Ashbridge's, East End Reports Soon; A Few Notes ...

[norman]

 Hello again. Nothing out of the ordinary to report from Ashbridge's Bay / Woodbine Park re autumn migration, but I received an article on field guides available at the American satirical "newspaper" site The Onion a while back that's worth a look ... there's a relatively mild expletive at the end, but I doubt it will offend:

http://www.theonion.com/content/opinion ... _birds_has

While I take issue with the Peterson Guide (and I've always quite admired the venerable Golden Guides) remark, and appreciate Sibley's work (except for his perpetuation of the misappehension of the adaptive significance of Northern Mockingbirds' white wing patches -- the "scare tactic to startle terrestrial arthropods" hypothesis -- but we've been there already ...), the article, for me, obliquely addresses the excessive proliferation of bird I.D. guides, and the haste to publish them ...  

Oh. I was driving NE of Peterborough 07 Sept 07 when I noticed some large avians exploiting the thermals -- an adult Bald Eagle and a Turkey Vulture were circling ever closer to each other, until they appeared to be within five metres apart, just around and around ... what were they on about? Then another vulture sailed by, followed by an Osprey, and Aunt Margaret started with the shrieking again, terrifying some travelers at a nearby roadside picnic site, so I bundled her back into the Packard and high-tailed it out of there.

Hope to post some migration info from out here soon.

Cheers,

--NB