Loggerhead Shrikes are nicknamed Butcherbird (not to be confused with true butcherbirds of Australia). An apt moniker as demonstrated by the shrike and unfortunate grasshopper below. Loggerhead Shrikes are song birds that are Raptor-mini-me’s. Skilled hunters from perches, they use their strong hooked beaks’ “tomial teeth”, pointy projections on the upper cutting edge, to dispatch […]
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Great Blue Herons are favorites of mine. They are tough & adaptive survivors. They have survived everything we have thrown at them. They even seem to take sweet revenge by raiding urban koi ponds and in an infamous case here in metro-Atlanta stealing trout off the lines of fishermen on the Chattahoochee River. But just […]
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Nature Is Good Medicine Being outdoors engaged with nature has beneficial, positive influences on our physical and mental health status. Immersion in nature can be an integral part of the healthcare prevention, treatment, and recovery continuum. So says an increasing amount of reputable medical and mental health research. This is, in my opinion, a welcome […]
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Red-winged Blackbirds are one of the most abundant bird species in North America. During February it has looked and sounded (sometimes even louder than the leaf blowers) like all of them were in our yard. And, eating every sunflower seed I could put out. Yet, this is only 2/3 as many as in the mid-1960s. […]
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