While in the case of Today® Sponge there might have been arguable just cause for removal of the product from the market, there is no valid nor relevant reason for banning distribution of kretek. Now, I see clearly how one of my, albeit seldom indulged, personal freedoms can go up in smoke. Although, I suspect that kretek could still be found on eBay® long after the ban is enforced. Still, this is unacceptable.
DISCLAIMER: FinchWench does not recommend, encourage, nor condone smoking for Bulbuls. Although, captive Starlings who enjoy playing with cigarettes do not seem to suffer from any adverse reproductive effects.
+++ UPDATE (29 September 2009 – 22:54): If you are interested in affecting repeal of the ban, please join either the Facebook group or the LiveJournal community. Legalize Kretek! +++
Drs. Ani Patel and John Iversen even came to my mother’s studio Tookie’s territory.
Pictured from left to right: Dr. John Iversen, Tookie, the dance divo, and Dr. Ani Patel; between the three of them, I would guess that mean Social IQ of this research trio is above average. 16 October 2009
Tookie snacked on cookies with us, while we chatted about experimental details and logistics. He did not hesitate to really get to know the people he would be working with.
No white shirts were harmed in the making of this moment!
Tookie looks over Dr. Patel’s notes making clear that he is not only a test subject; he is he is an active participant aiming to be a co-author.
Tookie seemed to have developed an instantaneous, good rapport with the researchers. Team Tookie is motivated and inspirational! Further investigation (e.g. more recordings, to start) of Tookie’s dance magic shall ensue after the holidays. More to come, hopefully . . .
A few weekends ago, my friends Dave (who was, by the way, the photographer of the wild Cut-throat Finch I posted before) and Misha (who watches girls rather than birds) invited me to go climbing with them in San Bernardino National Forest. Dave had asked me, “Have you climbed before?” to which I replied “I’ve climbed trees.”
When I repeatedly noticed that the crucifix on the wall seemed to hang obliquely a day or so after I remembered straightening it, I began to suspect either poltergeist or severe foundation issues. Then it occurred to me . . .
29 September 2009
Since the blessing of Bulbulicious on the feast of St. Francis d’Assisi two years ago, it can be said that she seems to be clinging to faith inappropriately, these days.
Janine, the hen, and her mate , Helios, had been free-flying in an extra bedroom furnished with a faux ficus tree for the past couple of months. They are known to be polygamous, but I had reason to suspect that a full harem was not requisite.
This is Helios, looking like a very papal bishop indeed.
Just when I thought that I was omni-aware of all examples of “avian foam,” I learned something new, this week. Foam is found in the interior of the Toucan and Hornbill beaks, in the skull of Woodpeckers, and in the medulla of feathers. Those are more specifically avian examples of cellular solids, a sub-class of foams that are exclusively solid-fluid systems. But what most people consider to be foam is of the liquid-gas system such as that atop their glass of beer or the morning latte.
Apparently, Japanese Quails (Coturnix japonica) produce foam from their unusually pronounced dorsal-cloacal muscular gland system. “Reproductively active male Japanese quail produce a large quantity of a stiff white meringue-like foam that is transferred to the female along with the semen during copulation and also is deposited on top of the excreta during voiding.” Seiwert & Adkins-Regan (In case you missed it, you just read the words “meringue,” “semen,” and “excreta” all in one sentence).
One night, while I was working at the table beneath Bulbulicious’s nest site, I witnessed a suspicious event. At about 1:30 after midnight, I heard a rustle from Bulbulicious in her nest, and then I spied her carrying something in her beak as she speedily flew out. I followed the little courier into the bird room where she had already dropped her package.
It is a blood feather, which has been removed from the follicle. Though it looks gruesome, it was a merciful extraction; had the feather ruptured elsewhere, especially along the proximal end of the rachis, there would have been profuse bleeding.
Little Dracula is not happy about the loss of his feather. 5 August 2009
Since then, I have moved him and his bride to a larger enclosure, where they hide from me behind a hanging basket of faux foliage. I have seen them looking longingly out onto my unkempt yard, and I understand that I must somehow create a sanitary or at least maintainable simulant of a moist Afrotropic grassland in order to make them feel at home.
Do you remember those blue eggs?
I found these here and there in the bird room.
Janine, the mother, transports the fractured eggshells to the opposite side of the room, as far from the nest as possible. Interesting, Bulbulicious does the same, as well as Niko Tinbergen’s gulls, but I do not understand why they do not consume the eggshells in order to hide the evidence and replenish calcium in one effort.
