I haven’t really seen many demotivational posters on the internet so I wasn’t too sure about this assignment. I think my final product fits the assignment and it was fun to make! For some reason, the first idea that popped into my head was getting a funny photo of one of my dogs trying to catch a dog treat. There are so many funny slow mo videos on the internet of dogs being tossed a treat, and them failing miserably trying to catch it in their mouth! I always find them amusing and thought I’d try to capture a photo of my pup Hazel trying to catch a dog bone that I toss to her. I tossed her several treats and she never actually caught one of them. I was hoping to get one rolling off her snout, but this is the best I got and I think it works! I’m not sure if my caption is clever or witty enough, but I think it definitely counts as Demotivational! My process was capturing a photo of my dog and then importing it to photoshop. Then I used to selection tool to take Hazel out of the original photo and put it on a black background. Then, I found a (de)motivational poster builder website that allowed me to upload the image, select the font type, and type in what I wanted the top and bottom lines to say.
Our family has always had Boxer dogs since I was born. We currently have boxer #5 and #6 still living with us, Boomer and Hazel. I am also including a selfie with our recently departed Daisy that I took with her the day she had to be euthanized (April 28th). She was the sweetest tank of a dog I have ever had the pleasure of loving, and our family misses her every day.
Daisy, my brother and I the day we had to have her euthanized due to thyroid tumorsBoomer and I todayBoomer
This handsome boy is Boomer, our 6 year old Boxer. Our family adopted him when he was 2 years old. A family in Connecticut had to move to Florida and they already had four boxers and didnt want to take the four dogs with them. I feel bad that Boomer was the one they decided they didnt want out of the four dogs. I don’t really agree with people giving up dogs unless absolutely necessary and their logic that four dogs was too many to move to a new state with doesn’t seem like a good enough excuse to me, but Boomer was all that mattered and he needed a home, so we adopted him.
The family drove him to our home in Vermont and dropped Boomer off days before they planned to move to Florida. Since we got Boomer as a 2 year old, we didnt truly know what his personality or behavior would be like. He was extremely shy and nervous for a good month after his owners dropped him off. We had Daisy at the time and they became inseparable within a few days. As we got to know Boomer, we noticed aspects of his behavior that pointed to neglect/abuse in his previous home. He was very distrustful of men and in the four years we’ve had him, he has tried to nip at certain men when they come on our property. He didnt cause any harm of course, just small little nips where no skin was broken, but he clearly had something happen with a man or men in his past home that made him distrustful of them. He is also extremely scared of loud noises. He’s a very sweet old soul, one one of the smallest most petite boxers we have ever seen or owned. He is very loyal to our family and even though he has his quirks, we love him very much.
Hazel our 2 year old Boxer today with a derpy look on her face because she had just woken up from a nap Hazel
This big sweetie is Hazel, our 2 year old Boxer. Yep, she’s bigger than Boomer and only 2 years old 🙂 I told you Boomer was a tiny Boxer! Of the 6 Boxers we have owned, two have been purchased as puppies from breeders, and 4 have been rescues from different situations. One was a rescue pup from Hurricane Katrina, another was an elderly boxer with cancer who’s owners left him at a Vet’s office late at night who we had for 10 months before he needed to be euthanized, and then Daisy was rescued after her owner passed of Cancer. Our first boxer, Baran, and now our most recent addition, Hazel, were purchased from a reliable breeder as puppies. And, because I can’t resist, here is a photo of cute little Hazel with my dad a few weeks before we brought her home from the breeder.
Hazel as a puppy!
Hazel is definitely the most loving and cuddly of the boxers we have had. She doesn’t know how big she is (like most big dog breeds) and would be content to sit on your lap and get scratched and pet all day long! Her and Boomer have become very good friends, but since she is sort of in her early teenage years, she likes to annoy him sometimes. Boomer will be sleeping, minding his own business, and if she is bored and wants to play, she will literally come and sit on his head until he gets up and starts playing with her. It’s the funniest thing!
She definitely has provided plenty of entertainment for me and my brother who are both home from our respective colleges during the pandemic. I think she especially enjoys us being home all day so she can go outside and play whenever she pleases. She loves being outside in all weather and especially loves playing in the snow! Even as a young puppy when we were potty training her, she wouldn’t want to go inside even if her little paws were getting cold. When she started shivering, we would bring her inside and she would cry and paw at the front door begging to go back outside and play in the snow! It is so interesting how unique each dog’s personality can be especially since they are the same breed. I can’t imagine life without both of them in it, and I know quarantine wouldn’t be nearly as bearable without them!
