How to Rescue a Perching Bird

In the process of making granola bars I came upon a crisis - after spending the morning watching and finally identifying the Pine Siskin as the species flocking around our feeder, a perilous moment arose.

Well, it actually started earlier in the day. I will start there. I was making a late breakfast and awaiting the coffee when I noticed that the far birdfeeder (im quoting my thoughts at the moment) "looked more full than yesterday". I thought nothing of it, as anyone could have filled it up, but it was noticeable enough and strange enough that there was a sudden change in the seed quantity that the memory stuck with me. Weird, but not altogether remarkable.

Then, later in the day I noticed again that the feeder was swaying much more than either the other feeders or the local trees/branches. It seemed weird, weird enough to make me put down whatever it was that I was doing and take notice of the feeder in a more analyzing manner. I grabbed my binoculars (thinking that perhaps a larger, more rare bird was at the feeder and I should gaze more acutely). I looked...in ocular excellence...and saw nothing. There was something that made the feeder swing gregariously, but I could not see the culprit.

Then, later in the day, as this post began, I was making granola bars. I was just finished making them and setting them in the oven when I poured myself a cup of coffee and gazed out the kitchen window, to the back yard, and began a scan for birds and our neighbourhood squirrel.

Then, it happened.
I looked at the feeder.
It was swaying frantically. There were no birds, but I was watching the feeder rock violently.
I looked closer, to the seeds themselves, and made the realization that elevated me to the level of Jesus (only difference being that I actually exist).

In the feeder was a bird. A pine siskin. One of the birds that has recently flocked our backyard was trapped in our birdfeeder, and had been since at least the morning. In quick mathematical fashion I quantified this birds captivity time and realized that it had been at least 8 hours trapped in this feeder! I dropped my coffee mug, dashed out the door, leaped down the stairs, bounded across the grass and took a hold of the feeder. The siskin began more violent convulsions, out of fear of a human grasping at the lure of its captivity, but I took no concern. I needed to get it out. I then was able to take the lid off, lean the feeder over and .... it held on. It didnt want to be in there, but it didnt want to leave at the hand of a human.

However, after moments of apologetic language from me, gentle nudges and slight angles, the poor little siskin crawled/fluttered out of the feeder and flew away. I felt horrible, thinking that if I had decoded to no make granola bars and instead go biking or do some work, then it may have spent (possibly another) night in the feeder. I watched it fly away and was happy to see its fluid motions unrestricted.

Here, below, I have recreated the event. I brought the feeder inside - the reason it was caught in the feeder was because of a faulty string that held the lid open, and I intend to fix that before re-setting it - and recreated the event.

Caveats.
1) I could not bring the same bird inside, nor another bird. I had to us an alternative object. I realize that the siskin bears no likeliness to a banana.

2) I didn't actually "grab the bird" as the picture asserts. I rather urged it out of the feeder.

3) There WAS melodically nostalgic music playing in the background while the entire event took place in slow motion


The feeder - the faulty design cannot be discerned form this picture, but it is there.

Normally, as this picture explains, the birds would feed from the outside of the feeder. (Note the stem of the banana trying to eat the seed?!? See it!?)


Our little siskin decided to take the buffet to an extreme and entered the feeder proper. Of course, once the seed ran out the realization came clear that it was trapped. Until then, I am sure that it was pleasure.

I gathered the birds senses and urged it to find freedom - it did, and it was free again.

Pine siskin

Joins the backyard. Approachable little fella's and fellette's.

Another Day

Hurrumph...

Nothing, absolutely nothing, to say about today. It rained, I biked, I got muddy, I fell in the mud, I got back up and I dodged about a thousand million snails on the trail.

And then - I ate dinner.

Ornithology update

One new species, two unidentified species....more to come.

I think I have spotted a flycatcher but have not been able to corroborate it to my liking, and then there is a blue one...how hard should that be to ID?!? Its a pesky little mobile thing that sits still for unpredictable bouts of <1 second. So, it is hard.

Clear skies, busy trees,

T

When you have ten minutes to spare

This is what to do with your time.

Happy evening.

When they used to be alright...

Scornfully stole the title....no matter.

Remember when silverchair used to rock, melodically caress out ears, calm our nerves and dignify our musical souls?

Fallen in battle, perhaps. Music changes, as it should, but beauty cannot be replaced.

A non-religious post

I thought I should post at least one post that does not defame religion, god, jesus, islam, mother Theresa, homeopathy, acupuncture, the holy ghost, evangelists ...

So, there we are. I said nothing of those topics.

peace.

Video advice

This is more than an hour, but worth every minute. I chose Tinhorn Creek red.

