Birds on my porch, barn swallows I think! My cats love them!

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I will have to add pics later but how many of you have birds building mud nests on your porch, like in my neighborhood. It is such great entertainment for my 2 furbabies, Rover and Goober;o) They are sitting patiently on the table waiting for "something" to happen, as if the bird is going to come in and play with them if they wait long enough. Each year they return, build a new nest and we can watch the babies get fed and then awkwardly learn to fly which always involves many babies sitting on the fan blades on the outside porch. It is just too cute!

 

Anyway, it Bird Day, for those of you that don't know it and here is some great info on that below and ends with a live cam link that is up 24/7 of an eagles nest. The babies are so cute! Of course we have the pets and animal section on sale at 25% off today, and that includes a large amount of bird books for those of you that would like to know more!

 

Bird Day

Some Overland Friends (detail),

Louis Agassiz Fuertes, artist,

Illustration in The Harriman Alaska Expedition: Chronicles and Souvenirs, May 1899.

The Evolution of the Conservation Movement

 

On May 4, 1894, Bird Day was first observed at the initiative of Charles Almanzo Babcock, superintendent of schools in Oil City, Pennsylvania. By 1910, Bird Day was widely celebrated, often in conjunction with

Arbor Day. Statewide observances of the two holidays inculcated conservation training and awareness in a broad spectrum of the public, especially school children.

 

In 1901, Babcock published

Bird Day: How To Prepare for It. The book included a history of Bird Day, suggestions for its observance based on contemporary school practices, and informative material stressing the importance of bird protection. It also offered guidance on how to integrate bird conservation education into the school curriculum.

 

Title page, Bird Day: How To Prepare for It (1901), by Charles Almanzo Babcock.

The Evolution of the Conservation Movement

 

Babcock suggested that as part of school programs for Bird Day, children should recite “bird facts and proverbs” such as the following:

 

Birds flock together in hard times.

A bird in the bush is worth two in the hand.

The American robin is not the same bird as the English.

The bluebird and robin may be harbingers of spring, but the swallow is the harbinger of summer.

The dandelion tells me to look for the swallow; the dog-toothed violet when to expect the wood thrush. . . .

A loon was caught, by a set line for fishing, sixty-five feet below the surface of a lake in New York, having dived to that depth for a fish.

The wood pewee, like its relative, the phoebe, feeds largely on the family of flies to which the house fly belongs. . . .

Seventy-five per cent of the food of the downy woodpecker is insects.

The cow blackbird lays its eggs in other birds' nests, one in a nest. What happens afterwards?

Charles Almanzo Babcock,

Bird Day: How To Prepare for It

, pages 50-51.

The Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920

 

Bird Day reflected the early American conservation movement's particular concern with birds, both as vivid examples of the natural world requiring protection and as objects of economic, aesthetic, moral, and sentimental interest to people, including children. The era's extensive literature on birds is suggested by the

lengthy list of titles on popular ornithology in the Library of Congress.

 

For example, in 1897, pioneering ornithologists Mabel Osgood Wright and Elliott Coues and artist Louis Agassiz Fuertes collaborated on

Citizen Bird. Written in an entertaining and fanciful style and dedicated to "All Boys and Girls Who Love Birds and Wish to Protect Them," the popular classic encourages the love of birds and respect for their place in the natural cycle:

 

Bluebirds have a call-note and a sweet warbling song. . . . He is true blue, which is as rare a color among birds as it is among flowers. He is the banner-bearer of Birdland also, and loyally floats the tricolor from our trees and telegraph wires; for, besides being blue, is he not also red and white?

 

As a Citizen the Bluebird is in every way a model. He works with the Ground Gleaners in searching the grass and low bushes for grasshoppers and crickets; he searches the trees for caterpillars in company with the Tree Trappers; and in eating blueberries, cranberries, wild grapes, and other fruits he works with the Seed Sowers also. So who would not welcome this bird, who pays his rent and taxes in so cheerful a manner, and thanks you with a song into the bargain?

Mabel Osgood Wright and Elliott Coues,

Citizen Bird

, page 90.

The Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920

 

When the Mocking Birds Are Singing in the Wildwood,

H. B. Blanke, music, Arthur J. Lamb, words, 1906.

Historic American Sheet Music, 1850-1920

 

• To learn more about the history of Bird Day and Arbor Day and their roles in the The Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920, see Arbor and Bird Day Observance, c.1872-1920: Additional Resources in the Library of Congress.
• See more beautiful bird illustrations by the great bird painter Louis Agassiz Fuertes in The Harriman Alaska Expedition: Chronicles and Souvenirs (1899), in The Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920. Be sure to click on the links for “Higher Quality Image JPEG” to get the best views of Fuertes’s art.
• Discover other important dates in the history of conservation. View the special presentationDocumentary Chronology of Selected Events in the Development of the American Conservation Movement, 1847-1920.
• Read observations about bird life by naturalists and find Acts of Congress related to the protection of birds. Search on bird in The Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920.
• From the Collection Connections section of the Teachers Page select the collection The Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920. There you will find ideas for using that collection to teach and to learn more.
• Search on the keyword bird in First American West: The Ohio River Valley, 1750-1820 to see ornithological biographies by Alexander Wilson and by John James Audubon.
• View photographs of birds. Search on bird in Washington as It Was: Photographs by Theodor Horydczak, 1923-1959.
• Also, be sure to see the Today in History feature on artist and naturalist John James Audubon, famous for his drawings and paintings of North American birds

Decorah Eagles webcam, you have to see this!

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I love that this is now open on my computer for my cats to watch. They are having a hard time deciding which birds to watch now!

 

http://www.facebook.com/TheBookworm.PowderSprings

[RhondaW]

Oooooooo, the eagles are pretty!

I have always loved crows too, the bigger the better . I also (as you know) love, love LOVE Canadian Geese . I can't even explain why, but the call they make while flying is one of the most soothing sounds in the world to me. Beside the fact that I think they are beautiful. I have some ambient cd's with Canadian Geese calls .