A new Bulbul has been discovered in the limestone karst of Laos. Not since the Grey-eyed Bulbul (Iole propinqua) in 1903 has a new Asian Bulbul been described.
The new Bulbul has been classified, assigned not only to the family of Pycnonotidae, but also tentatively to the genus of Pycnonotus, based on morphological and behavioural characteristics alone. Bill and tarsi morphology and rictal and nasal bristles as well as the vocalizations, including “whistled, dry bubbling notes” and “churring” were used to justify the placement of the new species.Woxvolde et al.
While visiting friends, I enjoyed their backyard birds. A pair of Hooded Orioles (Icterus cucullatus) had set up their nest site beneath a Banana Tree leaf.
3 May 2009, Hooded Oriole nest in a residential area near Balboa Park
Move over, Snowball! The late and great Alex might be turning in his grave. In case you have not been following, a review of the high profile psittacine dance scene has already been well-written and the topic covered extensively in the media. Now, there is a new star on YouTube, and he is taking you to Tookie Town:
This is Tookie, my mother’s cockatiel, dancing to “Teknochek Collision” by Slavic Soul Party.
In addition to the traditional choreographic repertoire including claw tapping and head bobbing, Tookie has got some mad wing-spanning skills on the dance . . . err . . . knee. Perhaps Nymphicus hollandicus could be number 15 on the list of parrot species who have got rhythm? In any case, he earns extra points for original style, and the judges approve of his coach’s choice in music.
I heard them before I was certain that I had seen the signature red wing. Numerous Red-winged Blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) have taken up the west side of the Shedd Aquarium and surrounding gardens as their nesting territory. I did not expect to find them in such an urban habitat, but apparently the coast of Lake Michigan is just marshy enough. And I should have known to look for them. Red-winged Blackbirds of Chicago made news last summer, bad news.
This guy served as sentry for the nests (pluralized since they are polygynous) in the hedge below. I watched him attack Seagulls whose flight path was cutting too close to the his genetic investment. 13 June 2009
On 27 May 2009, a White-eared Bulbul (Pycnonotus leucotis) hatched. Boris and Bulbulicious are now proud (and very defensive) parents.
Fledge date: 7 June 2009
While I usually save the crushed eggshells for my birds, I decided to share some with the garden, a few weeks ago, having already invested some long hours in the sun into what I hope will blossom into an attractive hedge. About a week later, while watering the plants and glossing over the pigmented shards of chicken eggshells scattered about, I suddenly became aware that one of those shell fragments was not like the others.
16 May 2009, an avian contribution to the garden
The bluish tint and the dimensions lead me to believe that it is a Starling’s egg. Indeed, Starlings abound at the new homestead.
And what better day than Bird Day to resurrect this blog?
Well, it has been a while. I moved. This was not like the time when FinchWench migrated from LiveJournal to WordPress. This time, it was more like I took up all of my precious sticks and twigs and shiny objects and moved them to a new nest box. It has been exhausting, because the new nest box is not new at all and requires a lot of remodeling and reconstruction (and I had accumulated rather too many shiny-to-me objects; some call it “hoarding,” but I prefer to think of it as Bower Bird Syndrome).
On the upside, there is a yard, so the birds now come to me.
27 February 2009, in my backyard or at least on the property line
“Unobtrusive, quiet and retiring, without being shy, humble and homely in its deportment and habits, sober and unpretending in its dress, while still neat and graceful, the dunnock exhibits a pattern which many of a higher grade might imitate, with advantage to themselves and benefit to others through an improved example.”
Apparently, the sexual escapades and tensions of some* of the Dunnocks were carried out in the hedges unbeknownst to Rev. F.O. Morris. For the breeding season of some of the beloved songbirds, which he so touted as the avian role model for his parishioners, is a frenzy of mating conflicts, infidelity, pursuit and revenge against forbidden lovers, paternity tests, and other such affairs that should not fill the days of the lives of ecclesiastical Christians.
‘Tis the season for just that. After the uncharacteristically heavy rains in San Diego, the insectivorous birds have a feast. I spotted a Yellow Rumped Warbler (Dendroica coronata) just outside of the laboratory. I had seen them before on campus but was never so fortunate to capture a photograph. This was the first time for me to see one loitering in the courtyard of the engineering building.
A woodpecker’s tree which I did not climb at 
29 September 2009
This is Helios, looking like a very papal bishop indeed.
Put that in your crop.
