Feb
9
Barred Owl
Other names:
Hoot Owl
Rain Owl
Wood Owl
Round-headed Owl
Swamp Owl
The Barred Owl is a bird of the deep solitudes. Where in the low grounds along the rivers or lake-shores nature has built her densest growth of forest trees, or where, in forebidding swamps, trees and vines struggle for the mastery in one interminable jumble, there you will find the Barred Owl and his mate. If it be in spring you may hear his big voice booming through the solitudes. For when night has fallen the big Swamp Owl must be up and doing. Whoo, whoo, whoo, who , who, to-hoo-ha! he shouts, emphasis and great stress being laid on the last two syllables as though he would question your presence, and challenge your right to invade his domain. The volume and variety of those who, who call notes is one of the wonders of the wilderness and when two or three males get to discussing affairs together the animation they inject into the melody is quite alarming to a timid person not accustomed to the sounds. Of all the Owls, these bar-breasted fellows are pre-eminently the most proficient hooters. –T. Gilbert Pearson, Birds of America
Feb
5
Little Horned Owl
Gray Owl
Red Owl
Little Dukelet
Mottled Owl
Shivering Owl
One wonders how the man who named this bird the “Screech” Owl would feel about a real screech, and how he would describe it. For the bird’s characteristic cry is a singularly mournful and plaintive little wail, with never the suggestion of a screech about it. —T. Gilbert Pearson
Jan
30
Surf Duck
Surf Coot
Surfer
Sea Coot
Bay Coot
Gray Coot
Brown Coot
Box Coot
Spectacle Coot
Butterboat-bill Coot
Hollow-billed Coot
Speckle-billed Coot
Blossom-billed Coot
Horsehead Coot
Patch-Head
Patch-head Coot
Patch-polled Coot
White-head
White Scop
Bald-pate
Skunk-head
Skunk-head Coot
Skunk-top
Pictured Bill
Plaster-bill
Morocco-jaw
Goggle-nose
Surf-taker
Jan
9
Pre-Order Gay Dwarves!
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In honour of the fact you can now pre-order Gay Dwarves of America on Amazon and Krisostomus (“Every Book in the World;” also a good source for Estonian e-books), I’m resurrecting my blog with
Other Names for Birds
from Birds of America, T. Gilbert Pearson, ed., Garden City Books, 1936.
1. White-winged Scoter.
Other names:
Velvet Scoter; Velvet Duck; Lake Huron Scoter; White-winged Surf Duck, or Sea Coot or Scoter; Black White-wing; Black Surf Duck; Pied-wing Coot; Uncle Sam Coot; Bell-tongue Coot; Bull Coot; Brant Coot; Sea Brant; May White-wing; Eastern White-wing; Assemblyman.
Apr
1
Hyperbolic Plane Crocheting
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Bookninja sent me to the Guardian, which gave me the headline,
Winner announced for world’s oddest book title award
Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes by Daina Taimina beats Collectible Spoons of the Third Reich
which is pretty good in itself, but frankly, even cooler is the fact that Taimina is a mathemetician who explains the constant negative curvature of hyperbolic planes by illustrating them via crochet. That’s freakin’ genius! Here is what it looks like.
Note: it’s April 1, but the post is no joke.