People ask: do you really go in the woods every day? Will you report what you see there? Is this blog like the one we saw in that movie about the woman who cooked a different recipe every day and reported on it? Is it like the body builder’s blog that describes his routines every day and let’s you watch his muscles grow? Is it like that? People ask: Are you going to give us a vicarious bird sighting every day? Answer: I’m going to try. Then they say: okay, what did you see today? Answer: a Dark-eyed Junco. But I call it a Slate-colored Junco. That’s what it was called before taxonomists clarified, revised, updated and improved the naming of this bird. There’s enough room in the woods for people to use whatever names they like. (Even when we were told to call our Baltimore Orioles “Northern Orioles,” a while back, I ignored the name change. Good thing: they changed it back!) Anyway, that’s what I saw today. A Junco. You might ask: One lousy bird? Why bother telling us? Well, no. I saw others. But this is the daily sighting I enjoyed most. This little winter visitor reminds me that the seasons are changing, will change, have always changed. It’s reliable. I like that about the Junco, Dark-eyed or Slate colored.
Actually, there is no such thing as a northern oriole. The AOU checklist once again recognizes the Baltimore and Bullocks’s (and has for quite a few years now).