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I have been able to identify the Bushtit since early in my bird watching life, but this was the first chance I had ever had to observe them at length. As one chanced to fly in or another to fly out, I was most taken with the observation that their flight is like no other bird I know. In the first book of his History of Animals, Aristotle wrote “Of land animals some are furnished with wings, such as birds and bees, and these are so furnished in different ways one from another.” I have long pondered Aristotle’s work on classification, and this passage ce to mind while watching the Bushtits. Although he had never seen them, his association of birds and bees for this exple is most appropriate to these little birds. Their flight is more like that of a bee than another type of bird. Toyota Picnic Toyota Prado Toyota Prerunner When a Bushtit takes to the air, it does not do so with quite the mastery of the element as a hummingbird, for whom the law of gravity is a mere suggestion, yet it does so with more grace and less apparent effort than other birds who seem initially to force themselves free of the terrestrial force seeking to pull them downward. The Bushtit gently arises from the place where it perched as does a bee, seeming to be of slightly less than sufficient mass for the entire force of gravity to effect. It then momentarily hovers and with a slight initial sideways motion proceeds forward to its desired destination. The entire effect is one just beyond the appearance of reality.

Then suddenly it exploded into the air and back into the trees. Dubious that I had flushed it with raising the blinds as the house was still dark behind me, I stood pondering for a moment when out of the low brush bounded our neighbors’ (insert your favorite colorful expletive here) orange cat. My only satisfaction was that the (repeat expletive here) cat was too slow and missed - this time. Peace and good bird watching. by Born Again Bird Watcher at 7:52 18 Labels: Cats Indoors, Varied Thrush Links to this post , 26, Volvo XC70 Volvo XC90 Volvo 160 BBC Shared Earth Podcast I of the opinion that the best thing to emerge from the advent of the iPod is the Podcast. Because of this little miracle of modern technology, I no longer a slave to the content, temporal, or geographic constraints of traditional radio. I can download my favorite progrs, on topics of great interest to me (read that as “absolutely free of celebrity drivel, political horserace coverage, or sporting event results”) and listen to them when I want to, not simply when they are broadcast in my area. Even more than that, I can download progrs not even broadcast in the United States and play them back at my leisure. In fact, I’m doing it right now.