Happy Mother's Day!

A great egret, Ardea alba, with three hungry chicks. 

Sheldon Cooper's Bird

This is a blue jay, Cyanocitta cristata. 

I was watching old episodes of The Big Bang Theory on television last night. This story is therefore a few years late, but I am writing it anyway for those who haven't heard about it and because I love blue jays.

In episode 9 of season 5 of The Big Bang Theory, "Ornithophobia Diffusion," a bird lands outside Sheldon's window. It won't go away. Sheldon is afraid of birds. Funny things happen.

What really got my attention is that he called the bird a blue jay. It was not. It was a black-throated magpie-jay, a Mexican bird that really should not have been outside his window in Pasadena. Ok, so maybe it was an escaped pet. (Click here to see a black-throated magpie-jay.)

I have lived in places in the west (northern Idaho, just south of Seattle, and Vancouver) where people sometimes call the Stellar's jay, Cyanocitta stelleri, a blue jay. Although it is a jay and it is blue, the name blue jay is already taken by our eastern bird, C. cristata. (Click here to see a little movie of a Steller's jay.)

The bird's identity been discussed thoroughly on the Internet already. The television show's representatives say Sheldon's fear of birds was responsible for his lack of familiarity with species and  consequent misidentification. The episode aired on November 10, 2011. I just saw it. That's not a blue jay.

This is a blue jay, Cyanocitta cristata. 

Florida Wildlife

An alligator, Alligator mississippiensis, watching from the grass. 

While I was visiting Gainesville, Florida last week, I spent a day at Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park (click here to see the park's webpage). This remarkable wild spot is a National Natural Landmark yet is only a 15-minute drive from downtown Gainesville.

It's a little piece of old Florida. Well, not so little -- there are over 22,000 acres with trails, boardwalks, picnic spots, campgrounds, and more. It is crawling with wildlife. I saw turtles, dragonflies, caterpillars, wild pigs, wading birds, coots, rails, and alligators, lots of alligators.

There's one. 

A little one. 

Another one. 

A bunch of them! Click to enlarge and check out the one with its mouth open. 

A tricolored (used to be Louisiana) heron, Egretta tricolor. 

An American coot, Fullica americana. 

A cattle egret, Bubulcus ibis. 

A perched anhinga, Anhinga anhinga, and a flying snowy egret, Egretta thula. 

Click here to look at the website of the Friends of Paynes Prairie. 

Happy Easter

Tricolored heron, Egretta tricolor, with a blue egg in the nest.

Click to enlarge. 

Gathering Nest Material

A house sparrow with a mouthful of dry grass. 

A red-tailed hawk with a stick. 

A squirrel carrying dry leaves. 

A lot of nest-building going on this week! 

Spring in New York City -- finally

Crocuses! 

Daffodils!

Robins are finding things to eat in the thawed soil. 

Pigeons seem to be copulating more than usual. This pair stopped when they saw me. Click to enlarge photos. 

House sparrows are fighting over nest cavities. This one is perched at the entrance to a nice natural tree hole. 

Yay, spring! 

An excerpt from Atalanta in Calydon (1865) by Algernon Charles Swinburne:

For winter's rains and ruins are over, 

And all the season of snows and sins;

The day dividing lover and lover,

The light that loses, the night that wins;

And time remembered is grief forgotten,

And frosts are slain and flowers begotten,

And in green underwood and cover

Blossom by blossom the spring begins. 

Bald Eagle Birthday

I have been watching a web cam trained on a Bald Eagle nest in New Jersey every day for almost two months. I let it run all day on my computer desktop at work; the infrequent bursts of activity catch my eye, but it is mostly patient waiting. The nest is in a tree on the old estate at Duke Farms in Hillsborough, New Jersey -- click here to read about the place. 

I found the nest cam through the Hancock Wildlife Association; they have a page of all kinds of wild bird nest web cams. You can take your pick of eagles, osprey, owls, falcons, and more -- click here to check it out. 

I selected the closest eagle web cam to my home so I can visit later when the eagles are fledging and perhaps get a glimpse of them. Click on the Eagle Cam on the Duke Farms link (during daylight). On the bottom of the page you will find a stream of comments and questions from others watching live. I frequently find myself watching with elementary school classes who are learning about science and nature.

We watched the eagle couple persevere as the nest was repeatedly covered with snow in February. They brought new branches to lay over the snow. They built a pile of grass in the center. Eventually the snow was gone, and we watched the female lay the first egg of the year on the cold afternoon of February 17th. It was followed by a second egg on February 20th and a third on the 23rd. Yesterday, March 29th, two of the eggs hatched. Here is a peek of them from a video that was posted to YouTube by a nest watcher -- click here to see the baby eagles.