#8 Canada Goose
Geese would be my number 1 however, these geese aren’t silly and who likes a serious goose? Not me. Silly goose is one of my favorite phrases of all time. Really any phrase with goose like wild goose chase or your goose is cooked and I’m in. On the loose is my all-time favorite phrase so a silly goose on the loose will make my day every time. I also find myself singing how funky is your monkey, how loose is your goose all the time, but fewer people seem to remember what I’m talking about as the years pass.
#7 Mallard Duck
Emerald is one of my birthstones and my favorite color. And mallards have those beautiful emerald heads. Well, at least the boy ducks. 🎵Let’s hear it for the boys!🎵 But since I am a misandrist, this somehow feels like betrayal so I will offer this fact as tax. Bird sex chromosomes are opposite of ours in that males are the homogametic sex in birds (ZZ) while biological females are typically the homogametic sex in humans (XX). And lady birds (ZW) and dude humans (XY) are heterogametic. So homo = same, hetero = different, and gametic = gametes (egg and sperm). This means that the gametes biologically female humans and male birds can only pass the same chromosome to their offspring, a X or Z respectively. Male humans and female birds can pass different gametes to their offspring X or Y and W or Z that determine offspring chromosomal sex and typically biological sex (but not always!). And now you know some (maybe) new words!
6 Swallows
I do admire the shapes of swallows as it makes them easy to recognize, allowing me to feel slightly like an ornithologist, which I am not. One time in Georgia, I let a pair of swallows build a nest on my porch. I thought I was being nice and expected to have some new friends. I imagined I would watch their eggs hatch and maybe one of their chicks would be comfortable sitting on my shoulder. But that is not at all what happened. Next thing I knew they were 40 of them and mud nests everywhere. They are messy little buggers and unfortunately, I had to evict them and hang curtains.
#5 Pelicans
I had no idea there were pelicans in Colorado. I always associate them with the coast. I grew up in the southeast US so pelicans = Florida. But when spring hit this year, surprise! A pair of pelicans graced our little pond. A neighbor saw me gawking at them in disbelief and said, “It must be spring!” I guess they return every year which is so sweet. I tell myself they are both boys (I have no idea), they are in love, and their names are Rosanov and Hollander. It always makes me giggle when they dive down and put their little booties in the air.
#4 Red-winged blackbirds
I love when bird names describe them exactly as this one does or are out of control ridiculous like the Fluffy-backed Tit-babbler. Red-winged blackbirds seem friendly. I have that white woman habit of personifying animals, but they REALLY do seem friendly. They don’t fly away when we approach and when I say ‘we’ I mean me and my dog. Most critters run, fly, scamper away when they see Puddin even though she rarely chases them. We have rules.
#3 Hummingbirds
These little guys symbolize joy and that’s exactly what I feel when I see them, like many of us. I didn’t know they were nearby until one visited my patio. I immediately purchased hummingbird feeders and boiled some sugar water. I hadn’t spotted them in the pond, but after I saw the first one on my patio, I saw others around a tree near said pond. Now I see, and hear, them everywhere. I love hearing their little whistle chirps as they fly by, they sound like cheerful little R2D2s.
#2 Great Blue Heron
Herons symbolize self-reflection. I do, and need to do, much reflecting so I very much appreciate the reminder. They are a bit breath-taking to see. They are always alone and have this regal quality to them. I have seen a heron at each of our favorite water spots we have had in all the states we’ve lived in recently. Seeing this one at the pond makes me feel good about the quality of the water, though I still don’t let Puddin swim in it.
#1 Cormorants
They swim completely underwater even though their feathers are not waterproof. What legends, what outlaws, you can’t tell them what to do! They dry off perched on what looks like dead branches and then do it all over again. They are supposed to be excellent fishers and eat more than other birds their size. MY favorite thin is that they remind me of different animals in each of their daily pursuits so I had to give them their own list. Oh my god! A list within a list!
- Diving birds – Houdini, where’d he go? They dive down completely underwater! I play this game where I try to predict where they will pop up again I’m always wrong! The direction AND distance. Magicians.
- Swimming birds – The literally SWIM underwater like fish. It reminds me of M.C. Escher’s tessellations where the bird becomes a fish! I wonder if these birds inspired his art…
- Floating birds – When they are on the surface of the water floating along, they don’t sit fully on top of the water like other birds. You mostly see their long curved necks poking through the surface like Nessie or a tiny brontosaurus. I always waned a tiny elephant and now I’m adding tiny brontosaurus to that the list.
- Drying birds – Somehow, cormorants have evolved to swim fully underwater without having waterproof feathers! This means they dry off between swims. When they do this at my local drainage pond, they perch on big tree roots that are above the water beside the shore and spread their wings wide. When they are in groups doing this, they look just like vultures. Some people don’t like vultures, they often represent death. But the other part of death is renewal, rebirth, and that’s why I love vultures. But I love the slang term buzzard even more!
- Flying birds – When they are flying, the shape of them reminds me of geese, but silly 🙂 They both have those long, thick necks with comparatively (according to me) short booties, unlike ducks that have short necks and booties.
What does it mean to see a cormorant? That you are near a body of water LOL!
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