More Birds Times Three

Thanks to Wiki for photo

Saw these today and the past few days: Eastern Meadowlark, Goldfinch, Turkey Vulture, Cooper's Hawk, Green-Violet ear Hummingbird, Tree Swallow, and a House Finch.

Heard a Mourning Dove but could not see it. Also hear a Barred Owl, but could not see it.

I have seen many more and varied types of birds, but cannot list them all at this moment.

For a list of Iowa birds, check this out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_birds_of_Iowa

I kept a bird diary for 35 years or so, which includes most of the birds on that list, plus others I saw in other states and in England.

All the ones I mentioned above I saw from my windows.

More Birds

There are hundreds of Red-winged Blackbirds here, but today, I distinctly saw a Yellow-winged Blackbird. 

I have seen these before in the Midwest. Visitors?

Thanks to Wiki for the photos.

I Love Birds

There are now two kinds of Phoebes outside my window at this time.

One is the Eastern Phoebe. There seems to be a male and female.

The other is the Black Phoebe, which really should not be this far east, but there it is. In fact, there are also two. Interesting.

They have lovely songs. Thanks to Wiki for the photos.

Memories of Birds

Since I have been in Dublin, early July to be almost exact, I have seen only pigeons and seagulls. But, I finally saw a little robin, and  I was enchanted. I saw it last week, in a rose garden hidden away here, on the 2nd of September, and it was looking for crumbs, coming out of a border of Cotoneaster horizontalis.

I love the English Robin, and my weird memory can bring up specific times when I have seen such adorable birds. These are not the only times....

Hampstead Heath, at a pub,The Holly Bush, August, 1980,  and the bird was in a bush. I was with a significant other

Stoke Bishop, Bristol, a cold June day in 1986, when I was walking down a lane surrounded by hedges. I was not with a significant other.

Outside Sherborne, Dorset, December, Christmas Day, in 1991. Four of us were walking in the frosty cold and a small robin peeked out of a hedgerow.

Buckfast Abbey, Devon, one was singing in shrubbery, April, 2011. I was walking to the Abbey for Lauds.

Ashbourne, County Meath, January, 2012, one was jumping about and singing in a clump of varied colored roses which were blooming. I was on my way to Mass.

Cobh, St. Benedict's Priory, October, 2012, in the Bible Garden. It was singing in the small fruit trees, and, in the taller yews as I was outside praying.

I love the cheeky attitude of the English Robin and how it hops about, stopping once in a while to look at you, just to make sure you are looking at it. One must be silent to see and hear birds.

Bird-Watching in Sussex

I kept a bird diary for about 36 years, involving several states and countries. I gave it up years ago, but still love the hobby.

A friend of mine just gave me a copy of the RSPB Handbook of British Birds. I am so pleased.

Many I know how to identify already. And, I owe it to my dad (HFD again) for this hobby.

Today's bird--Red-Legged Partridge.

If one memorizes the songs or chirps and knows the habitat, identification is much easier. I need to see another one, as I do not consider a bird seen by me unless I am absolutely sure...thanks to wiki for photo.

Bless the Lord all birds of the air...The little Benedictine bird, in her black feathers, has just sung one of the Hours.

This morning I was awakened by the song of the Thrush commonly called the Blackbird. Like the American Robin, Turdus migratorius, this Turdus merula is a harbinger of Spring, and both birds are among my favorites for their early morning choral melodies. The songs of the Blackbirds and American Robins, to me, are part of Vigils, the early morning Hours or, technically, Night Hours, before Lauds, said in monastic settings much earlier than the 6:30 hour at which I heard the singing. The Blackbird sings in the dark, before dawn, whereas the American Robin sings just as Dawn arrives. When I lived in Missouri, I heard hundreds of Robins in the Dawn. This morning, the moon was shining while the Blackbird sang.