Have you grown up in an urban home where you see birds daily? Did you grow up in a city where the birds you saw were pigeons or gulls? Do you get annoyed when the dawn chorus wakes you early in the morning? Do you know how to tell bird species apart or are you a conspiracist who thinks all birds are government spies – I know, ridiculous, right?
My background with birds started when I was around three years old. My mother took me to a bird walk she saw advertised in our local town in Ohio. She showed up with me and got the nastiest looks from the birders (most birders are not this stuck up regarding youth getting involved with birdwatching). They figured a child would be loud and scare away all the birds. However, by the end of the two-hour bird walk, most of them were coming up to my mom and praising her for bringing me as I was very well behaved, made no loud noises, and was very engaged in trying to spot birds! I think this single event in my life started my fascination with birds and when I started learning from local birding legends in my small Vermont community, I was hooked!
Photo of me and one of my childhood pups, Josie, watching the birds at the feeder out the window
No matter what your background or experience with birds is, my goal through this blog is to convince you that birds are worth caring about and conserving! I’d like to start off early on giving you some tips and tricks regarding identifying birds. Personally, I think the challenge and puzzle of identifying an unknown species is part of the fun of birding. However, it definitely can be overwhelming to beginners, but ends up being worth the struggle in the long run. Once you are able to identify birds, then you can recognize species and learn their behaviors!
For this overview of IDing birds, we will examine 6 different categories birders consider when trying to identify a bird. Also, an important note – these tips and tricks came not only from my own personal knowledge and experience, but also from one of my favorite birding books – The Beginners Guide to Birding: The Easiest Way for Anyone to Explore the Incredible World of Birds written by Nate Swick. I highly recommend the book for anyone who is interested in what they are learning through my blog and want to learn even more!
Now for the list!
Size
Shape/Silhouette
Color
Habitat
Behavior
Range
Size is one of the first thing a birder pays attention to. Once a general size is established, they can go through their brain’s field guide and filter birds that fit that general size. However, size can be tricky when you don’t have anything to compare it to. Birders have established several “common” species of birds to use as size comparisons, and they are the American Robin, American Crow and Red-tailed Hawk.
Credit: The Beginner’s Guide to Birding by Nate Swick
Similar to size is the shape or silhouette of a bird. Paying attention to parts of the bird such as length of the tail, length and shape of the bill, and feet structure are important factors that can narrow down the search for the correct species. This tip is helpful at the broad end of the ID process, as species of sparrows for example, have very similar silhouettes and very few birders can ID a sparrow just from shape. That is why we have more ID tips to follow!
Next is color. Color can be very helpful for ID’ing a bird, but it also can make things even more complicated. Depending on the lighting or the angle the birder is looking at the bird from for example, a bird’s color can look different from reality. Another factor at play is the differences between males and females and even just individuals of the same sex. Oftentimes, juvenile birds look completely different than their adult counterparts if one is solely focusing on color.
Male and Female Common Yellowthroat Warbler Morgan Quimby Photography
Just to keep adding on layers, birds can also lack pigment or have the pressence of pigment that actually changes the lightness or darkness of their plumage. In fact, birds show as much if not more variation in this regard than us humans. Sometimes it is better to focus on patterning of the individual, and not just the overall color. Patterning such as an eye ring, a swatch of color on the chest/neck or crown of the head, or barring on the wing can help narrow down the ID.
Yellow-rumped Warbler Morgan Quimby Photography
Below is a great example when color isn’t always the most helpful, and other tips need to be referenced to reach a successful ID. The first photo is a Summer Tanager and the second image is a Northern Cardinal. As you can see, they are both red. There is one clear difference in color with the black “face mask” present on the Cardinal and not the Tanager, but that may not be enough depending on the location of the sighting and what kind of view you have of the bird.
