Wood   Duck
Photo by Dick Cronberg

Humor


You might be a birder
if you've ever seen a Butterbutt,
a Bubblehead, a Garbled Dimwit, or a LBJ.

Up from the Egg:
the Confessions of a Nuthatch Avoider

- Ogden Nash

Bird watchers top my honors list.
I aimed to be one, but I missed.
Since I'm both myopic and astigmatic,
My aim turned out to be erratic,
And I, bespectacled and binocular,
Exposed myself to comment jocular.
We don't need too much birdlore, do we,
To tell a flamingo from a towhee;
Yet I cannot, and never will,
Unless the silly birds stand still.
And there's no enlightenment so obscure
As ornithological literature.
Is yon strange creature a common chickadee,
Or a migrant alouette from Picardy?
You rush to consult your Nature guide
And inspect the gallery inside,
But a bird in the open never looks
Like its picture in the birdie books -
Or if it once did, it has changed its plumage,
And plunges you back into ignorant gloomage.
That is why I sit here growing old by inches,
Watching the clock instead of finches,
But I sometimes visualize in my gin
The Audubon that I audubin.


A Few Quotes

The owl is supposed to be wise, but it is not wise enough to get off the night shift.

The duck is a bird that walks as if it had ridden a horse all day.

Our national bird is the eagle, and the stork a close second.

Protect the birds. The dove brings peace, and the stork brings tax exemptions.   - Birmingham News

A bird in your hand is worth two in a tree above your head.

If I were reincarnate, I'd want to come back a buzzard: he is never bothered or in danger, and he can eat anything.   - Faulkner

A bird watcher is a person who listens to birds with binoculars.


A Bird

A bird came down the walk:
He did not know I saw;
He bit an angle-worm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw.
And then he drank a dew
From a convenient grass,
And then hopped sidewise to the wall
To let a beetle pass.
- Emily Dickinson


The Pelican

A wonderful bird is the pelican!
His bill will hold more than his belican.
      He can take in his beak
      Food enough for a week.
But I'm darned if I see how the helican.
- Dixon L. Merritt


Enigma Sartorial

Consider the penguin
He's smart as can be
Dressed in his dinner clothes
Permanently
You never can tell
When you see him about
If he's just coming in
Or just going out!
- by Lucy W. Rhu


What do you call a minor bird accident?

A feather bender.



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Rogue Valley Audubon Society    -    http://www.roguevalleyaudubon.org.