Day 137 - a Year by the Sea

May 17, 2007 by OrientSee.

Naming things can be a real problem and then sometimes not. The first part of this bird’s name is obvious. That’s right - Brown-Headed. The second part is a head scratcher. Cowbird. You note right away the thick tangle of cow limbs and the enormous cow flops. Well, I don’t either. The book says that maybe the name comes from a habit of following buffalo herds. Again a problem, buffalo not cows and here are tree limbs. Go figure. Another name that I needed today was real easy. Ruby-throated hummingbird. Imagine that and when you see one, the word that will pop into your brain will be “apt”. A very appropriate name. Unfortunately, the hummingbird is so tiny that even with my telephoto lens, the camera image was just a sort of smudge. It has been a cold day for May and that slowed him down so that I got a good look with my binoculars. Between the hummingbird and a quick flyby from a Baltimore Oriole, it was more colorful day than I expected.

Ciao!

-Jorge

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