Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Not all heroes wear capes.

People are weird.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

Even though I know this is a bad idea, I’m off to do it anyway!

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

…and a burning sense of injustice to juice the soul.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

The US Supreme Court is on the ballot in november.

Pelosi: “He either is stupid, or he thinks the rest of us are.” Why not both?

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Please don’t feed the bears.

The gop couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

The choice is between normal and crazy.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

You are here: Home / Nature & Respite / Birdwatching / Ovenbird Open Thread

Ovenbird Open Thread

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This little birdy was hopping around a pile of our hurricane debris this evening, foraging for bugs:

I knew it was some type of warbler or thrush, but I didn’t know it was an ovenbird until a kind person on Twitter identified it for me. Twitter is actually a great place to crowdsource bird identification.

Maybe the world would be a better place had the Twitter platform focused on birdwatching all along — no MAGAts, Nazis, Putin-bots, racist dicks, sexist knobs, etc., just birds. It even fits with the name.

Ovenbirds got their name by constructing domed nests that resemble a Dutch oven. Pretty cool, huh?

Reader Interactions

49Comments

  1. 1.

    Steeplejack

    That is a cute little bird. I’ve never seen one like it.

    I’m teetering on the edge of deciding to go to bed or settle down and watch Tatort: Borowski (German cop show) on the third-tier Eurotrash channel MHz.

    Eh, screw it. Even as I write that I realize I don’t have the stamina. Looks like bedtime for me! Plus I have to rest up for whatever Trump bullshit comes up tomorrow.

    Hey, Betty, one thing I miss is when you would post the ESPN (?) graphic with the big college football matchups and your predictions. You don’t even have to do the predictions. It was just a convenient way for me to see at a glance what games I wanted to take a look at. Too lazy to look up the graphic myself, and my TV listings are always jammed with “Slippery Rock vs. Valdosta State” and junk like that. No pressure, though!

  2. 2.

    Mnemosyne

    When if was up at Lake Arrowhead a couple of weeks ago, I must have seen half a dozen Steller’s Jays, which are common in the California mountains. A couple of them started yelling at me while I was trekking through the woods, so I assumed I was getting too close to their nest.

    Also, the bobcat. Did I tell you guys about the bobcat?

  3. 3.

    Betty Cracker

    @Steeplejack: I might get around to that — no promises! And definitely no predictions. I suck at those even when I’m following the season pretty closely, and this year, for a thousand reasons, I’m not. Anyhoo, rest well for tomorrow’s trials!

  6. 6.

    Origuy

    I saw an odd looking bird hanging out with the pigeons and gulls behind the Walgreens. Looked like some kind of heron, but not the blue herons that you see in the wetlands around San Francisco Bay. This was in East San Jose, too, miles from the bay marshes. I showed a picture to a birder friend, who identified it as a black-crowned night heron. Later I saw two, so there must be a mating pair. What they were doing slumming in the Walgreens dumpster, I don’t know.

  8. 8.

    Eljai

    Sweet little ovenbird! I’ve never seen one in California, but I think they’re kind of rare out here. To get away from work, I go outside and sit on a park bench to eat my lunch. Sometimes, I am visited by an albino pigeon, which I’ve named Billy, after Billy Idol.

  10. 10.

    Mnemosyne

    @Betty Cracker:

    So the place I was at was the UCLA Lake Arrowhead Conference Center, which has a really gorgeous mix of standard conference facilities and outdoor spaces. Most mornings, I trekked up to the Zen Deck, which was up at the top of the hillside and had some comfy couches and chairs.

    On this particular morning, a bunch of damn kids (probably 8th graders) had arrived the night before and were noisily getting their outdoor education by learning to climb a ropes course. They were off to my left as I crossed a little wooden bridge on my way to the Zen Deck.

    I don’t know exactly what made me turn around, but I must have heard some kind of noise, and I discovered that a good-sized bobcat was trotting along the bridge behind me. When I turned to look at him, he stopped and wagged his tail at me in annoyance (every cat owner knows the gesture), so I decided my best option was to get off the bridge and far enough up the trail that I didn’t make the bobcat feel cornered. Because I’m pretty sure that making a wild animal that has long teeth and sharp claws feel cornered is a really bad idea.

    So, anyway, I continued on my way, glancing back occasionally to make sure the bobcat was also continuing to mind his own business. Once I was halfway up the hill, he darted off the bridge and into the underbrush in the opposite direction from where the kids were.

    In retrospect, I wish I’d gotten a photo, but it seemed like a bad idea to stop and reach into my bag for the phone, because Mr. Bobcat could well have considered that a declaration of war.

    It was both cool and kind of scary. I’ve never seen a bobcat outside of a zoo, and definitely didn’t think I’d see one out in the open less than 100 feet from me.

  12. 12.

    Betty Cracker

    @Mnemosyne: That’s so cool! Sounds like you did just the right thing — not good to make a big kitty feel cornered! Approximately how large was it?

    My husband saw a bobcat on a golf course the other day — good-sized one of about 40 pounds or so? Maybe more. Medium dog-sized, I guess. It was across a water hazard, so my husband did take a picture, but it’s kinda blurry and crappy, unfortunately.

    Did you ever see the video a woman took of a Florida panther (very rare) on a wetlands boardwalk? Your story reminded me of it, only this woman had fewer options as the cat ran toward her on a narrow boardwalk. I think I would have bailed into the swamp, but she videoed it as it ran past her. Here’s a link.

  14. 14.

    Mnemosyne

    @Betty Cracker:

    It was probably about the size of a large terrier — 30 or 40 pounds sounds about right. Definitely a bobcat, not a mountain lion.

