The B Orioles are back in the jelly again. Back where the grape is their friend. Where the sugar is sweet and they just can't miss a beat. Yes they're back in the jelly again.
My first RT Hummer arrived today so I had to take my red ribbons off the feeders because the wind caused the feeders to turn quite a bit. Those little bills have a harder time poking into a moving target. Received an interesting email from Kelly suggesting that my Downy Woodpeckers following my frenzied Hairy Woodpecker at Rice Creek Trail Park in Fridley a while back could have been young Hairys. That got me to thinking of how quickly I go to an answer or conclusion instead of staying with a question and accepting additional information. My first few words in response to the emailed opinion was to defend my point of view. Then I stopped and deleted it and took a second to dwell a bit on the possibilities. What did I really observe? Was it just the smaller birds size that had me say they were Downys? A bit like the Starling young aggressively pursuing the adult. Judgment, reaction, defend, and be right. My how the birds teach those lessons if I am just open to seeing the whole picture and not just settle on my first reaction. I wonder how many birds I have missed because I assumed they were one bird and didn't stop to confirm an eye ring or leg color or other identifying characteristic or the lack of them. I looked through my bird books a bit and noticed how close some of the birds I am saying I haven't seen have similar characteristics to the ones I consider familiar. I am catching myself sticking to only one or maybe two identifying characteristics without looking at the whole picture and who knows what I miss when I snap to an answer. My appreciation to Jim Ryan and Steve Weston for that lesson to look long enough to figure out what a bird isn't as well as to what it is. Oops, gotta go, my pair of Brown Thrashers are trying to look for bugs under some plants I am transplanting into my garden. There goes another plant face down. Bye now. Thomas Maiello Spring Lake Park
