Birdtober Day Twenty-Four: Ornate Hawk-Eagle

Source: eBird.com

Seeing one of these birds must be quite an experience. Some things to consider: their wingspan is between 3 ft 10 in to 4 ft 8 in (117-142 cm). They kill and eat very large creatures like caiman, monkeys, Black Vultures, herons, and agoutis. And they have that cute crest, of which I bet they are quite proud. 

 

(Bonus: Today's Birdtober bird was also on today's Birdnote podcast! You can listen to it here.)

 

 

Enormous bird

on maternity leave,

she stays home

while her mate brings food.

She carefully lines the nest

with more and more leaves

to prepare the nursery.

She sits on her one egg almost all the time,

and once it hatches,

she and her mate 

bring food to the chick for months.

Member of a near threatened species,

beheader of large prey,

gentle mother,

ferocious predator:

Ornate Hawk-Eagle.

©Ruth Bowen Hersey

Birdtober Day Twenty-Three: Black-headed Gull

 Source: eBird.com

The Black-headed Gull
bobs its brown head, calls out “kwup,”
and eats everything.

©Ruth Bowen Hersey

Birdtober Day Twenty-Two: Bohemian Waxwing

Source: eBird.com

Red-tipped
wings, letters dipped
in scarlet sealing wax;
like feathered northern messages,
trilling.

 

©Ruth Bowen Hersey

 

Birdtober Day Twenty-One: Bluethroat

 

This bird's Latin name is Luscinia svecica, with the second part meaning "Swedish." It got its name because the colors were reminiscent of the Swedish flag.

I really do not like to brag
But I’m a great flycatcher
Plus, I look like the Swedish flag
And that adds to my stature.

 

©Ruth Bowen Hersey

Poetry Friday: Birdtober Day Twenty: Pine Grosbeak

Source: eBird.com

Source: eBird.com

Photogenic bird
Posing where he looks the best
With rowan berries

©Ruth Bowen Hersey

Be sure to visit our host Bridget for today's roundup.

 

And here are links to my Birdtober poems so far this month:

 

Day One: Blue-winged Pitta 

Day Two: Cuban Trogon 

Day Three: Eastern Rosella

Day Four: Superb Fruit-Dove 

Day Five: Common Tailorbird

Day Six: Albatross 

Day Seven: Bearded Reedling 

Day Eight: Pin-tailed Whydah 

Day Nine: Peregrine Falcon 

Day Ten: Strawberry Finch 

Day Eleven: Magnificent Frigatebird 

Day Twelve: Azure Tit

Day Thirteen: Potoo 

Day Fourteen: Scarlet Ibis

Day Fifteen: White-naped Crane 

Day Sixteen: Cattle Egret 

Day Seventeen: Turaco

Day Eighteen: Cape Batis 

Day Nineteen: Pink Robin

 

Birdtober Day Nineteen: Pink Robin

Source: eBird.com

Little pink and grey
Denizen of neat moss nest,
Fuzzy ornament

©Ruth Bowen Hersey

Birdtober Day Eighteen: Cape Batis

Source: eBird.com

 

These birds live in Southern Africa; the Cape in the name refers to the Cape of Good Hope. It was first described in print in 1760 by a Frenchman, Mathurin Jacques Brisson, according to Wikipedia. I'd love to see this handsome bird, which one source describes as having a "range of strange calls and antics."

 

Little guy, black, white, and brown,
makes a “buzzing grating” sound.
Forest-dweller, eating flies,
views the world through orange eyes.

 

 ©Ruth Bowen Hersey

 

 

Birdtober Day Seventeen: Turaco

 

Source of Photos: eBird.com

 

 

There are at least 23 species of turacos, all of which are endemic to Africa. We have several in Uganda, but the first I saw was the Ross's Turaco, sometimes known as the Lady Ross's Turaco. You can see from the pictures above why I couldn't stop gasping the first time I saw them, and many times afterward. What a beautiful, bright, and amazing bird! 

Lady Ross, the wife of the Governor of the island of Saint Helena, showed a picture and some feathers of this bird to John Gould, an ornithologist. Lady Ross had one of these turacos in her possession, and when Gould presented it as a new species to the Zoological Society of London in 1851, he named it after her. There's some information on this and on some of the problems with naming birds here. 

When I was looking for videos of this bird, I found some where the birds were filmed in cages. I also found a site advertising them for sale (though they are sold out right now). There are plenty of these birds around -- they aren't anywhere close to being endangered -- but still I don't like thinking of them living in cages. Here in Uganda, though, some people consider them pests and they are sometimes trapped and eaten, so maybe their lives in an aviary are less stressful. 

