Catholic Birder

Brave Little Boy

2006-04-24T07:15:00.000-07:00

Gabriel is a tough and brave little guy. Yesterday he had his hand in the door jam as two of his brothers slammed the door. His middle finger was partially severed. My wife had a neighbor come over and then she rushed him to the ER. I missed the whole thing since I was at church with our daughter for Divine Mercy Sunday observance. Luckily the plastic surgeon was at the hospital. He and a doctor

First Nephew

2006-03-27T05:39:00.000-08:00

Congrats to my brother and sister-inlaw on the birth of their third child and first son.Baby Christopher and Uncle:

My Wren Boys

2005-12-27T12:04:00.000-08:00

Tom Fitzpatrick of Recta Ratio has alerted us to an Irish Saint Stephen Martyr Day custom particularly apt for comment by the Catholic Birder: the Wren Boys . Young boys would hunt a wren to display on a pole for carolling purposes. The songs they would sing? Here is one Tom posted:The wren, the wren,The king of all birds,On St. Stephen's DayGot caught in the furze.So it's up with the kettleAnd

A charming bedside miscellany

2005-12-20T12:33:00.000-08:00

Look what has landed at the top of John Wilson's list of favorite books for 2005. John is editor of Books & Culture in Christianity Today.1. The Bedside Book of Birds: An Avian Miscellany, by Graeme Gibson (Doubleday). This might just be my favorite book of the year. Wendy and I love birds, love "bedside books," love miscellanies. Gibson—a Canadian novelist married to the novelist Margaret

Catholic beliefs are for the birds

2005-12-13T09:48:00.000-08:00

Stephen Barr is now writing for the First Things blog. I don't always agree with him but he, along with Mariano Artigas, helped me reconcile my thoughts about science while I was first exploring my new faith. Today he describes a philosopher's stumble in declaring Darwin the “destroyer” of God. Though, I don't think much of his use of our feathered friends.December 13, 2005Stephen Barr writes:The

Christmas Decorations

2005-12-09T07:41:00.000-08:00

There is a house in the neighborhood I grew up in (Shepard Park in Washington, DC) that has had a festival of lights for at least thirty years. I remember my parents taking me to see it every few nights each year starting in 1975. It may have been up before then. Last night I drove down from Wheaton to see it again with the boys while Sandi and Phoebe were at Mass celebrating the Immaculate

Drudge Birds 3

2005-12-07T05:55:00.000-08:00

Good use of bird image on Drudge this morning. These mourning doves have the right idea - fluff it up and bear it. 1 DEGREE IN WINDY CITY

Their song was: Regnum mundi

2005-11-17T10:43:00.000-08:00

When the time approached that God had ordained, that she which had despised the reign mortal should have the reign of angels, she lay sick of the fevers and turned her to the wall, and they that were there heard her put out a sweet melody; and when one of the chamberers had enquired of her what it was, she answered and said: A bird came between me and the wall and sang so sweetly that it provoked

Confident and Unruffled

2005-11-16T12:10:00.000-08:00

Today is the feast day for Saint Margaret, mother of eight and queen of Scotland in the 11th century. According to this story by Amy Steedman, she was, on at least one occasion, given to noticing the qualities of birds that lend themselves to our example."Among the weary, spent travellers there was one who was calm and untroubled, whose face reflected none of the gloom of the skies overhead, on

What Sandi must feel like some mornings

2005-11-15T13:01:00.000-08:00

Taking another look at the exhibit profiled in the Post this morning I must draw the comparison of this painting to the occasional drama my wife endures. Though Sandi is far more beautiful than a grackle (I’m thinking Swan) and our four toddler boys are much more polite than these not-quite-fledglings, there are some mornings when this painting resembles the scene in our kitchen at about 7:30

Does Drudge Read Catholic Birder?

2005-11-15T12:48:00.000-08:00

Just hours after a CathoicBirder jab at his photo files, he has a more appropriate photo for his latest scare: CHINA TO VACCINATE 14 BILLION

St. Albert the Great - Catholic Birder?

2005-11-15T12:21:00.000-08:00

Today is the feast day of St. Albert the Great (c.1206-1280), Doctor of the Church, Catholic Scientist and, some might say, Catholic birder. He hunted with falcons, studied birds and saw nature as a path to understanding its artist, God.One book on the Doctors of the church states “Albert knew and wrote about 114 species of birds, 113 quadrupeds, 139 aquatic animals, 61 serpents and 49 worms. He

Drudge Birdflu Hysteria

2005-11-15T08:46:00.000-08:00

The current headline on Drudge: Flu Scare: 50 birds die in British quarantinePerhaps Drudge needs better stock photos. The quarantined birds were ducks and chickens. The Drudge bird is a Macaw.

Peregrine and Ivory-Billed side by side...

2005-11-15T07:33:00.000-08:00

... in today's Mark Trail comic strip. A falcon flies in front of Trail's log home and in the next panel he responds to a send-off kiss by telling his wife he will "let you know if I see any ivory-bills!" They are called ivory-billeds Mark but you go right out there and find one.

