Anika of Achberg: 2010

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Quailie Gets the Part

My school is having a play tomorrow, and I'll be playing an old Russian woman. I even have a line I get to say! But even more exciting, is that one of my favorite stuffed animals, Quailie, was cast as a dove! Paul tried to get them to cast his stuffed puffin, but everyone knows what a puffin is, and it's certainly not a dove. But a lot of people ignorantly think Qualie is a pigeon when they see her, so she might as well use that to her advantage in a casting call. Whenever someone makes the mistake of saying she's a pigeon, I always speak right up and say, "Oh no, she's a California Quail." Funny, but in German, the word for dove and pigeon is the same, "Taube" so you never really know what people mean when they say she's a "Taube." I just figure it's pigeon because of her colors. But she's a quail. [The foregoing is a paraphrase of an actual conversation]

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Birds I'm watching this winter at our feeders - and I can name them all in two languages!

European Robin - it's a kind of flycatcher, much smaller than an American

Robin, which is a kind of thrush. And its eggs are white, so telling someone

in Europe that something is "Robin's Egg blue" will make no sense to them.

Greenfinches come visit us by the flock, but only once in a while.

These Long-Tailed Tits come by the dozen, and swarm all over the feeder (see photo) for a few minutes, then they're gone. We've only seen two groups, both within a couple of days of each other. They're tiny, and make me happy.

Blue Tit - a regular in our garden, often arriving in groups. Lovely!

Crested Tit - another regular, comes back every few minutes, all day. Seems to be the same one or two in the garden, perhaps it's a mated pair. Has no problem agressively chasing the other birds off the feeders whenever it wants to, even though it's one of the smallest birds in the garden.

Great Tits are perhaps our most common visitors, and like Blue Tits, often arrive in groups.

Hawfinch (m.) He came only one day, but lurked in the Birch tree for hours. Rare!

Here's another rarity - a Bullfinch. We sometimes spot him in

our neighbor's yard, but we haven't seen him at our feeders.

Magpies -- They're here all year. They don't come to the feeder,

but when they sit in the garden trees, all the little birds fly away.

Great Spotted Woodpecker -- rarely seen in our garden trees, We've 'spotted'

him (snark!) once or twice at the suet, but never at the seed tray. We always

get very excited when one is in the garden. Never sticks around.

Chaffinch (m). Females look like big brown sparrows. One or two pairs must live

in our trees, they are at the feeders all day, every day. They often browse around on

the ground under the seed tray, collecting the seeds the other birds messily kick out.

There's a female Blackbird who likes to sit inside the little birdhouse that is our feeding tray, totally monopolizing it. I'm sure it's very cozy in there with the snow falling all around, but we don't get to see as many other birds there when she decides to stake her claim. When she's inside the feeder, the suet balls become very busy with all the smaller birds.

This is a European Jay. They're as big as a park pigeon. They rarely come to our yard, and like with the Woodpecker, we all get very excited when one is sighted in the trees around our yard.

That's every bird we've got except House Sparrows and Field Sparrows, but you know what those look like already. They're the same the world over I think.