Rain and Woodpeckers
Blue-winged Warbler
It was a very wet and rainy weekend and water leaked into our basement for the first time in four years of owning our home. And just a few weeks ago the lawn was dormant and brown on account of the drought. We're fortunate, though, as people in other parts of Wisconsin got it far worse – three counties have been declared a state of emergency and there were even four deaths in Minnesota from the flooding. The rain started Saturday morning and has only just relented in the past hour or so. Before the rain, I was able to get out birding early Saturday and found nearly a dozen warbler species at Pheasant Branch Conservancy. My favorites were Golden-winged Warbler, Blue-winged Warbler, Blackburnain Warbler and Magnolia Warbler. So, most of the weekend was spent doing household chores, cleaning and some shopping. I picked up Scott Weidensaul's new book "Of a Feather: A Brief History of American Birding." It may be a while before I have a chance to comment or review it because I'd rather be birding than read about it, and fall migrants are pouring in.
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
A few days ago we received a flier in the mail from a local church, which I assume was sent to the entire village of Waunakee. Printed on the flier was the following question: “Does the evolutionary process work for the woodpecker? Why not?” The flier was essentially an invitation to listen to a speaker/presentation, organized by the church, discrediting evolutionary theory. I don't want to disgress too much from the topic of birding, but this is related because it concerns bird anatomy and still falls under this blog's "information" banner. It's troubling when evolution is presented as an either/or fallacy, and then to use birds for this...such sacrilege! My fellow citizens of Waunakee, the fact is the woodpecker's tongue is not anchored in the nostril. Like all other birds, it's anchored in the lower mandible. For some woodpeckers (not all) the epibranchial segment of the hyoid apparatus is extremely long, wrapping around the skull, and aids woodpeckers in extending their tongues long distances to spear food items. It is simply an elongation of the same basic anatomy found in all birds.
All images © 2007 Mike McDowell
posted by Mike McDowell @ 4:36 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
You mean you didn't go to the church to discredit the speaker? I'm disappointed. :)
Many Christians are uninformed just like with ecosystems. I am a Christian and have no problem with the evolutionary theory. Christians are now starting to wake up about conservation and the environment. (If you made a great painting would you want some guy to destroy it or take good care of it!)
Most of the Christian Private Colleges teach evolution or at least "Micro-Evolution".
You can not take Genesis literally it was written as a poem. (In the Old Testament poems do not rhyme they repeat words, for example: "and it was Good" and God saw it and "It was Good" is repeated over and over. You can not take poems as literal fact, it does not mean you can not learn life lessons about God and Man from Genesis. I look at a bird I see an amazing design and I see God in it. I am sure God can make that design anyway he wants because you can not put God in a box and say he did it exactly this way. God is eternal which is nothing next to a million or
billions of years. There are more important things to get people in your church like billions of people without clean water or food or children with aids. One way Christians and Churches can help the poor is to clean up the environment, because the poor usually suffer first when ecosystems break down. Maybe the church should focus their energies on the poor like Jesus did.
www.birdwatchingwithgod.blogspot.com
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