Artist With a Bird's-Eye View

2005-11-15T07:21:00.000-08:00

Facinating story about an oil panter and his work on exhibit here in DC at the Adamson Gallery. "The Nest" includes 17 of William Newman's oils depicting the life of a group of grackles who nest in the tube that rests against the shower window in his house in NW Washington. Here is the sample published in today's Washington Post.Unlike so many "field guide" caricatures of birds, these paintings

Violettes Lock on Saturday

2005-11-14T18:46:00.000-08:00

Late in posting a report from the weekend. I didn't get to resume my Veteran's Day Rt 270 raptor count. Too many errands to run that day. Took Sandi and the boys to Violette's Lock on Saturday morning to search for the neotropic cormorant that has been feeding in the Potomac lately. No sign of it but we did see two common loons, two horned grebes, several hairys, a downy, a flicker, a

The Devil Bird

2005-11-10T18:13:00.000-08:00

St. Ambrose of Milan wrote to Irenaeus of Lyons in 387 suggesting he view Satan's methods as similar to a partridge. Applying Jeremiah 17:11, The Honey Tongued Doctor creates a treacherous image of the partridge, whose ultimate defeat reminds us of Christ's victory in calling souls to Heaven.______________LETTER XXXII The partridge hath cried, she hath gathered what she hath not hatched. From the

Kill the BIRDS!!!!

2005-11-10T15:12:00.000-08:00

The folks at National Review's Corner are wargaming again. No, not Iran or North Korea. The BIRDS! Warren Bell learns from other Corner readers that the birds have a mighty airforce. BIRDS V. HUMANS [ Warren Bell] If it's a numbers game, we're in bad shape. According to most estimates, birds number somewhere between 100 billion and 300 billion. People

The Birds Are Coming, AHHHHHH!

2005-11-10T14:20:00.000-08:00

War of the species - coming soon to an NRO Corner near you!

Birding with God - 1

2005-11-10T13:02:00.000-08:00

Well since this is the major theme of my blog I decided to do a search to see if anyone else out there is birding and blogging with an eye to the sky and a heart towards God. Here are a few fun loving worshipers I've come across:Kim describes her growing life list, complete with prayers for future sightings, at My Birding Ventures."So I am hoping and praying that I will get to see the Golden

Veteran's Day Cloverleaf Count

2005-11-10T05:24:00.000-08:00

When I last lived in Maryland I used to spend part of each Veteran's Day driving up and down RT 270 following each clover leaf and exit ramp searching for raptors. From 1991 until 1996 I found anywhere from 10 - 50 hawks, kestrals and vultures in trees fences and wires sourounding or within the entrance points to 270. What inspired me to do this was a

Folded Shouldered Torments Tailed - Battle of the Reds

2005-11-09T13:14:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday I enjoyed the spectacle of two hawks circling above my parents home in western Loudoun County. A red-shouldered, perhaps native to the neighborhood, dive bombed a likely-migrating red-tailed. Three generations enjoyed the viewing. Michael claimed he could see the hawks when I told him to "look above the cloud above Grandpa's house." My dad noted how much larger the red-tailed

Great trip to Cape May

2005-11-01T12:59:00.000-08:00

What a great trip. Sandi and Phoebe were able to spend a lot of time together, rollerblading, shopping, having breakfast and tea. I left before dawn each morning and birded most of the days on my own, around 35 hours in the field. We spent the evenings together having dinner and went on a whale watch Sunday afternoon after Mass. No whale but still a lot of fun. Saw many thousands of birds this

Birding Hurricane Wilma

2005-10-22T13:26:00.000-07:00

Want to see that storm-petral, skua, frigatebird or other pelagic you keep missing from the boat? Hurricane Wilma may bring a few of them to shore. There used to be a listserv dedicated to helping birders know which lagkes have become dropoffs for hurricane pelagic birds. Hurricane NetSOUTH ALABAMA BIRDING ASSOCIATION has a good tip list about birding hurricanes.As a hurricane develops, birds

A Trip to Rome

2005-10-20T13:06:00.000-07:00

I expect that five years ago I would not have put Rome on a top 50 list of places I would like to visit. Birders always have trip wish lists. This birder did go to Rome and took some very nice photos. I dream of going to the Vatican one day. It now sits at the top of my list. If there are birds there, bonus. Perhaps a few white doves.

Birding Underground

2005-10-20T11:58:00.000-07:00

My old commute from from what is left of the hills of Loudoun was above ground. I could pass the time spotting hawks and perched passerines and something nice as the bus crossed the Potomac. Now I get to appreciate starlings, pidgeons and crows in Wheaton before decending several hundred feet underground to a birdless labyrinth. A good reminder that

Looking forward to Cape May

2005-10-20T10:03:00.000-07:00

The BIRDHAWK Listserv Archives from the last three years show hit-or-miss tallies for the three days I’ll have at the point at the end of the month. In 2004 there were 5, 41 and 394 raptors on the last three days in October. In 2003 there were 256, 174 and 631 raptors respectively In 2002 there were 98, 100 and

Famous Peregrines

2005-10-20T09:24:00.000-07:00

This awesome photo won an international photo competition. It is a photo of a falcon positioning for a swoop or dive kill on whichever of the thousands of starlings it chooses. The photographer describes the flight as a dive but it isn't. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4355628.stm Falcons in a dive have their wings half or fully folded.I watch startlings every morning on my commute and

2002-09-27T13:08:00.000-07:00

No time to bird. No time for an intro. My wife is pregnant with triplets, my son is teething, my daughter just started first grade, my organization is about to send a half-million letters under my signature, I go to closing on my new house in five days and I somehow decided to start this blog today. Call it an attempt to distract myself.