    Looking at that video, I think I was in the same situation as the woman in it — the wildcat just wanted to cross the bridge and didn’t expect a giant hairless monkey to be in the way. As I kept telling people afterwards (partly to convince myself), cats are ambush predators, so if the wildcat is out in the open, it’s not going to attack you unless it thinks you’re going to attack it first.

    And I think that video is one situation where you can forgive the person for shooting it vertically instead of horizontally!

  15. 15.

    Amir Khalid

    @Betty Cracker:
    there’s a BBC story still up about a Welsh rugby player who visited the zoo with his club team. For some reason, he stuck his hand in the lion enclosure to pet the lion. The lion got ticked off and bit his hand. He’ll miss his club’s next match.

  16. 16.

    Betty Cracker

    @Amir Khalid: What a dummy! He was lucky not to lose his hand!

    @Mnemosyne: The place where the panther video was shot, Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, is well worth a visit next time you’re in Southwest FL to visit kiddos. You probably won’t see a panther, but there are tons of birds and other critters. It also has an impressive old cypress tree that is allegedly one of the biggest in the world, though a Californian might not find it all that awe-inspiring due to familiarity with redwoods…

  17. 17.

    Emerald

    @Origuy:
    We have black crowned night herons in California. I ran into one at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. It wanted my burger. It did not get it.

    Then while watching a real (live) safari in South Africa, there was another black crowned night heron! Apparently they are world wide, like barn owls.

    (The marvelous safari is on for three hours—each—twice a day. Look for Safari Live. It’s on YouTube live and the interntoobs and Periscope and several other places. Run by Wild Earth. Quite fascinating.)

  22. 22.

    NotMax

    @Major Major Major Major

    And hooray that season 3 of Club de Cuervos appeared on Netflix on Friday. Pickings were getting a mite slim.

    1932 movie playing in background on TCM with Neil Hamilton (Commissioner Gordon on 60s Batman show) as a dashing society roué, lover and kept husband of a Hollywood megastar. Does not compute.   :)

  23. 23.

    Joyce H

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I just realized I forgot to eat dinner. No wonder I’m anxious and slightly dizzy. Fortunately I had ice cream laying around, hooray. Sigh.

    I recently discovered Halo Top. Eat a pint just about every day. Hey, it’s practically health food…

  27. 27.

    satby

    @NotMax: ☕ thanks!
    I hear occasionally from both, they’ve both started college this fall. I’m in better contact with Valentina only because she’s on Facebook, and that’s a good way to share a quick update without needing time to write a long letter. Thanks to FB, I keep in touch with four of my former exchange students easily.

  31. 31.

    satby

    It’s 44° here, high today will be 66°. Hmm, what to wear?
    I’m off, hope everyone has an enjoyable day, or night, as the case may be!

  33. 33.

    raven

    We had a hard week with Lil Bit. She has developed Laryngeal Paralysis and has some difficult breathing spells. After taking her to her cardiologist for a look at her heart and a thoracic X-ray examine the prognosis is that it’s going to be stable for the foreseeable future and we’ll not do “tie-back” surgery now. I know neither off these mutts will live forever but not yet.

  35. 35.

    raven

    @OzarkHillbilly: Well it actually ended up being ok. I was thinking she was just going to suffocate to death but the vet thinks she’ll be ok for the time being. She makes a lot of noise when she breathes but has been for quite a we can deal with that.

  36. 36.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven: It’s still tough to go thru. I dread the day we have to face that reality with the Woofmeister. My wife will be inconsolable.

  37. 37.

    Just one more canuck

    @Steeplejack: I’d rather watch Slippery Rock and Valdosta state than the usual Alabama vs Wottsamatta U or Enormous State vs Cupcake U that is always on early in the season

  39. 39.

    Currants

    Oven birds are cute, Betty! I was first introduced to them in VT a few yrs ago in an ecology course. Turns out they’re in my neck of the woods every summer but I didn’t know what they sounded like.

  43. 43.

    Steeplejack

    @randy khan:

    Thank you! I’ve been screaming about Montalbano on this blog for years, and you are literally the first person to mention seeing it. It is a fantastic series, end of story.

    I presume you know they’re rerunning the episodes in order at 4:30 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. EDT every day right now. They’re up to about episode 8 or so. “Turning Point” is on tomorrow morning. (No 10:00 a.m. showing on Saturday or Sunday.)

    Also will be glad to rant about other good MHz shows upon request.

  44. 44.

    Laura

    @raven: LP sucks! My rescue Lab Mr. Buzz developed it at 8 years old. He did his best to cope with it, but overexertion would really tax him.
    Scritches and pats to lilbit Raven.

  47. 47.

    chigail

    @Betty Cracker: stepping out of lurkness to say how chuffed I am to be acknowledged here and on twitter by one of my bj idols. Made my day. Yes, they are a sweet happy bird.

  48. 48.

    Mnemosyne

    @NotMax:

    The bad kitty who did that is a Cat Of Unusual Size, so we sometimes joke that he was fathered by a bobcat.

    You know you have an unusually large cat when you take him out of the carrier for a new vet and they say, My, he’s a big cat! and he’s not at all fat.

  49. 49.

    J R in WV

    Very late last night (aka early this morning) I was sitting at the laptop, and kept hearing this faint whoot call.

    I went outdoors, and there was a Barred Owl callling, a little incoherently, for a Barred Owl. They have been in this little hollow since long before we got here, and so we’ve been listening to their regular calls AND their wild crowd-noise hootenany shouting out for decades.

    This youngster had a burp in his first call, and so no one was calling back to it. But I imagine it will figure out what’s wrong from listening to other birds in the larger hollow before too long.

    I love Owls, big ones, little one.

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