 

My poem has a bit of a flippant tone, but I really do wish people would let birds live in the wild. Fortunately, here where I live there's a clear understanding that tourists love wildlife and tourists are a huge source of income for the country. There are many efforts being made to preserve biodiversity.

 

Lovely birds of red and navy 

should not be consumed with gravy.

Nor should they be taken captive

even though they're so attractive.

Let these gorgeous creatures be,

on the ground or in a tree,

for they bring their own delight,

flashing colors in their flight.

 

©Ruth Bowen Hersey

Birdtober Day Sixteen: Cattle Egret

 

Source: eBird.com

Cattle Egrets hang out with cattle, in a mutually beneficial arrangement. The cattle get the annoying bugs eaten off of them, and the Cattle Egrets get to eat what they like best, the bugs that surround the cattle. I am sure I am not the only person who can't help thinking of the old Sesame Street song at this point.

 

In Kampala there are lots of Cattle Egrets downtown. They are often seen with Marabou Storks, and since those enormous birds are scavengers and love to be close to garbage, I would imagine the bug thing applies just as much as with cows, and maybe even more. Often the Cattle Egrets have what appears to be a blond toupee on their heads.

Snowy and graceful,

Keeping bugs under control:

Birds at your service.

©Ruth Bowen Hersey

Birdtober Day Fifteen: White-naped Crane

 

 

 

Hera, the wife of an unfaithful husband,
often was overcome with jealousy.
She turned women into animals,
sometimes because Zeus loved them,
sometimes because they had compared themselves with her,
and sometimes just because.

Chelone became a tortoise,
Callisto a bear,
Gerana a crane,
Antigone a stork.

Linnaeus called the crane family Antigone
because he got confused
and really, who can blame him?

But unlike Hera,
storks aren’t much concerned about others.
Antigone Vipio,
for example,
is busy breeding in Mongolia,
complete with elaborate dances involving throwing grass,
raising chicks,
wintering in China or Korea or Japan.

You may call them whatever you like,
as long as you leave them alone.

©Ruth Bowen Hersey

Birdtober Day Fourteen: Scarlet Ibis

Source: eBird.com

 

Trees blossom with birds
Roosting until the morning
Scarlet sleepover 

 

©Ruth Bowen Hersey

Poetry Friday: Birdtober Day Thirteen: Potoo

Happy Poetry Friday! It's Day Thirteen of Birdtober, which was created as a series of prompts for visual artists, but which I use (this is my third year now) as prompts for poems. Below you'll find links to the first twelve days of content, and then today's poem. Don't forget to visit our host, Catherine, at Reading to the Core, to see what everyone else is sharing on this Poetry Friday!

Day One: Blue-winged Pitta 

Day Two: Cuban Trogon 

Day Three: Eastern Rosella

Day Four: Superb Fruit-Dove 

Day Five: Common Tailorbird

Day Six: Albatross 

Day Seven: Bearded Reedling 

Day Eight: Pin-tailed Whydah 

Day Nine: Peregrine Falcon 

Day Ten: Strawberry Finch 

Day Eleven: Magnificent Frigatebird 

Day Twelve: Azure Tit 

 

There are seven species of Potoo listed on eBird. I've seen -- and heard -- only one, and only once: the Common Potoo, in October of 2021 in Paraguarí, Paraguay. When I listened to the first video below, the call of this bird took me right back to that time and place. The second video has information about the members of this odd bird family.

 

 

That night in Escobar
in rural Paraguay,
at the end of a day of birds,
we went out in the yard
after dinner.

We saw and heard
Short-tailed Nighthawks, three of them,
a Common Pauraque,
a Tropical Screech-Owl,

and a Common Potoo,
a Ghost Bird,
hunting moths with his wide mouth,
filling the warm spring evening
with his haunting cry.

From that night in Escobar
I remember the insect chorus,
the friendly light from the house,
the sense that there was more in the world
than I had known.