Ever lucid in his authority of history and literature, Hitchens reveals a more personal approach to religion in this talk.

"Where religion ends, philosophy begins; where alchemy ends, astronomy begins..."

Oh yeah, we moved...

Goodbye, forever, Diefenbaker Street.

Goodbye, forever, 1370.

And in the waning moments of our tenancy, we were entrusted with a new friend. R2. Now, is he not the sweetest little creature you have ever laid eyes on?Don't you want to scratch his wee little nose and hold his subtle little paws?

R2 - come home whenever you want. You have a key.

So, we are out of the old, crusted lifestyle of insecurity to a new one of security. We are R2less, but that may change.

__________________________________________________________________

Im off to mop up my tears as I sit here typing and listening to the Rheo's 2nd last show, and witnessing the beauty of Martins most solemn laryngitis-induced Saskatchewan rendition - I am with him on the ship, I am watching the wave, I am thinking of the farm. Tears of joy, to have witnessed, but tears.

Just got me thinking...

Ardent thoughts, ponderous moments, lucid memories, chords of my making.....goodgonedead.
Approaching 5 months of deathly silence.

"never to be seen again..."

Like an Apostate, is Dark Matter leaving?

My use of such an onerous term as 'apostate' is without doubt only to make me giddy. Instances of apostasy are wonderful - applied enlightenment.

However, I mean not to assume any religious constant to this topic. I realize the irony there, deal with it.

Dark matter has for a long time been a stout entity on the physicists working plan of the Universe, but recently new observations have tested and appear to have questioned the entity or function of this matter. It was assumed that it was somehow the binding force, the "gravity" if you will, that held together the smallest and largest galaxy clusters. Questions are now being raised.

Science Daily has a short but coherent discussion on this, one which is basically leaving the question of "is dark matter real" alone until there is more information. However, when the 'more information' comes out I will not be surprised if Dark Matter takes a seat in the back and allows a more comprehensive understanding to ride shotgun; not that I assume dark matter to be false, but rather that I assume that it cannot be the sole entity of the answer. It may be a part, reliant on other parts. Lets let this one play out and sleep well knowing that we are not the astrophysicists dealing with this shatteringly important question (I don't believe I could sleep if I were..)

Bad Astronomy, of course, also has an excellent discussion. Would you ever expect Mr. BA not to make extremely complicated physics seem manageable?

I am sure CBC has it somewhere, but I get bogged down by all their new ads and ghastly web design that I wont look for it. They would only paraphrase the above sources, anyhow.

Clear skies...

PS - The Mars Hoax is back. Simple do a web search for it and you will come across myriad sources that explain the reality and the physics of its inability to be true. Bad Astronomy blog also has three posts about it - one from 2003, one from 2005, one from 2007...i can only guess that this one will not go away anytime soon.

PZ Seed

Sitting in my gracious living room, trying to pry myself away from the auspicious lightning storm that shows no wish other than to stay and to be spectacular, I stumble upon an old(er) article by PZ in Seed Magazine. And it is pretty darn interesting. It amasses some interesting information about evolution and mammalian structure - ok , now the hail is assailing my windows - and without realizing it at first links perfectly to a book I am reading (The Evolution of Sex) in reference to fetal self-abortions and mutation rates. Takes catholic insistance of anti-abortion to the science classroom, one could say. The book, not the article.

Worth a read. Im off to count my cervical vertebrae.

1...2...3...4...5...6...

An Obvious Disconnect

I love this so much, it makes me want to burn stuff and dance around in my undies.

There is such an overbearing disconnect here that I need not mention it, but of course I will. The plight of this lady is that she was caught supporting her religion:

A 42-year-old woman who describes herself as a Wiccan faces charges of
disorderly conduct and resisting arrest after neighbors complained she was
disturbing them with chants around a bonfire she had built 10 feet from her
home.

You see, all fine and dandy. The article goes on to announce her belligerence and apparent drunkenness, but it enunciates quite the article of truth about religions - there is no continuity between intentions (love, affection, truth, etc) and reality (war, hatred, murder, misogyny, rights deprivation, etc, etc, etc..). Ever. And this Wiccan example paints this picture with an apparently (self respecting, only) natural religion:


[The police chief] said Barney at one point poured lighter fluid on the
fire, in which she was burning rubber car mats and a cooler. Barney refused to
cooperate with police and was belligerent, and her breath smelled of alcohol.

So, burning rubber, a cooler quite probably made of Styrofoam and plastic, and using lighter fluid to make it larger and more intense. Excellent. Now what is your religion all about? Remind me:

Wicca is a nature-based religion based on respect for the earth, nature and the cycle of the seasons.

