Love, War, Turmoil, Feathers

 The news has been intense over the past weeks: tornadoes in the South, bombings in Libya, the killing of Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan, and the Royal Wedding in England. I'll turn to the lighter side after noting that wars and disasters not only disrupt human lives, but also wreak havoc on the environment and animals. People lost homes and relatives to tornadoes; pets too lost homes and caretakers. For an update on animals, see the information provided by an Alabama animal shelter.
But I was also delighted this week by the jewel-blue flash of an indigo bunting.

Through a Screen, Darkly

He--and only a he wears this hue--alighted near a backyard feeder near a high traffic area, a feeder that rarely attracts anything other than the usual suspects--chickadees, cardinals, house sparrows and house finches, nuthatches. Except it's spring migration, as important a sign of life's continuance as any storm survival and marriage. The bunting proved skittish, and unlike a royal couple on display, turned away when I got the camera and flew as I opened a door. But other migrants took their time, maybe because morning temps were in the 30s. Why not fluff up into a puffball and feast on what sloppy squirrels dropped? First white-throated sparrows arrived, which, with their minty-white stripes, throat splotch, and yellow adornments, look cheery, despite their plaintive trailing cry for Sam Peabody, Peabody, Peabody. . .

Where's Sam?

The white throats recently arrived from the tropics with their cousins, the white-crowned sparrows,

Where's Seed?

and the bird formerly known as Rufous-Sided--the eastern Towhee, in this case a brunette female.

Where's spring?

 While micro-birds hide in the thicket, showy herons, white pelicans, and egrets have already established residence near waterways. Once such birds were endangered by a fashion for outrageous hats. Nineteenth-century Plumage Wars pitted woman against woman, the sensibly hatted versus the bebirded.

When one seeks attention, it is best to outdo the others in plumage as any goldfinch in mating season knows. It can be hard to compete with the brightest cardinal, the most mellifluous wren, the svelte girl in the white dress. No doubt the birds were safe at the wedding of Prince William and Kate. Hats abounded, hats spread like the plague, but they seemed to take nothing from Nature, at least not from the nature of this planet.

 For the best speculation on the cross of octopus and porcupine to produce hat, see the Toronto Star column by Heather Mallick.
Finally, the Random Animal has not forgotten that there are books to be read, books reviewed, so here's the last bird for today, and a hint of what's to come--