©Ruth Bowen Hersey

Birdtober Day Twelve: Azure Tit

Source: eBird.com

Fuzzy snowball bird

Cyanistes cyanus

In the winter sky

©Ruth Bowen Hersey

Birdtober Day Eleven: Magnificent Frigatebird

Source: eBird

Source: Wikipedia

I saw this bird twice in Haiti. It is very large and unmistakable, and I was excited to see it. Apparently it has a less-than-magnificent habit of making other birds throw up their food and then eating their vomit. Christopher Columbus wrote about this in his journal; we know because his priest, Bartolomé de las Casas, preserved the account. Las Casas is the one of the first who suggested bringing laborers from elsewhere because the treatment of islanders by Columbus and his men was so heinous. Las Casas argued that the islanders had souls, though few others agreed with him. (Las Casas later said that he believed all slavery was wrong.) In my poem, I question whether some things are quite as magnificent as we've been told. 

Columbus criticized the Magnificent Frigatebird

for taking food it hadn't caught

from the stomach of other birds.

Las Casas criticized Columbus

for taking islanders as slaves

and believing they had no souls.

History criticizes las Casas

because the transatlantic trade in human beings

was his brainchild.

There's lots of criticism to go around

and much less magnificence

than you might have thought.

©Ruth Bowen Hersey

Birdtober Day Ten: Strawberry Finch

The Strawberry Finch's official name is Red Avadavat, but you can easily see where the nickname came from when you look at the photo of this bird from South-East Asia. It's also sometimes called a Red Munia.

 

Source: eBird

 

These birds were once very popular pets, but the males have this intense coloring only during breeding season, and even then they don't get as vividly red when they live in colder climates. Hence my poem.

 

Rice field

Red flash

Red beak

Red eyes

Red rump

Red hot

 

©Ruth Bowen Hersey

Birdtober Day Nine: Peregrine Falcon

 

Watch this BBC video that shows all the awesome terrifying power of the Peregrine Falcon, and how, in spite of its perfect design, this killing machine doesn't always get what it wants.

Fastest predator

Hunts on every continent

Prey still sometimes wins

©Ruth Bowen Hersey

Birdtober Day Eight: Pin-tailed Whydah

For the first two years that I did Birdtober, the first day of the prompt list featured a bird I'd seen before. But this year, I had to get to the eighth day before encountering a familiar bird. This spectacular species is one we have here in Uganda, and I have it so far on twenty of my checklists. Here's a wonderful post about this bird written from Zimbabwe. I got a lot of my information from this vivid description of the bird's behavior.

Source: eBird.com

The Pin-tailed Whydah's a Lothario

Spreading his genes far and wide

Midair mating his favorite scenario

Flowing tailfeathers his pride.

His mates lay eggs in waxbills' nests,

Avoiding tough parenting jobs.

The babies, raised as waxbill guests,

Become in turn whydah heartthrobs. 

©Ruth Bowen Hersey

Birdtober Day Seven: Bearded Reedling

 

This is quite a natty fellow:

bill of shiny orange-yellow,

not really bearded, but mustachioed,

eats reed seeds and reed aphids by the load;

in fact, we'd be quite safe to say

he loves reeds in every way.

©Ruth Bowen Hersey

Poetry Friday: Birdtober Day Six: Albatross

Hi, Poetry Friday friends! This is my first time on PF since June, but it's also my third year doing Birdtober. At a busy time of the year, adding a little creativity to each day counterintuitively makes things more manageable, and not less so. Below you can find links to my first five days of posts, plus today's bird.

Day One: Blue-winged Pitta 

Day Two: Cuban Trogon 

Day Three: Eastern Rosella

Day Four: Superb Fruit-Dove 

Day Five: Common Tailorbird

 

Today's bird is an Albatross. I picked the Wandering Albatross to write about; there are at least fifteen species of albatross.

Source: eBird

Wandering Albatross:
Diomedea exulans.

Diomedea from Ovid’s tale
of Diomedes’ friends being turned into birds
because they angered Aphrodite,
a most foolish thing to do.
Exulans for exile.

And indeed,
the Wandering Albatross
is a wanderer,
like Diomedes who went back and forth to fight in wars
and drove a chariot with wild abandon,
like his friends who fluttered about at Aphrodite’s will.
The Wandering Albatross
spends most of its time flying,
only landing briefly to eat and produce offspring,
necessities of life even for wanderers.
It can fly 75,000 miles in a year.

But the Wandering Albatross seems happy with not settling down.
It mates for life,
can live for more than 50 high-flying years,
was called a “bird of good omen” by Coleridge.
It loves to eat,
makes loud joyful noises,
sleeps in flight
and dreams soaring feathery dreams.

©Ruth Bowen Hersey

 

 

Our host this week is prolific children's author Matt Forrest-Esenwine. Be sure to visit his roundup to find links to all the participants in today's Poetry Friday festivities. 