This bird reminds me in turn of one of Shakespeare's craziest and most humorous play, A Midsummer Night's Dream in which the Blackbird is mentioned. As I have aged, I have warmed up to this play more and more, as it shows the "battle of the sexes" as well as the unity of love which crosses and crisscrosses our paths in a multiple of manners. The entire story is framed in the harmony of marriage, as opposed to the disharmony of courtship and carnal love. As Valentine's Day approaches, (and I started this little series of meditations on love, and included chickens below), I now acknowledge the small, but growing Morning Chorus as sign of our love and all creation's love for God, our prayers going "up like incense before the Lord" in the darkness just before dawn, rather than in the evening, as the psalmist states. Vigils takes the place of Matins in the more traditional orders, whereas in some breviaries, Matins and Lauds are combined. Here is a quotation from St. Benedict: As the Prophet saith: "Seven times a day I have given praise to Thee,"this sacred seven fold number will be fulfilled by us in this wise if we perform the duties of our service at the time of Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline; because it was of these day hours that he hath said: "Seven times a day I have given praise to Thee." For the same Prophet saith of the night watches: "At midnight I arose to confess to Thee." At these times, therefore, let us offer praise to our Creator "for the judgments of His justice;" namely, at Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline; and let us rise at night to praise Him.


The little Benedictine bird, in her black feathers, has just sung one of the Hours.

Eurasian Siskins on February 2nd

My favorite animals are birds. And, although I do not care whether my cats go to heaven, I would wonder whatever could take the place of birds, especially the morning chorus, which will not occur for several months.

One reason out of several I decided I could not live in Malta year round was the lack of birds.That may sound like a drastic decision to some, but I love birds. But, now that I am in Ireland, I am happy to see and hear birds, even for the past six very cold weeks I have been here. Today is perhaps the coldest day we have experienced. It was colder here yesterday, in the built-up village north of Dublin where I am staying, than in Iowa! However, as cold as it is, the grass is green and the birds live in the hedges and conifers.

Beside the ubiquitous European Robin, the Hooded Crow, Ring-Necked Doves, European Starlings, Magpies, and Seagulls, today I saw a small flock of Eurasian Siskins in a set of dilapidated yew trees near my flat. I cannot tell you how exciting this is for me. I kept a bird diary for about 35 years, only stopping when I could not keep up with the entries. I have been a serious birder since my early twenties, keeping records, using good field glasses, tromping around soggy Minnesota, Wisconsin and other bird sanctuaries, including some in England. I can recognize many species by calls, as I trained myself by memorizing songs, first from tapes, and then from CDs. If one can hear, one can look in the appropriate place for the bird.

In Missouri, my son and I saw hundreds of birds, including the Great Barn Owl, the Great Horned Owl, and Bald Eagles almost daily in the summer. In Iowa, we identified many types of birds, including the Peregrine Falcon, the Fan-Tailed Hawk, the New World Quail, and the hundreds listed here. The Wiki list looks like a neater version of my first bird diary. And I have seen most, if not all of those birds on that list.

But, today, on Candlemas, and the coldest day I have experienced in Ireland, to see the little band of Eurasian Siskins is a gift from God. They are still fluttering in and out of the yews, moving quickly and nervously as they do, showing their yellow coloring and improving my cold morning with their bits of sunshine. Ah, the resident Magpie just claimed its space.  The yellow birds have flown away. I think the little Eurasian Siskins are gone.

Among new friends in Dublin...

archived photo of St. Kevin's

I spent a lovely morning at the Tridentine Mass at St. Kevin's in Dublin and then had coffee and such with some of the regular traddies. What a warm and friendly group this is, and I would recommend anyone in the area to check out the beautiful Mass and community there. The conversation over coffee at the hotel coffee shop shifted from politics (and as an Iowan I can match any Dubliner talking politics), to the Latin Mass, to Modernist heresies, to Freemasonry, to the lack of catechesis among adults, to the beauty of Shakespeare. I was in traddie heaven. Sadly, I shall not be able to go for a long time, as the buses do not connect from my village that early and my ride was a one-off. However, one is comforted by the fact that there are wonderful, educated (mostly self-educated), happy, traditional Catholics scattered throughout Europe. I also was "in" a much smaller, but equally good-willed, happy, educated and dedicated group in Malta, but there, without the regular Mass, which here is offered at this exquisite church daily. Plus, the choir was "heavenly". And, the sermon superb (about real marriage, the brave priest mentioning that same-sex unions were not marriages-yippie) and the congregation well-trained in responses and customary rubrics. Sigh, wish I could go every day to such a Mass, or even a low TLM. Join me in prayer, please, that I could be part of a parish like this for the rest of my life...traddie heaven.