Giant Cardinal Sighting

In a momentary lapse of judgment, Julie and I let the kids pose for a picture with this giant cardinal-like bird at a theme restaurant in a Pennsylvania strip mall. Sadly, this was the height of our dining experience. Phoebe looks justifiably scared, while Liam smiles innocently. The person inside the costume was WAY too into the role. Not the perky smile on the bird's bill. And the lifeless blue eyes. And all the pieces of flair on the hat, combined with a Hawaiian shirt. I suppose it's better than having a mime for a mascot. Now THAT would be scary.

Bye for now.

BT3

Don't Ask Jeeves

Warning: Mini-rant coming!

I saw another one of the new Ask Jeeves TV ads last night. This one features a harried mother carrying a child as she wades into a wetland toward a bearded, bespectacled older man who is covered in cattail leaves and is wearing an Elmer Fudd hat with a mallard decoy on top of it. The woman says: "I need a recipe for lasagna." The man looks at her, then squats down in the cattails and blows a duck call. A voiceover says: "Don't ask a bird watcher for a recipe. Ask Jeeves."

Didn't anyone tell the Ask Jeeves marketing people that bird watchers do not fit the oddball, absent-minded professor stereotype anymore? This is far worse than the Folger's commercial of the 1980s where a couple, totally outfitted in safari gear, tiptoe deep into the woods where the woman whispers breathlessly to her husband: "There it IS honey! The red-winged blackbird! Now let's go have some crappy instant coffee!"

I thought we'd buried that Miss Jane Hathaway image of bird watchers long ago. I guess no one told the folks at Ask Jeeves. Perhaps they had no place reliable where they could get an answer to the question: What is today's bird watcher like? Or is it offensive, even slightly, to make fun of people pursuing a certain hobby?

Well they could have asked me or any one of the million or so other avid birder/bird watchers in North America. Call me hyper-sensitive, but birding is both my hobby and my profession and I've been a bird watcher for 35 years. I remember when bird watching was socially unacceptable and embarrassing. It's a huge relief not to have that stigma about our favorite activity.

I know one thing. The only question I'll be Asking Jeeves anytime soon is this:
Excuse me, Jeeves! Could you please shut up?

Cranky Bluebird

I'll never be a world-famous bird photographer (like the dude who took the famous Mad Bluebird photo). Yet I feel compelled to share my own digital image of Sialia sialis, a piece I call "Cranky Bluebird." I took this photo last winter on a very cold morning. This male had already eaten his fair share of the suet dough. And when I took his picture he was just sitting tight keeping the other bluebirds from eating.
Our bluebirds have just this week returned to our yard from their annual sojourn elsewhere. We think they take a break in early fall to get their last brood acclimated to foraging on their own. From late August to mid-September we rarely see them, so when they return later in the fall, we're very happy to welcome back our old friends.

Bye for now,

BT3