Spiritual Journey Thursday: A Glad Heart

It's been a while since I've participated in SJT. This month's theme is "A Glad Heart," and Ramona is hosting.

Some days, a glad heart doesn't happen automatically, but lately there have been many things around me to make me glad. I'm sharing a few photos below. Some are in Kampala, where I live, and some were taken during a trip I took out of town with my sixth grade homeroom.

Birdtober Day Five: Common Tailorbird

 

Wherever Tailorbirds need rest
They simply start to build a nest.
With can-do spirit positive,
They sew themselves a place to live.
Their needle beaks can tailor leaves
with thread of spidersilk that weaves
a lovely home, quite safe from weather
where three small eggs grow up together.
Caregiver, builder, architect:
A Tailorbird parent earns respect. 

©Ruth Bowen Hersey

Birdtober Day Four: Superb Fruit-Dove

 

Source: eBird.com

One of 59 species in the fruit-dove family,
frugivorous cousins in Asia and Oceania,
this one is special.
Orange, green, purple,
yet living in such a brightly-colored habitat
that it blends right in.
Cooing while nibbling on figs and berries,
co-parenting contentedly
by taking turns to incubate the single egg:
just out there being superb all day long.

©Ruth Bowen Hersey

Birdtober Day Three: Eastern Rosella

 

 

Source: eBird.com

Eastern Rosella

 

George Shaw, in his office in London on a morning in 1792,
examines the skin of a newly arrived Australian species.
Someone has sent the remains of the dead bird from Sydney
and Shaw describes it scientifically,
giving it the Latin name Psittacus eximius.

It’s not the first name of this bird, and it won’t be the last.
The indigenous people called it after its habit of nesting in holes
and said it symbolized lifelong fidelity.
Inhabitants of the Rosehill suburb of Sydney
will later dub them Rose-hillers, which will become Rosellas.
Their scientific name will become Platycercus eximius
and their common name, Eastern Rosellas.
Some will say they’re pests.
Those who will live in cages around the world
will have names, too,
like Polly.

George Shaw, at the British Museum,
looks up from the bright red, yellow, and green feathers
to see the grey sky outside his window.
At this point, in 1792, Shaw hasn’t yet done what will make him famous,
describing the Platypus for the first time.
He’ll be skeptical of that one, wondering if the specimen is a fake,
but the bird in front of him today is clearly real.
Before it was shot and sent to London to be properly classified
by a founder of the Linnean Society,
it was probably enjoying a lovely, sunny Australian afternoon,
perhaps eating a juicy piece of fruit or a crunchy insect,
and completely unconcerned with nomenclature. 

 

©Ruth Bowen Hersey

 

Birdtober Day Two: Cuban Trogon

 

 

Source: eBird.com

Cuban Trogon:
Patriotic
Cuban fellow.
Feathers flag-like,
Gaze disdainful.
Bold endemic:
Tocororo.

 ©Ruth Bowen Hersey

 

Reading Update

Book #56 of 2023 was The Queen of Hearts, by Kimmery Martin. I saw this recommended somewhere and was intrigued by its floral cover. It was readable and entertaining.

Books #57, 58, and 59 were all re-readings of the Narnia books, Prince Caspian, The Magician's Nephew, and The Silver Chair, by C.S. Lewis. As always, I enjoyed them all, and no doubt will return to them again.

Book #60 was by a Ugandan author, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi. The book was Kintu, the story of an ancient curse on a Ganda patriarch and how it plays out in the lives of his descendants throughout the centuries. I particularly enjoyed the ending, when a family reunion brings many of the characters together. 

Book #61 was a reread, Turn My Mourning Into Dancing, by Henri Nouwen. I've read this book several times since I first bought it in 2019. Here's a post I wrote about it earlier this year.

 

Book #62 was The Illegal Gardener, by Sara Alexi. This had been on my Kindle for a while, I guess bought when it was on a deep discount, but I hadn't read it yet. I understand it's the first in a long series. I found it a little difficult to believe in spots, but I did like the way it ended (I was afraid it was going in another direction).

 

Book #63 was Glorious Ruin: How Suffering Sets You Free, by Tullian Tchividjian.  I've read a lot on this topic and I felt this was a worthy addition to the library of books written to try to explain why God allows suffering in the world.

Book #64 was China Court, by Rumer Godden. The title refers to a house, and as the book begins, someone has just died in the house. The story of the house, all in the present tense as though all the generations of occupants exist in the current moment, is readable and compelling. I think Godden is an amazing stylist, and I've never read anyone who writes quite like she does. I read this book once before, a long time ago.

