Why Bird?

The question is sometimes asked, what is the appeal of birding? Different people offer different reasons, based on their own personal experience. It is a common pass time for many, and I'll offer my thoughts on why people in general bird, and then why I so enjoy it.

If we reflect on the history of the human animal it is easy to imagine a time when recognizing the difference between a poisonous snake and a harmless one could mean the difference between life and death. Remembering over generations where to find the roots and berries at the proper time for harvest was a survival skill. Those with the ability to locate and properly categorize plants, animals, rocks, clouds and other elements of the natural world were the ones who would survive. Natural selection has created brains that are good at categorizing, and with the ability to anticipate future events based on past experience.

Play is a way of honing skills for later survival. Puppies and kittens tumble and tussle in preparation for possible combat in the future. For humans, play can involve such games as "hide and go seek". Birding is the way grownups get to play hide and go seek. Sometimes the bird even makes noises to drive the seeker a bit crazy.

Some people enjoy putting together a puzzle. There's the joy of creating a thing of beauty from tiny bits, from recognizing where a part fits, and the success of placing the final piece to realize the completed, now-orderly whole.

My most recent life bird was the Black Rosy-Finch. This is the second or third year I've sought out the Rosy-Finches above Discovery Park. Never saw 'em until recently. This year I saw them and captured a blurry photo.

I'll leave the philosophy about photography for another time, but there's a lot there as well. Suffice it to say that I would like to have a photo of the birds I have seen, and that sometimes I just see a bird, sometimes I see it and get a poor photo, and sometimes I get a better photo.

Photo or no photo, those who keep lists of the birds they see are "collecting" even if there's no physical bird in hand. In the old days, the birder shot the bird, and stuffed it for the collection. Even Audubon was a bird-shooter. Nowadays there are too many people around, and not enough birds. Shooting them is right out.

In nearly every culture in the world, collecting is a human endeavor. Even some birds collect. The male Bower Bird makes a little hut from sticks and grasses, brings in bits of flower petals, butterfly wings, and shells. It sorts and displays the collections by category, and then invites the female over to view the collection. If she likes the collection enough, well, you get the idea. Birding is just collecting ... collecting sightings.

And, for me it is nice to be outdoors, getting exercise, and enjoying the natural world.

I was asked, about my earlier post in this blog, "How come the Rosy-Finch photo is so blurry?"

My goal, of course, is to get a sharp, clear photo of a bird that identifies it beyond a shadow of a doubt. Sometimes I get no photo at all, and only have my fallible memory to rely upon. It is amazing what birds my memory claims to have seen ... but with no photo, I begin to doubt. As I mentioned, even with a photo, it took me a few days of reflection to decide that this is a Black Rosy-Finch and not the browner Gray-crowned. I liked the photo because it showed the bird on a Cliff Swallow nest. It was taken at sunset, when the birds return to roost, so the light was low. The camera was hand-held and set to an extreme telephoto setting, so even my heartbeat affected the sharpness of the photo. Bird photography is like being a biathlete sometimes, those people who cross-country ski, then pause to shoot, trying to slow their heart rate enough to be accurate during strenuous exercise. The bird was far away. Here's another example photo, just as the camera saw it.



Using photo editing software I cropped the picture, so the bird is more visible. This one is a bit sharper. If I can keep the photo size to at least 640 x 480 pixels, it can be printed as a 4-inch x 6-inch print, and put in an album. Of course, it is nice if the bird would fill more of the frame. And, if it would display some natural behaviour or show some of its habitat, I consider the photo more of a success.


Black Rosy-Finch. I'll keep seeking the Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch. I know they're out there.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

Winter Solstice Birds

Happy Winter Solstice ... the day the sun is lowest on the horizon in the northern hemisphere. Now the days will begin to lengthen once again as the sun appears higher in the sky each day.

I always wondered why birds would want to go to the arctic in the springtime. It is because the days are very long there in the summer ... the sun never sets at the height of summer. So the birds can forage for food for their new hatchlings 24 hours a day.

But in the arctic winter the sun never rises, so many birds come further south to seek food and warmth. That is why some birds can only be seen where I live in Idaho on a winter day. Yesterday I finally saw one such bird for the first time in my life.

Black Rosy-Finch

In the evening the Black Rosy-Finch seeks warmth and shelter in Cliff Swallow nests, or a cave or old mine shaft. The light was fading when they showed up to roost, but I managed to get a few photos and watched them through binoculars. I initially identified this as a Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch, but there are three species of Rosy-Finches, and upon further study, I now believe this is the Black, not Gray-crowned, Rosy-Finch. I'll have to go back to see and photograph the browner Gray-crowned sometime soon!

