lornamatic

Lady Cottington’s Pressed Fairy book ain’t got nothin’ on this.

Those indeed are real bird parts, lovingly flattened and pasted down into books.

Last weekend, I observed a bird banding session at Zuma Canyon, in Malibu. The banders had just begun doing Avian Influenza testing on songbirds, as the Pacific Flyway is believed to be the most likely potential entry point for H5N1 in the United States.

To band a bird, you must first capture a bird, and the way to do this is by stringing up fine nets, called mist nets. They resemble somewhat longer, finer volleyball nets in construction and size. Birds cannot see the nets and become trapped until the banders retrieve them.

Watching the bird banding was lots of things: educational, overwhelming, fasinating and frustrating. I have always adored birds, and it is difficult to witness wild animals caught up in nets, no matter how good the reasons are for doing it.

Here are some photographs from the event:

The ingenuity of man has been excercised for years past to add to the beauty, convenience, and attractiveness of bird houses. One quite pretty cage brought out a few years ago has a fish globe on top of the cage with a hollowed center, thus allowing the bird to come up into the dome, so that by looking through the fish globe it looks as if he were standing on a perch in the center of the water. These cages are not popular, however, as they are quite expensive, and the glass being of such peculiar shape it is liable to crack from variations in temperature. See illustration, page 4.

- from Feathered Pets, Chas. N. Page, 1898

I’ve been meaning to post this gem for a while, and the release of Bernd Brunner’s new book, The Ocean at Home, an Illustrated History of the Aquarium, gives me the perfect opportunity.

I wonder how many unfortunate Victorian-era canaries met their demise from a wet crash caused by an errant sunbeam. Thankfully, our generation benefits from space age polymer fish containment technology, and the canaries of the future will assuredly be safe from this dreadful fate.

I wonder how much it would cost to have the nice people at CASCO build one of these.

From the great minds over at Fark, comes this holiday gift idea. It’s true, Owl pellets are really beyond awesome - owls yack up little furballs of all the indigestible stuff, fur, feathers, and lots of tiny bones. I bought several last year, and I still have four waiting to be pried open and examined for parts.

The fast way to dissect them is to drop one in a plastic cup with a hydrogen peroxide : water mix, about 1:4. Stronger than that and the more delicate bones can just dissolve. You can use toothpicks or dissecting tools to gently pry open the tiny bones inside. It’s nearly alarming how intact the bones remain: If you’re lucky, you can piece a whole skull together. So far I’ve seen a whole bunch of small rodent and vole parts, but if you’re really lucky you might find parts from a lizard or songbird.

Actually, I guess that depends on your definition of lucky. Anyway - it’s a highly educational type experience. I bought mine from American Science and Surplus. They came complete with a corny educational kit, including a plastic magnifying glass, an ancient mimeographed (yes, mimeographed) ID guide, and inexplicably, a florescent pink stencil toy.

I’ll scan some pictures soon.

New photo series:Fighting Egrets at Malibu Lagoon.