Category: Humor

At least I thought it was funny.

Posted on in Birds, Humor, Media Reviews, Nature

I’m Thankful For This…

Wild Turkey_CheyenneMtnZoo-CO_LAH_2224

Happy Thanksgiving! I’m sure you’re busy today, so today’s post will be short.

In honor of all the turkeys that will give their lives so we can celebrate God’s generosity, I’d like to share a cartoon I recently discovered. Not that it’s new. This website has been around a while now. But I didn’t know about it, and if it’s new to me, then it might also be new to you.

Please click on over to Bird and Moon and prepare to be delighted. I’m linking you to one of my favorite cartoons, but be sure to check out the rest of them, plus the store and everything else. Just don’t let dinner burn while you’re distracted!

Bird and Moon: Science and Nature Cartoons

(No, I wasn’t paid to promote this. I just think it’s awesome!)

Posted on in Birds, Humor

Name that Bird!

Secretarybird_DenverZoo_LAH_1574We’ve given birds some pretty bizarre names. Does the Secretarybird (right) take notes? Who does the Wandering Tattler tattle on? Do chatterers and babblers ever shut up?

Then there are the names that must have come from examining a stuffed specimen in hand. How often do you see the orange crown of an Orange-crowned Warbler?

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Posted on in Gardening, Humor

Auto-corrected Flowers

Heuchera_Coral Bells_DBG_LAH_1435A (long) while back I posted Heidi’s list of auto-corrected bird names. I thought it was pretty funny, partly because most bird names are not normal words. What’s a spell-checker supposed to do when confronted with names such as Willet, Phalarope, or Gallinule?

Being both a birder and a gardener, I began to wonder how Microsoft Word would treat some of the more unusual flower names. Typing a quick list was quite revealing! Then, as I went to retype everything in WordPress, I discovered that they don’t use the same dictionary. In a few instances, it had its own list of suggestions, making things even more interesting!

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Posted on in Birds, Humor

Be the Bird!

Infant-Boys-Bluebird-Costume-L12234323-001With Halloween quickly approaching, the procrastinators among us are frantically searching for a brilliant, yet easy-to-execute costume idea. Since this is a birding (among other things) blog, I thought I’d offer a bit of inspiration—costume ideas I’ve collected from around the internet. I’m afraid not all of these look simple and easy to pull off at the last minute, but some were just too creative to pass up. Hopefully, these will get your creative juices flowing! (more…)

Posted on in Birding Tips, Birds, Humor

Do You Speak “Twitcher”?—The Sequel

This is probably not the tart a twitcher has in mind.
This is probably not the kind of tart a twitcher has in mind.

Remember that little quiz I posted a while back? The one asking you to define a list of British birding terms? Well, I have ten more words or phrases that are equally incomprehensible to North American birders. Can you figure out what these mean? Answers will appear next week (below the bird quiz).

  1. Old duffer
  2. On the deck
  3. Patch
  4. Phase
  5. Plastic
  6. Scorch
  7. Stringy
  8. Tart
  9. UTV’s
  10. Yank
Posted on in Birds, Humor

Auto-corrected Bird List

Eric & Heidi EatonToday I have a special guest post from Heidi Eaton, naturalist, zookeeper, and all around very nice person. She’s married to “Bug Eric” of entomology fame. You may remember I recommended his insect blog a while back. Here’s her post. I’m sure you’ll laugh at least as much as I did!

I’ve often used my Samsung tablet to keep a bird list when Eric and I are traveling.  We are often amused at the way the auto-correct tries to change the bird names.  Some aren’t that funny, like it always wants heron, blackbird, and starling to be plural (I can kind of understand why, with blackbirds and starlings).

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Posted on in Gardening, Humor, Veggies

A Gardener’s New Year’s Resolutions (revisited)

I had an idea for a post for today.
Instead I got the flu.
So instead of new insights, I hope it’s okay
To repost this for you.

A Gardener’s New Year’s Resolutions

Posted on December 28, 2009 by LAH

plants-for-sale-lowes-cs_2008aug02_lah_5106-1Lots of people like to make New Year’s resolutions. Gardeners are no exception. A quick web search turned up plenty of lists, with gardeners around the country vowing to stay ahead of the weeds, thin their carrots, and learn the Latin names of all their favorite plants. If you like to garden, you probably have your own list of good intentions. And if you’re like me, you’ll struggle to keep even one of them.

This year, I’d like to propose a list of gardening resolutions that any enthusiastic gardener can keep. Your garden may not be perfect, but at least you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing you achieved your New Year’s goals.

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