If I ever have a lot of time on my hands and want to get nerdy about it, I would totally do this. Sometimes I'll go out to watch bald eagles when they're around.
I'd like to volunteer to start a Bay Area Jezzie bird-watching club. This will be AWESOME!!! Think about it. We can head out to Point Reyes, try to distinguish between the different Calidris species, and then go do cocktails and oysters at Hog Island. Who's with me?!?
I like birds. I have some bird statues and some cool bird prints I bought on Etsy in my dressing room at home. My favorites are the tiny ones you hear in the summer that go "weeeeeeow!!!!" really loudly and high-pitched, and robins. Here in PA, robins are everywhere in the spring. I like seeing them, especially when there's a ton of them all spread out, standing still on a lawn. They look, to me, like fat little sentinels with their red vests and all. Anyway, I think that anything you're very passionate about, be it your pets or stamp collecting or grandchildren or a spouse, can provide more than just a distraction. It can be a reason for living, really.
I wouldn't call myself a birder by any means, but I effing LOVE crows. Whenever I see one hopping around on the ground, I crack up like a crazy person.
The other day, I saw one hopping along the sidewalk with a whole sandwich in its mouth! This doesn't really pertain to Phoebe Snetsinger, but I just wanted to share.
@Pilar Ternera: Oh noes!! I am a crow-hater. I have this superstition about them that they're a bad omen. Any time one flies overhead or anything, I fork my fingers at them to ward off their bad vibes. I've never admitted this before because it's weird, but I do it all the time. I just think they're scary.
I am a terrible bird-watcher. I can never find them in time with my binoculars. One of my more frustrating moments was trying to translate (accented english to english) for my Grandma (an avid birdwatcher) on a day-long bird tour while on vacation in Africa.
Guide: Ovah they-ah, a horn-billed bahrd Grandma: Whaa? LaMorena: A horn-billed bird. Grandma: But where? LaMorena: Where he pointed. Guide: Now eet haz flown away. Grandma: Great, I missed another one. Grumble... LaMorena: *sigh*
We have a resident bird watcher in my office (her parents were ornithologists). She keeps binoculars in her office to spot birds that make appearances at the canal behind our building. So far the rarest sighting has been a Wood Duck!
Whenever we go to the park, Mr. is always upset he forgot his binoculars. His step-father is an avid birder and Mr. dabbles in it from time to time. The other day we saw one of these...
... and he could point out that it was a common grackle.
I DO NOT RECOMMEND driving with birders, however. "Oooh! Look! A hawk!" "DRIVE OR BIRDWATCH! DRIVE OR BIRDWATCH! DON'T DO BOTH AT ONCE!"
@LaComtesse: Yes, that is a common grackle. We have them all over down here in Texas. And in my backyard in abundance. We also have two types of woodpeckers, who are so much fun to watch. I can look out my kitchen window and see them!
@badmutha: I've always loved grackles, crows and ravens, chickadees, and these...
they're shore birds of some sort and super-cute and dainty. They have tiny legs that move very fast and they're puffy and (to quote myself squealing the first time I saw it) "I see so much of myself in that little bird."
As dorky as this is to admit, Mr. Meurent and I are avid bird-watchers (and whale-watchers, in fact). It's actually gone a long way to help our relationship, since Mr. M is a big outdoorsman, and I get bored very easily if I can find no purpose in participating in his long rambling walks and more arduous hikes. And it's actually quite challenging...kind of like a really difficult Where's Waldo for the eco-set.
@victorinemeurent: My grandparents travel the world for their bird-watching. It seems like such a fun hobby! I'd like to go whale watching but I am terrified of whales.
I heard a recording of the last Eunuch at the PAPAL court. He died in 1922. For hundreds of years the Catholic Church had no qualms of having countless boys sexually mutilated to preserve their voices. In fact the practise was only banned from church choirs in THE TWENTIETH CENTURY!!
China, I have got my OWN castration secrets, thank you.
The belief that castrati were unambitious and therefore unthreatening to the regency existed far beyond China ~ Byzantium, for example. In case anyone, anywhere doubted the connection between masculinity, drive, and the physical presence of a penis.
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The other day, I saw one hopping along the sidewalk with a whole sandwich in its mouth! This doesn't really pertain to Phoebe Snetsinger, but I just wanted to share.
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Me: Mom, this bread is stale.
Mom: Feed it to the crows!
Me: Darn! I burned my eggs.
Mom: Feed them to the crows!
We've been lucky. Also, my mom is crazy.
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Guide: Ovah they-ah, a horn-billed bahrd
Grandma: Whaa?
LaMorena: A horn-billed bird.
Grandma: But where?
LaMorena: Where he pointed.
Guide: Now eet haz flown away.
Grandma: Great, I missed another one. Grumble...
LaMorena: *sigh*
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... and he could point out that it was a common grackle.
I DO NOT RECOMMEND driving with birders, however. "Oooh! Look! A hawk!" "DRIVE OR BIRDWATCH! DRIVE OR BIRDWATCH! DON'T DO BOTH AT ONCE!"
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they're shore birds of some sort and super-cute and dainty. They have tiny legs that move very fast and they're puffy and (to quote myself squealing the first time I saw it) "I see so much of myself in that little bird."
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Them shits are tall.
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Why they gotta be so big?
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The belief that castrati were unambitious and therefore unthreatening to the regency existed far beyond China ~ Byzantium, for example. In case anyone, anywhere doubted the connection between masculinity, drive, and the physical presence of a penis.
03/16/09