I also saw a Prairie Falcon while out looking for Snow Buntings. I've never seen a Snow Bunting and they have been seen nearby. I didn't see any.

If you enjoy birds and the natural world, I think you should watch "The Life of Birds" hosted by David Attenborough and produced by the BBC. The Blue Planet, Planet Earth, and all of the David Attenborough shows depict nature in all of its majesty and intricate diversity.

Movies

I enjoy watching movies of all kinds. Documentary. History. Science Fiction.

I found a website where you can rate the movies you have seen and then it matches your ratings to the other people who have assigned similar ratings to the same movies, and shows you the other movies those people liked. The idea is that the same interests and tastes will lead to recommendations of other movies you might like.

Here's the website address, in case that is something of interest to you.

http://www.filmaffinity.com/en/main.html

The Other Shoe

I read in the news recently that President Bush went to Iraq and while giving a press conference a journalist threw shoes at Bush, a form of mideastern insult.

I put forth the proposition that Iraq finally "gets it" and has realized the American dream of freedom of speech. The guy didn't agree with Bush's views or policies, and instead of killing innocent people ... instead of killing anyone ... he chose to express his opinion. Nobody was hurt in the incident, with the possible exception of the shoe-thrower, who by some reports was somewhat bloodied by the security detail.

Wouldn't it be nice if the heads of state of the US and Iraq jointly pardoned this individual, and made a point of mentioning freedom of speech?

We Americans already take off our shoes at the airport. Maybe in Iraq they will take them off at press conferences.

Hoxsey: When Healing Becomes a Crime

I'll just begin by quoting from the back jacket of the DVD I watched last night, "In 1924, Harry Hoxsey claimed a cure for cancer, herbal formulas inherited from his great-grandfather. Thousands of patients swore the treatment cured them, but the medical authorities branded Hoxsey the worst quack of the century. So began a medical war continuing to this day."

It all started when the great-grandfather's horse was diagnosed with incurable cancer. Hoxsey's great-grandfather put the horse out to pasture to die. He observed the horse eating plants not normally eaten, and when the horse's cancer disappeared, he studied the plants and their history. Native Americans and early botanists had spoken and written that some of these cured disease and cancer, thus the formula was derived.

I remember reading how chimps eat medicinal plants when ill, in Carl Sagan's book I previously reviewed in this blog. I can imagine a horse doing the same.

The documentary will go back in medical history to the time when some doctors wanted to cure the symptoms using surgery, while others wanted to heal the patient with love, hope and herbal medicines. The former's patients often died from the "cure", the latter from the "aliment". To this day, many people are frustrated by the dominant medical practices, some of which prove lethal themselves, and often lack in the kindness and compassion that makes up a quality life.

To hear Hoxsey tell it, the American Medical Association waged war on him (and the documentary tells of gunshots, court cases, numerous arrests, and the shuttering of clinics in 17 states). Hoxsey claims that after studying his formula and patient records, the AMA offered to buy his formula. Hoxsey insisted that part of the purchase contract include a provision that the treatments be available to those in need without regard for ability to pay, which the AMA refused to accept. They then branded his treatment "quackery."

Twice, juries found Hoxsey not guilty of quackery, and found that his treatment did indeed cure cancer. Today, one of the three components in his herbal formulas, a burning red salve that eats flesh is considered by the medical community to cure cancer ... just as excision or destruction by radiation would cure cancer (though the radiation treatments can actually induce new cancer at the same time it destroys the old one).

During the battles, not only was Hoxsey found innocent, he also won a libel case against the AMA Journal editor. The AMA Journal makes big bucks advertising "accepted" medicines. During the trial it was disclosed that the Journal editor had failed anatomy in school and had never seen a patient in his life. He resigned in disgrace.

There is a more in-depth book by the same name, by the filmmaker. As one botanist pointed out, "If some weeds in the back yard could cure cancer, the business of medicine wouldn't want you to know that." After all, there are more people employed in the anti-cancer profession than people with cancer. Medicine is big business, and big business does not always have a heart or soul.

Night Sky

Tonight was one of those times that the night sky presents a unique and beautiful view. The crescent moon appeared very close to the planets Jupiter and Venus at sunset. The unlit side of the moon could be clearly seen against the backdrop of the deep blue heavens. A few wisps of clouds hinted at the colorful sunset that was still fading from view as the gloaming encroached.