New yard bird!
Oak Park, IL
Saturday 28 March 2020
48 °F
My “alarm clock” this saturday AM: a wonderful male FOX SPARROW! New yard bird for me!! I immediately ran downstairs & outside, and snapped these pics:
Its sparrow-family relative the DARK-EYED JUNCO was also present. At this point, it is probably a migrant junco from points further south rather than one of the birds that overwintered in the area.
Bird-of-the-day to the Fox Sparrow! Now for my rant-of-the-day: although they will probably never read this, I just needed to write down somewhere how thankful I am towards our essential workers: firefighters, policemen and women, our armed forces, sanitation workers, anyone with medical-related professions, and anyone out there risking their lives for the right thing. How absolutely brave, patriotic, and giving of you to be out there, working for others, during a time of such danger. Furthermore, I am extremely ashamed to live in a country where for weeks, not only the president, but many other government leaders downplayed the threat of Coronavirus. This is the SAME treatment they give about our climate — not giving a damn! As an American, a Christian, a birder, and a human being, I am so incredibly disgusted. What filth. How dare it take thousands of American deaths for some politicians to wake up to the need to fight this virus with all of our might. I shall say we should take China as a good example of (of course not perfect, but) a fast, aggressive, continuous response to the epidemic. Please, I beg of you, do ANYTHING to slow the spread of this nasty bug: social distancing as well as common-sense ways of avoiding germs.
Good birding. And PLEASE, stay safe!!!
Henry
World Life List: 1111 Species
Henry, I agree with all you've written. It scares me to think that we haven't reached the top of the curve. Sadly, it is going to get worse. But, when it's over, I hope we will be treating each other and our fragile planet with more love and respect.
by Marlene Scott