365Caws is now in its 14th year of publication, and was originally intended to end after 365 days. It has sometimes been difficult for me to find new material, particularly during the winter months, but now as I enter my own twilight years, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to provide daily posts. It is my hope that along the way I may have inspired someone to a greater curiosity about the natural world. If so, I can rest, content in the knowledge that my work here has been done.
Thursday, March 28, 2019
There's Always One
Day 166: There's always one. Every spring, I'll have at least one Towhee whose tailfeathers have gone missing all at once. Now whether this phenomenon is due to the natural moulting process (and feasibly, it could be) or to somebody waiting just a little too long to fly away from a stealthy predator is not something I can confirm with any conviction. Certainly, Towhees are not precisely the sharpest crayons in the box, but they are also predominantly ground-feeders, which leaves them more vulnerable to a hunter with a taste for fowl. In any event, I always wind up with at least one unfortunate and embarrassed Stubby and, forgive me, they always make me laugh.
Labels:
Pipilo maculatus,
Spotted Towhee,
Stubby,
tailfeathers,
yard
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