Final Exam

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Hope is the Thing with Feathers - Emily Dickinson

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

Emily Dickinson

Test #2 Preparation

Make sure you read all the articles i put in the articles section under the "for class" heading. Also, watch the first 15-20 minutes of "The Problems of Parenthood." the link is under the Oven Bird poem. you'll find at least 10 answers to Q's from them!

The Oven Bird by Robert Frost

The Oven Bird

There is a singer everyone has heard,
Loud, a mid-summer and a mid-wood bird,
Who makes the solid tree trunks sound again.
He says that leaves are old and that for flowers
Mid-summer is to spring as one to ten.
He says the early petal-fall is past,
When pear and cherry bloom went down in showers
On sunny days a moment overcast;
And comes that other fall we name the fall.
He says the highway dust is over all.
The bird would cease and be as other birds
But that he knows in singing not to sing.
The question that he frames in all but words
Is what to make of a diminished thing.

Robert Frost

LoB: The Problems of Parenthood

Make sure you watch The Life of Birds: The Problems of Parenthood on Youtube!
Just watch the first 15-20 minutes for 2-3 answers to Q's!

Can Animals Be Gay?

Fascinating Subject... sure to "ruffle the feathers" of religious zealots everywhere. "It's natural!"

NYT March 29, 2010 Can Animals Be Gay?

SF Chronicle February 4, 2004 Central Park Zoo's gay penguins ignite debate

An inspired (and inspiring) song to enjoy while reading...

Engelbert Humperdinck - Lesbian Seagull

"The Life of Birds" Link

I just added a link to the PBS page on the series under "My Links." it doesn't look like you can watch the episodes, but it has full descriptions of each episode; very helpful! make sure you check it out.
Also check out the links on the LoB page. They cover the Bower Bird, Penguins and other birds we need to know about.

New Stuff

i just added links to two articles that Dr. Sperling hasn't given us yet about which he asks questions in the sample exam in the "Bird Articles" page. I also added a link to the Peregrine Falcon page on Wikipedia under "My Links."

Trip Notes

i decided to put trip notes in a new page titled "Trip Notes and Lists" so there's not too much on the front page. please add notes and things that you wrote during our trips that you think are useful.

Notes from Bronx Zoo Trip: Kingfishers

Dr. Sperling pointed out how Kingfishers (the kind around here is the Belted Kingfisher) burrow into river banks to make their nests, like little caves.

Notes from Bronx Zoo Trip: The Bird Trade

We saw an exhibit about the exotic bird trade and how parrots are caught in places like Belize and Brazil to be sold as pets. The exhibit said that 19 out of every 20 birds captured in the wild dies (i.e. only 1 out of 20 lives) due to stress, disease & temperature extremes experienced in transit. Dr. Sperling seemed to empathize with the people capturing the birds, stating that they are extremely poor. (Personally, I think they should be shot, along with the traffickers and the people who sell them in pet shops, AND the people who buy them...) I think they get paid something like $1 per bird by the traffickers. This is one of the reasons that many parrot species are endangered. An alternative offered by the exhibit was captive breeding. I have an idea: how about paying those people NOT to catch the birds and to report anyone who does?!?!

Notes from Bronx Zoo Trip: American Robins

Dr. Sperling made special mention of the Robins (Turdus migratorius) and how 2 parents can produce 60 offspring in their lives while only 2 ever survive to replace them. According to the exhibit on Robins, only 1/2 of the chicks ever leave the nest and 10 survive out of 100 to become breeding adults. (The numbers don't exactly match-up, but Dr. Sperling insisted that Robin parents only ever replace themselves, otherwise we'd be up to our eyeballs in Robins.)

He said to make note of how the babies die. Reasons for such high mortality include ants, foxes, weasels, etc. (eating babies from the nest), babies falling out of the nest (into water and drowning & onto ground and getting eaten by scavengers like Turkey Vultures, ants, etc.), babies getting lost during migration, among others. Crows are known to steal baby birds from nests as well. Also, if one or both parents are killed (by feral cats, window/car strike, hawk attack, poisoning, etc.) obviously the babies would have little chance of surviving. In Spring and Summer, Robins tend to fly low along the ground (often right in front of cars) since they are hunting for worms.

Also note that Robins are thrushes. The babies have streaked breasts just like other thrushes and only get the "red (orange) breast" as they mature (after 1st year?) Robins ARE protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, but they don't really migrate that far. They tend to migrate locally in winter to areas with berry bushes.

Robins are commonly referred to as the "first bird of Spring," but this is not exactly true. You can often find Robins around here in the middle of winter if you search around enough. Eastern Phoebes are the true first bird of Spring, as mentioned by Dr. Sperling. They are the first to arrive among the real migrants, usually appearing by mid-March. Remember, they are fly catchers, so it has to be just warm enough for insects to be out. My mom said that when Robins are sighted on the ground, it is a "sign of Spring" because that means that the ground is warm enough for worms to start moving around. (Remember: Eastern Phoebes bob their tail.)

Welcome to the World of Birds!

I had to make a blog for my Computer Applications in Science Education course, so I figured, why not a bird blog? This way we can share information and collaborate for Ornithology at the same time as I do my assignment. It's like killing two feral cats with one stone! So, post whatever you want related to birds or class. We can also arrange study groups here. I hope you enjoy it!