song he is said to be a good guide to the weather, for whenever we see him rise into the air, despite the gloomy looks of an overcast sky, fine weather is invariably at hand.
The nest is most frequently in the grass fields, sometimes amongst the young corn, or in places little frequented. It is made of dry grass and moss, and lined with fibrous roots and a little horse hair. The eggs, usually four or five in number, are dull white, spotted, clouded, and blotched over the entire surface with brownish green. The female Lark, says Dixon, like all ground birds, is a very close sitter, remaining faithful to her charge. She regains her nest by dropping to the ground a hundred yards or more from its concealment.
The food of the Lark is varied,—in spring and summer, insects and their larvae, and worms and slugs, in autumn and winter, seeds.
Olive Thorne Miller tells this pretty anecdote of a Skylark which she emancipated from a bird store: “I bought the skylark, though I did not want him. I spared no pains to make the stranger happy. I procured a beautiful sod of uncut fresh grass, of which he at once took possession, crouching or sitting low among the stems, and looking most bewitching. He seemed contented, and uttered no more that appealing cry, but he did not show much intelligence. His cage had a broad base behind which he delighted to hide, and for hours as I sat in the room I could see nothing of him, although I would hear him stirring about. If I rose from my seat he was instantly on the alert, and stretched his head up to look over at me. I tried to get a better view of him by hanging a small mirror at an angle over his cage, but he was so much frightened by it that I removed it.”
“This bird,” Mrs. Miller says “never seemed to know enough to go home. Even when very hungry he would stand before his wide open door, where one step would take him into his beloved grass thicket, and yet that one step he would not take. When his hunger became intolerable he ran around the room, circled about his cage, looking in, recognizing his food dishes, and trying eagerly to get between the wires to reach them; and yet when he came before the open door he would stand and gaze, but never go in. After five months’ trial, during which he displayed no particular intelligence, and never learned to enter his cage, he passed out of the bird room, but not into a store.”
Don’t be afraid, land; rejoice and be glad, for the LORD has done great things. Don’t be afraid, wild animals, for the wilderness pastures have turned green, the trees bear their fruit, and the fig tree and grapevine yield their riches. (Joel 2:21-22 HCSB)
The Eurasian Skylark (Alauda arvensis) is a small passerine bird species. This lark breeds across most of Europe and Asia and in the mountains of north Africa. It is mainly resident in the west of its range, but eastern populations are more migratory, moving further south in winter. Even in the milder west of its range, many birds move to lowlands and the coast in winter. Asian birds appear as vagrants in Alaska; this bird has also been introduced in Hawaii, western North America, eastern Australia and New Zealand.
The Eurasian Skylark is 16 to 18 centimetres long. It is a bird of open farmland and heath, known throughout its range for the song of the male, which is delivered in hovering flight from heights of 50 to 100 m, when the singing bird may appear as just a dot in the sky from the ground. The song generally lasts two to three minutes, but it tends to last longer later in the mating season. The male has broader wings than the female. This adaptation for more efficient hovering flight may have evolved because of female Eurasian Skylarks’ preference for males that sing and hover for longer periods and so demonstrate that they are likely to have good overall fitness.
Like most other larks, the Eurasian Skylark is a rather dull-looking species on the ground, being mainly brown above and paler below. It has a short blunt crest on the head, which can be raised and lowered. In flight it shows a short tail and short broad wings. The tail and the rear edge of the wings are edged with white, which are visible when the bird is flying away, but not if it is heading towards the observer. The Eurasian Skylark has sturdy legs and spends much time on the ground foraging for seeds, supplemented with insects in the breeding season.
The Eurasian Skylark makes a grass nest on the ground, hidden amongst vegetation. It is sometimes found nesting in bracken, using it for cover. Generally the nests are very difficult to find. Three to six eggs are laid in June. A second or third brood may be started later in the year. The eggs are yellow/white with brownish/purple spots mainly at the large end. (Wikipedia)
Oriental Skylark (Alauda gulgula) by Nikhil Devasar
There is also the Oriental Skylark (Alauda gulgula), also known as the Oriental Lark or Small Skylark, is a species of skylark found in the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Like other skylarks, it is found in open grassland – often near waterbodies – where it feeds on seeds and insects.
These skylarks frequently rocket up into the sky, fluttering and singing before descending down to earth. Male Oriental Skylarks may also hover in the air and sing, in order to attract a mate.
Oriental Skylarks are about 16 cm long. They have streaked, yellow-brown upper plumage, with white outer tail feathers and a short crest. Both sexes are similar. (Wikipedia)
The above article is the first article in the monthly serial that was started in January 1897 “designed to promote Knowledge of Bird-Live.” These include Color Photography, as they call them, today they are drawings. There are at least three Volumes that have been digitized by Project Gutenberg.
While looking up the word “birds” in the Dictionary section of my e-Sword program, there is an “i” symbol that shows on the tab of the name of a dictionary. That “i” indicates that there is information about your search word. The Smith’s Bible Dictionary had an “i” so I investigated it. This is what I saw:
Birds Birds. See Sparrow.
