This may be a geezer thing, or simply a factor of having more time to stop and smell the roses, but we have become avid bird watchers. Not fanatic, mind you—we don’t maintain a life list or anything. We just like to watch them at the suet feeder outside the kitchen window in winter. The activity of the birds masks the hideous color of our neighbor’s house and makes it disappear. I mention birds because the library has four shelves in the natural history section devoted to books about birds (call number 598). I am thinking this may be a factor of the age of the Friday Harbor population. There are indeed a lot of birders on the island, the kind who do keep life lists. Before we put up a suet feeder, I would have scoffed at a book like The Genius of Birds (598 ACKERMA). Now I’m not so sure. In addition to witnessing food fights and belligerent posturing, we’re seeing mutual grooming, altruism, and even intelligence. I won’t go so far as genius. Still, there is something clever about the little birds hanging out on the ground waiting for the bigger birds to hack out suet that then falls down.
We have seen quite a few different species at the feeder, probably a dozen or more. Recently we saw a red-breasted sapsucker. We also identified a Pine Siskin (a kind of finch) thanks to a bird book and the Merlin bird app from Cornell University. While Merlin is good, we frequently need a book of local birds as a supplement. Merlin was no help with the sapsucker. Unfortunately the only birds at the feeder when I had the camera handy were those dang starlings. Those of you who know starlings, know what I mean. And if you watch long enough, you identify families and familiars. There’s Downy Dan and his wife Danielle—downy woodpeckers, not to be confused with the larger hairy woodpeckers. There seem to be two flicker couples, but we can’t quite differentiate anything beyond male and female. There is a big fat male quail who is identifiable because he has a strong black line around his face, which the two females in his harem do not have. Dan Quail has, somewhat amazingly, even flown up into the tree to get at the suet, even though his natural feeding ground is, well, on the ground. I won’t even go into the intelligence of crows. They shall inherit the earth, along with the ants. I admit to feeling a little thrill the day I saw a library patron go to the bird books and pick H is For Hawk (598.944 MACDONA) from the bottom shelf I had so recently tidied up. She walked right to it! Books, birds, and books about birds—it doesn’t take much to excite a shelf reader. Comments are closed.
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Author Rebecca Moore is Professor Emerita of Religious Studies at San Diego State University. She is currently Reviews Editor for Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions and Co-Director of The Jonestown Institute. Archives
December 2021
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