Dorothy Parker

Trifecta!

A few weeks ago I was cutting through the Notebaert Nature Museum after a run, hoping to see some herons. I’ve seen a few great blue herons around North Pond, so it figured to be a good bet. It also didn’t hurt that it was sunset.

After looking in a few trees I still hadn’t seen anything exciting, and was about ready to right it off as an evening of nothing but mallards. But then I saw something that could only be a heron, but it certainly wasn’t a blue heron. I looked it up at home, and decided it was a black-crowned night heron. I was excited. It was the first time I had ever seen this species.

So, this Thursday I walked the same way, hoping to another night heron. I looked in the tree where I saw the first one, and there was a blue heron wading in the shallows, but no night heron. I checked the next few trees, but saw no herons.

Then I saw another blue heron stalking around some submerged roots. I scanned the rest of the tree, and saw a funny little bird I’d never seen before. It had a greenish head, a brownish breast, and a white stripe on its neck. It had to be a green heron (look at the second picture--that's more how it looked. And how it was behaving). A blue heron and a green heron in the same tree. And then wait, could it be? Yes! The night heron was in the tree too! Three species of heron in the same tree!

It was the best nature experience I’ve had in at least six months.

Unfit

Ok, so my blog is mostly complaints. But there's so much to complain about!

Here's some idiots and their Fennec Foxes. Only one problem: Fennec Foxes aren't suitable pets.

Not everything that looks like a dog is a dog. People need to remember that dogs are very different from their wolf, fox, and coyote cousins. Fennec Foxes are often untrainable, often can't be housebroken, and never stop biting. Putting a wild animal in a house or on a farm isn't what makes it domestic. It's a long process that results in fundamental changes to the species. Just because a few members of a species is tamed, doesn't mean the rest of the species should be brought indoors.

What a stupid species we are.