Mother nature, in her non-existence, would be ever so proud of your servitude to her needs. I, on the other hand, find you adulterous to the environment. Could you say that you were praying to one god while playing with another?Either way, it is all fake, but clearly elucidating of your dogmatic ignorance.

Organic: I dont even mention my distaste for religion

This is an interesting and coherent approach to organics and health; it is far too parsimonious to link sandal-wearing-commune-living lifestyles to the solution to environmental degradation. Although that lifestyle and schema is vitally linked to subtle and non-subtle changes and advances in human society, it cannot stand alone as the chordate of change. There needs to be evidence, strengthened with awareness campaigns and unequivocally segregated from politics. The link above (about a 10 min video with links) assumes this role.

Farmers need options that they know will work.
Buyers need options that they know will help them and the cause of environmentalism.
Politicians need to realize, through the power of vote perhaps, that conglomerate run enterprises cannot be the structure of knowledge and decisive voice in what is right and wrong; Monsanto cannot, must not, be allowed to put their bottom-line above societies health. The health or Earth, a planet of billions of species, cannot be at risk for teh benefit of simply monetary based groups.

There is fantastic science out there - not elaborate and confusing genetic science, not dogmatically boring science (not that genetic science, or "boring" science - not my vernacular usage, I assert - is bad or useless, I am just positioning that it does not catch the public eye or ear, something that science must do a better job at) - but science that does not capitulate to the masses, but rather works for the masses. It is legible, tangible, evidenced and prolific, and it just may work if given a chance.

This video ascertains some personal duty to this, and spells it out. Obesity, health problems, CO2, environmentalism, organic, local....buzz words that can be solved without the hand of corporate stock based incentives and priorities. People need to take back the world from the 'mighty dollar', but first they must know how. Step one, learn. This is a good as any of a place to start to learn.

More about religion: this time I go south

Short note, not to take away from below.

Brazilian soccer is allegedly a "mans sport, in which there is no place for 'gays' ". So I assume that if a gay person wanted to play soccer, he (because only men can play, straight men) should make his own league for gay people? That sounds like a contemptible idea, to be mild. Oh, wait:

Brazilian Journalist: The judge decided that if he would have to tell the world if he actually was gay or not, and if so he would be banned from the league. It was said that it is a man's sport, and there is not room for homosexuals. Homosexuality would ruin the face of the game.

CBC: Well, would he be able to play anywhere? I mean, would he be barred from playing ever?!?

Brazilian Journalist: Yes, yes...that is what the judge decided. He asserted that he would have to start his own league...

CBC: ..his own league for "gays"

Brazilian Journalist: Yes, a 'Gay League'. The judge believed that 'gays' and 'straights' should not be forced to play together. It is a ... we say homophobic - is that term correct in English?

Yes, my friend, it more that definitely is. I must pause....calm....relax....this is just one ignorant man (the judge; the journalist was extremely and decisively critical of the judge

Now, I will solder my mouth (fingers, as it were) because I believe that it is plain enough to see the atrocity of it all. The judge was slapped on the wrist for this, temporarily losing his post as high judge, but I ask this - what would have modified his beliefs and impeded his ability to accept a soccer player to just be a soccer player, gay or straight? What would have moulded his beliefs...hey wait, isn't Brazil a Catholic occupied place?

Hmm......religion pokes its wretched head again, and, again, not for good. Love, I think not. Morals, I think not. Cosmic answers - hah! - I think not. Oppression and hate, I think so.

Religion Kills More. Is this news?

Sometimes it is nice to placate yourself and pretend that all the news that is heard on the radio (or television, for those who own one and pay for their dilapidated service) is in a realm other than your own and that it doesn't really reflect upon you at any tangential instance. your life is separate. But, of course, this is not a significant thought. It happens all the time. I am guilty. I am aware of my guilt, as many are, and I pry myself to act on that guilt and to at the very least learn from the news. The very least.

However, I must say that global news renders me tonight in a viral state of intellectual anger and disbelief.

Is this actually happening?

But, of course, again, it is. It most definitely is. And happening all the time. Not just at the top of the hour, not just a 6pm, not just when you breeze through your web-news site of choice. It happens at all the resolved minutes in between. People are dying, places are burning, cultures are ruined, pollutant spills are occurring; life is happening, some of it good and some of it bad.