Most people who aren’t birders wouldn’t be able to tell them apart if they came across them in the wild, however, there are key differences that experienced birders can pick up on. The first thing is the beak size and color. The Summer Tanager has a slightly thinner and longer bill that is a pale tan in color compared to the Northern Cardinal’s wider and shorter bill that is orangish red in color. Next is the head crest of the Cardinal. This can get tricky as the Cardinal can flatten this crest to it’s head which makes it appear to have a Tanager shaped head. Finally, the ends of their tails are essentially the same shape, although it is hard to tell from this photo. However, the Cardinal does have a longer tail than the Tanager.
Next on our list is the habitat. Birds are often very predictable in this sense and can be a help to birders when attempting to ID an individual. For example, if you have a small mottled grey and brown bird with long legs and a long beak scurrying along a shoreline in Maine, you most likely have a shorebird like a Sanderling or a Semi-palmated Plover or Sandpiper. You wouldn’t see this bird at your backyard feeder, just like you wouldn’t see a Mourning dove scurrying along a beach in Maine. This is a tip that is most helpful once you have researched specific species and their habitats, but it’s an important one nonetheless.
Sanderling Morgan Quimby Photography
Almost there! Our second to last tip is behavior. As a bird photographer this is one of my favorite parts of birding. Behaviors can help narrow down what type of bird one is looking at. For example, you might look at how a bird is perching. If you saw a bird parallel to a tree shimmying up with its feet gripping the bark, you very likely have a woodpecker such as a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker or a Hairy or Downy Woodpecker. However, if you saw a small yellow and black bird flitting around rapidly from branch to branch way up high in the top of a tree, it is most likely one of the many species of Warblers that fits that simple description of yellow and black.
Downy Woodpecker Morgan Quimby Photography
Behavior can come in handy when some of the other tips such as color may not be as helpful. Shorebirds are a great example of this as certain species prefer to wade in shallow water and rapidly jab their long bills into the sand to forage, some prefer to forage on exposed barnacle and seaweed covered rocks at low tide, while more still run to the water’s edge to collect small creatures when the waves retreat and rapidly run back up to the safety of the dry beach when the waves crash back towards the beach.
Purple Sandpiper Morgan Quimby Photography
Finally, we come to Range. This is one tip that often requires a field guide unless the birder in question is extremely well versed in bird species distributions off the top of their head! Most field guides these days have a handy map on each species page that is color coded with their normal range based on time of year and the reason they are where they are (breeding range, migration/winter range, etc).
An example of a range map (Common Loon) from allaboutbirds.org
Phew, I hope you are all still with me! I know I just threw a lot of tips at you, but if you start slow and put these guidelines into practice around your home territory with birds you are used to seeing, you will get the hang of it quicker than you might think!
If you are looking for something to do during quarantine, birdwatching from your home or at nearby hiking/nature trails is a great way to get outside as well as hone your birding skills and become a human being more connected to the natural world. Stay tuned for the next installment of Bird Blog where we will examine the beautiful world of bird photography!
When I scrolled through the assortment of meme-able images provided by Professor Cripps, I knew I had to choose Sokka! For some reason, Avatar was never one of the shows I watched regularly as a kid. However, I have fellow geek/nerd friends who watched the show growing up and informed me that it was now on Netflix and that I needed to binge it. So…. thats what I’m currently doing in my free time between classwork. Being an animal lover, of course Appa and Momo, along with the creative animal mashup species like the Otter penguins, Ostrich Horses, and Fire ferrets, are my favorite characters. However, as far as humans go, Sokka is definitely a favorite! He brings comic relief in his exaggerated movements and reactions to the sticky situations he gets himself into on the regular. His look of disdain and confusion on his face in this screen cap just begged me to make it into a meme. I then thought of things that I have heard or seen on the internet recently that cause me to make a Sokka face. One of these things is the conspiracy theories around the Coronavirus. Not only do I think these theories are idiotic and disrespectful to the thousands of people who have lost their lives or their loved ones, but they are just downright jaw dropping. How could someone believe these lies when we have science and doctors? One theory that is really out there in terms of plausibility is the idea that the virus can be caused by the radiation coming from 5G and our cell phones. This ridiculous claim seemed to fit perfectly with this image, so a meme was born. This theory also gave me an idea for a pandemic horror film… What if viruses actually were spread through cell phones and technology? I think a large part of the world just couldn’t resist the temptation to be on their devices and would contract the virus pretty rapidly. Anyway, I have never created a meme before and look forward to see what other meme-able images are laid before us for the picking.
