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SOUTHERN OREGON JOURNAL Southern Oregon Journal: Little-known 'facts' about certain local birds Comment By Peggy Dover for the Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Peggy Dover for the Mail Tribune Posted May. 17, 2015 at 12:01 AM By Peggy Dover for the Mail Tribune Posted May. 17, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Social News Last year I admitted to having little gardening talent despite retaining a Master Gardener badge with my name on it. It was gratifying to receive so many helpful tips from readers. Here it is, planting-fever time, and I refuse, for their sake, to get suckered by rows of tantalizing pony-paks. Instead I’ve decided to share some little-known facts about a subject I’ve studied for years — birds. Stewart Janes, a biology professor at Southern Oregon University who shares news of our avian community in his Mail Tribune column, Birds Eye View, is very good, too. I read it regularly. But, after years of local observation, I think I have additional insight to pass along. Yes, I used my imagination to arrive at certain hypotheses, yet truth is stranger than anything I could drum up. I’ll start with the acorn woodpecker. I see and hear a lot of these along my walk. I call them the Boo Radleys of the bird world for their habit of leaving acorns as get-acquainted gifts inside holes in snags. These tree repositories are called finch-gifters, having nothing to do with the feathered variety. Although the gesture appears friendly enough, I’ve met with dirty sideways glances when prying acorns loose for my shoebox collection. They’re also informally referred to as “laughing hyena birds” for their rendition of the carnivore known by the same name, which used to be their grandmother back in the day. In fact, a gang of them is officially called a riot because of this characteristic. I’ve heard that mockingbirds are miffed about the woodpecker connection with Boo, and believe their imitating skills are superior, but envy is their only drawback, and mockingbirds still sing their hearts out for Southern folk, not us, because we have limelight-stealing woodpeckers. The next example is the American robin, as opposed to the Batmanian robin, whose lifestyle is too wild to print. The robin has superlative vocal skills, rivaling singers such as Freddie Mercury. This talent is of particular note in the predawn hours near a bedroom window. Hidden beneath its feathers, this bird, which isn’t choosy and lives everywhere, possesses impressive deltoid and trapezius muscles from regular tug-of-war sessions with meaty earthworms. It’s too bad I can’t include photos with this column as one posed for me, competition style. You may cry malarkey, but it happened today at the Eagle Point golf course. My feeders host a spectacular array of finches: Caspian finches, homing finches (used successfully in military drone-type espionage), not-so-much-of-a goldfinches, and Atticus’ finches. These finches make a mess of the feeder because they’re picky, turning up their beaks at millet, but then so does everybody. They come in summer colors to coordinate with your flip-flops — raspberry sherbet; lemon fluff, with or without black cap; and orange crush. I made that one up. Turkey vultures consider my Norway spruce their fair-weather home. They’re named turkey vultures because the Pilgrims brought them over as pets and to clean up table scraps after the first Thanksgiving. Disposals hadn’t been invented. Pilgrims later discovered during a turkey shortage that having turkey in their name doesn’t make them suitable Thanksgiving fare, but the name remained. These vultures swoop silently in from the great beyond following happy hour and stay up late nights regaling one another with who ate the grossest entrails throughout the day, winner nabbing the highest perch. It’s their version of King of the Mountain. This is but a short list. I’ll save the mud-flapped kingfisher for another time. I may not be able to produce a garden full of vegetables, but Audubon has nothing on me. Peggy Dover is a freelance writer in Eagle Point. Reach her at [email protected] and on her Facebook page at Peggy Dover-writer. By Peggy Dover for the Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Peggy Dover for the Mail Tribune Posted May. 17, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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