Book #65 was Dawnlands, by Philippa Gregory, the third in her Fairmile series. The series is billed as stories of ordinary women in history, but this one does introduce some royal characters. I liked the Caribbean setting of parts of the story. I'm eagerly awaiting the next installment of this series. 

 

Book #66 was All the Light we Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr. I read this back in 2015, but I was astonished by how little of it I remembered, as I read it again. This book is so vividly written that I can't believe I retained it so poorly. However, I was glad to get to read it as though for the first time as I discussed it with my book group. Now we're all looking forward to watching the series on Netflix.

Birdtober Day One: Blue-winged Pitta

I'm still hardly writing anything that isn't work-related, but I'm going to attempt Birdtober again this year, if only because focusing on the sheer abundance and variety of the bird species of the world makes me feel happy. 

 

Today's bird is the Blue-winged Pitta. 

 

Source: Photo: https://singaporebirds.com/species/blue-winged-pitta/

 

 

Bright crayon colors

Adorn bouncy Asian bird

Seeking worms and bugs.

 

©Ruth Bowen Hersey

Reading Update

Book #37 was Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy, by Rumer Godden. Godden wrote several novels about nuns and convents, and this is one of them. It's darker than the others. I liked this, and I'm continuing to read/reread as much of Godden's fiction as I can.

Book #38 was Cold Tangerines, by Shauna Niequist. I've read this several times since I bought it in 2012, and I enjoyed rereading it.

Book #39 was another reread, Prodigal Summer, by Barbara Kingsolver. I used to have a copy of this, and I let someone borrow it and never got it back, but I was able to borrow it from the library. Since the last time I read it, I've learned much more about birds, and I was happy to see that there were many birds in the book that I hadn't really noticed before!

Book #40 was Apples Never Fall, by Liane Moriarty. While there are some serious themes in the book, it ends up being quite the feel-good read.

Book #41 was So Many Beginnings, by Bethany C. Morrow. This is billed as a "remix" of Little Women, but I heard the author interviewed and she said she'd never read the original novel. The girls in this version are African Americans, living in the Freedpeople's Colony of Roanoke Island. I'm quite curious to know how much the presentation of this place really mirrors how things were during Reconstruction. It was an interesting retelling, for sure.

Books #42, #43, and #44 were all comfort reads, rereads of The Horse and his Boy, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and The Last Battle. I'll never stop rereading these books, especially in times of stress.

Book #45 was The Road Away from God: How Love Finds us Even as we Walk Away, by Jonathan Martin. This was a reread, and here you can read what I wrote about it the first time I read it.

Book #46 was How to Be a Good Creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals, by Sy Montgomery. I found this in a list of comfort reads, and I enjoyed it.

Book #47 was Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind, by Judson Brewer. This is very good. Recommended.

Book #48 was When God Breaks Your Heart: Choosing Hope in the Midst of Faith-Shattering Circumstances, by Ed Underwood. This had a lot of good stuff in it, but I didn't like Underwood's suggestion that it's about finding the right kind of formula for your prayers.

Book #49 was Comfort Ye My People, by Kay Bruner. This reread is a devotional based on Handel's Messiah. It's really good!

Book #50 was Of Green Stuff Woven, by Cathleen Bascom. This was an entertaining novel about an Episcopal church faced with some choices about whether to sell land for which they've been offered a lot of money. It's about grasses, the environment, and people.

Book #51 was Nice Girls Don't Change the World, by Lynne Hybels. Hybels is the mom of Shauna Niequist (who wrote book #38 and many others), so it was interesting to read something from her point of view!

Book #52 was Breathing Room: Letting Go So You Can Fully Live, by Leeana Tankersley. Here's what I wrote about it the first time I read it.

 

Book #53 was Penmarric, by Susan Howatch. I've read this novel before, but it must have been pre-blogging, since there's nothing about it here on the blog. It's classic Susan Howatch: lots of characters, many points of view, complex relationships.

 

Book #54 was another reread, How to Survive a Shipwreck, by Jonathan Martin. I've read it several times. Here's what I wrote the first time.

 

Book #55 was Seeing Through the Fog: Hope When Your World Falls Apart, by Ed Dobson. This is Dobson's book about his diagnosis of ALS and how he continued living. This was published in 2012 and ALS finally killed Dobson in 2015. He lived 15 years after his diagnosis, which was way longer than the doctors predicted. This is a great book.