FreeLists / tn-bird / [TN-Bird] GH Owl//curly-tailed chickadee

[Dthomp2669@xxxxxxx]

Good Morning TN-birders,
 
When I opened the French doors to the deck at 4:30 AM to let my poodles  out 
at my home in the Charlotte Park area of West Nashville, Davidson  County, 
just a few blocks from the Cumberland River across from Bell's Bend, one  of 
the 
local great horned owls lifted off from my deck rail where it had  probably 
been watching for mice.  As I have seen only ONE mouse on the deck  since my 
return from a Florida birding trip, I'm assuming that something did a  pretty 
good job of extermination during those 16 days.  Before I left, I  had several 
mice scampering around on the deck to feed with the birds at any  given time of 
day.  Praise the Lord for predators!!!!
 
For several weeks, I have had a resident chickadee which sports a curled  
tail.  The last quarter inch or so of the tip of its tail is curled under  
resembling a fashion of hairdo known back in the 40's and 50's as a "page  
boy."**  
The bird's tail looks as if someone took an eyelash curler to its  tip and did 
a reverse job by curling under instead of upward.  I have been  trying to get 
a photo, but this little sprite is just too fast at getting the  peanut 
butter and getting out of camera range.  Maybe it is ashamed of its  anomaly, 
but I 
think it's cute.  It will be interesting to see if the new  tail feathers 
come in with a "curl" at the end after the bird molts.
 
**For you younger folks, the "page boy" is a hairdo which allegedly was  
patterned after the wigs of the young pages in government & parliament  
buildings 
back in the historic times when wigs were part of the fashion of males  who 
worked in government.  The ends were curled under at the bottoms of a  mid-neck 
length straight hair.  It was popularized when I was young and was  one of the 
styles worn by "the singing rage, Miss Patti Page" during the time  that she 
made TENNESSEE WALTZ a top song hit BEFORE it became one of Tennessee's  state 
songs!
 
Cheers, prayers & super birding,
 
Dee Thompson
Nashville, TN 

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