Tag and I'm It!

Last week I got tagged for the Beautiful Birds meme by Jay Packer at Ocellated. Then this week Andrew Boyle tagged me again for the same meme. What's a meme? I had the same question, so I Googled it.
Here is one definition I found:

Richard Dawkins: Examples of memes are tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches. Just as genes propagate themselves in the gene pool by leading from body to body via sperm or eggs, so memes propagate themselves in the meme pool by leaping from brain to brain via a process which, in the broad sense, can be called imitation. If a scientist hears, or reads about, a good idea, he passes it on to his colleagues and students. He mentions it in his articles and his lectures. If the idea catches on, it can be said to propagate itself, spreading from brain to brain.


The rules of this blog meme are simple:

"Post a list of the 10 birds you consider most beautiful on your blog; you may limit the list to the ABA area (continental United States and Canada) or use a geographic area of your choice. Mark birds you have seen with an asterisk. Tag three bloggers to keep it going."

So here is my contribution to the Beautiful Birds meme, and I will limit it to the favorite birds encountered on our farm in southeastern Ohio:

1. Indigo bunting*. We named our farm Indigo Hill for this abundant breeding songster. My first look each spring at the blue of the male makes always signals the true arrival of spring for me.

2. Black-throated blue warbler*. My favorite warbler. Limited color scheme adds to its appeal. As does the hankerchief in the pocket of both male and female BTBs.

3. Red-headed woodpecker*. My favorite bird. They do not breed on our farm, but a small colony exists just two miles away and we get regular flyover migrants in spring and fall.

4. Worm-eating warbler*. Something about the colors of the head stripes on the worm-eating warbler really gets me. Possessing perhaps the least musical voice of any warbler, but lovely just the same.

5. Eastern phoebe*. A bird so wonderful and beloved we named our daughter after it.

6. American woodcock*. Beautiful shades of brown and other earth tones, but its real beauty lies in the courtship flight of the male.

7. Kentucky warbler*. The Fu Manchu moustache, the rolling, galloping song, the bird's skulky habits all lure me to the woods each spring to commune with the Kentucky warbler.

8. Red-shouldered hawk*. On a wintry day, when the snow is flying and all seems gray, a red-shouldered warms our orchard with his rusty-flame appearance. I have heard the red-shoulders screaming from our woods in every month of the year.

9. Pileated woodpecker*. It's always a thrill to see the pileateds on our farm. Such a powerful bird that it conjures dreams of ivory-billeds...

10. Eastern bluebird. A year-round resident of our 80-acre farm, the bluebirds we care for and feed suet dough and mealworms return this love with their confiding proximity nearly every day of the year. What's not to love about our blue thrush?

I hereby tag Julie Zickefoose, Jim McCormac, and Jeff Gordon.