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.
Wednesday, November 27, 2019
Toe-Tau-Too-Ee
Day 45: However you pronounce their name, Spotted Towhees have to be one of the goofiest-looking birds in anybody's back yard. I grew up calling them "TOO-ees" (thanks to the same mother who instilled in me my pronunciation of "LITCH-en" to rhyme with "KITCH-en"); but you may call them "TAU-ees" or "TOE-ees" if you wish, and the dictionary will defend you. "TOO-ee" rhymes with "screwy," and that's what I call them: screwy towhees, doing their little hockleback scratch-kick to raise seeds from the tangled grass, their red eyes giving them a distinctive mad-as-a-March-hare look. I mean, it's serioius business being a bird, having to hunt down your food before some other opportunist grabs it, having to defend your nest against all sorts of predators, having to seek shelter against weather extremes, but Towhees just somehow seem...well, "silly" is the word which comes to mind. You won't catch me making fun of Chickadees, Jays, Sparrows, Goldfinches or any other of the birds who rely on my feeders for sustenance, but Towhees...Towhees make me laugh.
Labels:
Pipilo maculatus,
Rufous-Sided Towhee,
Spotted Towhee,
yard
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