Day 149: Today's post is being brought to you by angry birds. No, not "Angry Birds" (capital letters, referring to the game), but enormously cranky, territorial, aggressive, maybe even downright vicious Varied Thrushes. I've been rather concerned for the Thrush population in my yard after finding evidence which seemed to point toward a predator with a particular taste for Thrush. I don't know why I didn't catch on sooner to the true reason I was finding little pockets of Thrush feathers in the snow. I've certainly seen them attack one another often enough. Today it dawned on me: preceding the actual aggressive run, one or both competitors goes breast-to-the-ground as insults are exchanged. "Your mama was a robin!" "Was not! You're a chicken...chicken-chicken-chicken!" Then the dash commences, one bird running to, the other (the smarter one, I suspect) running from. Sometimes the pause before the salute of swords lasts up to ten seconds, plenty of time for soft, warm breast feathers to freeze to the snow. Given the abundance of the resource, microscopy was a given, resulting in the interesting discovery that the downier sections near the shaft are marked with knot-like, dark nodes (lower right). This fluffy portion insulates the angry bird's chest against the icy snow.
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