Wednesday, August 06, 2003

avian taxonomy

Realization while running in the park and noticing which birds got out of my way and which ones seemed to try to divebomb me: Pigeons are bitchin’ but blackbirds are wackbirds.

thankyouverymuch.

You forgot to add that Jays are the stalkers of the bird family. But maybe you didn’t know that, Smarty Boy.

Once we were car-camping and two jays hopped up on the back bumper of the car.  They were so big the whole car kind of dipped down.  Then they tried to get into the trunk.  It was cute until they actually found the right key and got it to the door.  I unleashed my dog but they yelled at him and he got scared. 

Blue jays are totally crazed.

there are some ravens that live in Death Valley, who are extremely talented mimics.  they can do a car alarm that can empty an entire campground.  i was playing a bach CD once, and they came around and imitated all the beautiful trills and runs.  and, they were big as all hell!  very impressive.

i hate birds.  all birds.  they’re cats with wings.

I disagree about the “cats with wings” comment, but I don’t like birds either. They freak me out. Our new house has a screened-in porch and the previous owners left their birdfeeder post outside of it. My hubby has taken to feeding the damned things and sitting on the porch watching them. I can handle it as long as they don’t fly right at the screens. I duck every time they do that.

Gives me the shivers just thinking about it.

i like birds fine, in the wild.  i really don’t like the idea of keeping birds in cages....just seems so very wrong to me. we have feeders in our yard, and love to see the various species come and go.

i’ve had some bad experiences with seagulls, who are truly “rats with wings”, as they will eat anything they find lying around.  when i was working on hyde street pier in san francisco my park ranger friends taught me to hate them.  evil, nasty things.

seagulls are mean, arent’ they chuckles?

yeah, the gulls are pretty heinous, but the meanest birds are chickens.  They attack each other, peck each other into bloody messes.  It’s horrible. 

I’m deeply divided on the birds issue.  I wouldn’t want to keep one, but I like the way they objectify freedom in the wild.  They have nice colors too.  But they’re basically weapons with wings.  And they crap indiscriminately.  It’s a tough call.

Ok, I have to chime in on the MOST EVIL birds, which are magpies.  I have seen thempeck a robin to death before.  They are birds of satan.  It must be why they are the targets of WEst Nile - at least around here.