So when I went there, this interesting definition of “sparrow” was found and I wanted to share it with you.
Eurasian Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs) by Ian
Sparrow
Sparrow. (Hebrew, tzippor, from a root signifying to “chirp” or “twitter”, which appears to be a phonetic representation of the call-note of any passerine (sparrow-like) bird). This Hebrew word occurs upwards of forty times in the Old Testament. In all passages, except two, it is rendered by the Authorized Version indifferently as “bird” or “fowl,” and denotes any small bird, both of the sparrow-like species and such as the starling, chaffinch, greenfinch, linnet, goldfinch, corn-bunting, pipits, blackbird, song-thrush, etc. In Psalm 84:3, and Psalm 102:7, it is rendered “sparrow.”
Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O LORD of hosts, my King, and my God. (Psalms 84:3 KJV)
I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top. (Psalms 102:7 KJV)
Anyone for a Sparrow Snack?
The Greek, stauthion, (Authorized Version, “sparrow”), occurs twice in the New Testament, Matthew 10:29; Luke 12:6-7. (The birds above mentioned are found in great numbers in Palestine, and are of very little value, selling for the merest trifle, and are, thus, strikingly used by our Saviour, Matthew 10:20, as an illustration of our Father’s care for his children. — Editor).
Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. (Matthew 10:29 KJV)
Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows. (Luke 12:6-7 KJV)
Blue Rock Thrush (Monticola solitarius) by Nikhil Devasar
The blue thrush, (Petrocossyphus cyaneus), is probably the bird to which the psalmist alludes in Psa_102:7, as “the sparrow that sitteth alone upon the house-top.” It is a solitary bird, eschewing the society of its own species, and rarely more than a pair are seen together. The English tree-sparrow, (Passer montanus), is also very common, and may be seen in numbers on Mount Olivet, and also about the sacred enclosure of the mosque of Omar. This is, perhaps, the exact species referred to in Psalm 84:3.
Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O LORD of hosts, my King, and my God. (Psalms 84:3 KJV)
House Sparrows visiting NA Parrot Show Outside
Dr. Thompson, in speaking of the great numbers of the house-sparrows and field-sparrows in troublesome and impertinent generation, and nestle just where you do not want them. “They stop your stove — and water-pipes with their rubbish, build in the windows and under the beams of the roof, and would stuff your hat full of stubble in half a day, if they found it hanging in a place to suit them.”
(I added the verses to make it easier and also the “blue thrush, (Petrocossyphus cyaneus)” could not be found. Photos also inserted.)
The Blue Rock Thrush (Monticola solitarius) is a species of chat. This thrush-like Old World flycatcher was formerly placed in the family Turdidae. It is now found in the Muscicapidae family.
Smith’s Bible Dictionary, originally named A Dictionary of the Bible, was a 19th century Bible dictionary containing upwards of four thousand entries that became named after its editor, William Smith. Its popularity was such that condensed dictionaries appropriated the title, “Smith’s Bible Dictionary”.
The original dictionary was published as a three volume set in 1863, in London and Boston, USA. This first edition was followed in 1893 by an expanded four volume version which was published in the United States as A dictionary of the Bible comprising its antiquities, biography, geography, and natural history, edited by Smith and J. M. Fuller.
The original publications are now in the public domain; some derivative, commercial versions are still in copyright.
I watch Great Blue Herons, Great Egrets, Cattle Egrets, Little Blue Herons, Tricolored Herons and Green Herons which are quite common in our area. They are all in the same family and all seem to have a characteristic of being very patient. Have you just sat and watched them? When you are out birdwatching it is a habit of those in the Ardeidae – Herons, Bitterns Family to stand very still and wait for some food to swim by or to lean over and strike a pose. They freeze other than a side-to-side movement of their neck.
Herons are mentioned twice in the Bible, and only in a list of unclean birds to not eat. Leviticus 11:19 and Deuteronomy 14:18.
the stork, the heron after its kind, the hoopoe, and the bat. (Leviticus 11:19 NKJV)
the stork, the heron after its kind, and the hoopoe and the bat. (Deuteronomy 14:18 NKJV)
Here is a video of a Great Egret at Lake Parker looking for something in a tree. I strung three short videos together. Taken back in 2008.
The Herons are so patient it reminds me that I need to be more patient. So, here are some of the verses in Scripture that tell us to be patient or to wait:
Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass. (Psalms 37:7 NKJV)
…I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me, And heard my cry. (Psalms 40:1 NKJV)
The end of a thing is better than its beginning; The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. (Ecclesiastes 7:8 NKJV)
And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, (2 Timothy 2:24 NKJV)
Here’s a good one for us and the heron when he catches his fish:
And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. (Hebrews 6:15 NKJV)
And then one of my favorite passages that has to with waiting, even though the Eagle is mentioned instead of the Heron.
Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:28-31 NKJV)
Lee's Birdwatching Adventures Plus 