Exploring Nature: Interesting Tidbits

Let’s devote today’s column to a collection of fascinating factoids and interesting items about wildlife and nature. Here goes: Artist/author Ralph Steadman has developed a tongue-in-cheek list of birds he thinks may be headed for extinction. These include the unsociable leftwing and the orange-beaked spotted emulsion cootflake. Other birds he thinks may already be extinct are the gob swallow, long-legged shortwing and the needless smut.

On a more realistic note, one of the nation’s best birding festivals is scheduled for November 8-12 this year. The Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival promises five days of field trips with South Texas specialties and “unforgettable socializing.” If you’d like to see green jays, chachalacas and great kiskadees, head on down. For more information, call (209) 227-4823 or visit www.rgvbf.org.

U.S. and Canadian consumers purchase more than one billion pounds of bird food each year, much of it consisting of black-oil sunflower seeds. North Dakota and South Dakota grow more than seventy percent of the U.S. market’s sunflowers.

During a tennis match in London back on August 7, 1935, a swarm of flying ants interrupted play. The obnoxious insects not only annoyed athletes, they also piled up on doorsteps and sometimes got into people’ homes. No word if anyone was stung.

A new book on “100 Birds To See In Your Lifetime” lists species starting with Arctic tern at number 100 and ending with ivory-billed woodpecker at number 1. Which seems a bit unfair, since that woodpecker has been extinct for many years. I guess hope springs eternal.

The tailorbird sews leaves together to make its nest.

Hummingbird eggs are the size of jelly beans.

And finally, whether it’s the scarlet ibis perched along the Orinoco River in Venezuela or rhinoceros hornbills in the rainforests of Borneo, birds are marvelous, magical creatures. I hope you have enjoyed this brief foray into avian information.