This is nothing new, I realize. But sometimes the news, as I said, perturbs me to a point of despair. How would you expect a rational atheist, immune to the need to respect islam, christianity, judaism, ..., react to this (and I herein paraphrase):

CBC: So let me try to sum up all of what you just said. Are you telling us that a woman from a non-arab community travelled to an arab region and spoke with a man. After being found speaking to him at his house the community ganged up and brutally murdered her, in what was called a "mercy killing"?

Iraqi Journalist: Yes, that is correct.

CBC: And is it correct that the murderers immediately sent, via telephone camera, images of the mercy killing?

Iraqi Journalist: Yes, that is correct.

It is infuriating that this happens, in bleeding 2007, in the name of a fake myth (is there any other type, I know), a fake, misogynistic, sexist, homophobic, murderous myth that allows, with expected respect, this to happen. Was it not enough that they cleansed the earth of this heathenistic woman for 'talking to a man of a different faith', but they had to advertise, in high pride, their triumph. That an innocent, young female, young to the world and ignorantly, in its most honest invocation, living a life that besieged no one, had to die today is an account of ghastly despicable religious control of the world. Of course, I know, religious dogma is despicable, but to the end where a young woman woke up today innocent to the world, and died today innocent to the world, at the hands of unknown men because she spoke out of turn, churns my stomach and evaporates any glistening drop of belief that religion is but a entity to be scorned.

This is above the main story line. This was a small, subverted side-story to the real one! The main story was about the religion based suicide bombing that, at this point, killed hundreds. This was an appendix to the story of religion killing innocent people. But I am glad that it was an appendix, and was not overlooked. I am glad that it was not overlooked. I am sickened by its occurrence, but delighted that it made it out of the bloodied hands of the horrid men who slayed her ("her", unnamed still only adding to the faceless death and the limitless destruction of rights from religion) and to the ears of us.

Some of us will care.

More of us should.

More of us should realize that religion deserves no respect. Religion deserves no time. Religion deserves nothing but eradication, enlightenment and burying deep in the annals of history. Remember it, for sure, but forget it.

The Enemies of Reason: Dawkins

Prof. Dawkins laments the dogmatic reverence to mysticism, myth, religion, charlatanry that is overly pervasive in today's society. The Enemies of Reason is a four part series that will only (apparently, as yet) greet the public in the UK. However, the ideas and concerns range from such a broad spectrum of topics and contemporary issues, that this will not go unnoticed.

Most poignantly, perhaps, is his dismissal of homeopathic remedies, citing:

I say to doctors who use homeopathy: if you can identify this you’d have
discovered a whole new force in physics. Either there is no effect, in which
case you shouldn’t be charging people money, or there is an effect, in which
case you should prove it and win the Nobel prize.”

If Dawkins is as forthright with honesty, enthusiasm and knowledge as he usually is, this will be a treat. I await the DVD...

The pope Accepts Evolution: Who the hell cares what he thinks

This is not new, but it is worth commenting on - the pope (lower case imperative) has decided that after myriad years of science and understanding, he is willing to accept that evolution is a true course of nature.

Now, this is wonderful. Just simply wonderful.

A man who has no discourse of any importance in this world, no parsed meaning, no education on the matter and an obviously deluded vision of nature has 'accepted' evolution. And because of that "we" (the general agnostic and or unknowing public that is waiting on every word of the church)

As if his thoughts matter? Why does the 'church' or any denomination feel that once they accept or recognize something, that only then does it become so?

But I ask this one question: If it has taken an uneducated, spiteful, hating man since the late 1800's to recognize evolution based on evidence, reported year after year, month after month, week after week, day after day - science and the study of nature goes on every moment and educated and learned people are devouring their time to try to pry off a small piece of it at a time - where is the evidence for religion? It took just over 100 years for the church to go from burning women because they were suspected witches (to be fair the last 'witch hunt' and innocent burning at the stake took place in the 70's in the religiously led US of A) to accepting evolution; the god and jesus myth has been around for much longer than that, the muslim myth a touch younger (touche), but they have both had much time to try to muster up some e


The people who spend their lives trying to figure out nature have said from time immortal of the evolutionary spectra that it is so, that it works genetically, theoretically, biologically...yet it takes a ghastly man such as this to stand up as the church and say "meh, so it looks ok to me". And the media ate it up. Well, Im not eating.

Evolution, sincerely, is to be taken as truth. No questions. Evolution should not be taken as fact because a useless tramp of a religious leader finally took off his "hatred-hat" and accepted it.

It is incongruous to assume literary or learned status - scientific, electrical, educational, photographical...anything - to a church leader. They purport to act out of a modicum of morality, which in itself has nothing to say about the truths and realities of nature, but in actuality they ac out of the antithesis of morality.

Popey, stay out of the education of the children. Stick to running your dying faith.