Another Bird

After last weeks story about my feather fight with the bird upstairs I hesitated about another bird related story but my lofty neighbors just keep bringing them my way…

I try to take notice of the things going on around me, even the really small things. Doing so leads me to many wonderful investigations, surprises and stories. I do miss the big picture at times because I delve deeply into the itty bitty and become bewitched by the awesome nature of nature.

My barn duties in the show barn are minimal right now for we only have the two bulls, newly weaned #7, and #41 (the one I call my stalker) on one long side of the barn and on the other side three heifers #23 Mink, #47 Donna and the orphaned calf Primrose. At feeding time, once I have fed both sides, I spend time lolling about to make sure that the little ones on each side get their chance to eat without the bigger ones bothering them. It gives me time to clean up areas that get messy with leftover project bits or a chance to sweep the floor or move the few bales left from last year to the little corner at the front of the barn so we have a big spot for the bale wagon to roll in with freshly made hay.

While I was about to sweep up a pile of hay that was in the middle of the big expanse of cement floor, I noticed a small bird egg. Since I have been having fun with the iNaturalist App on my phone, I decided to take a couple of pictures to add to the data base.

Since the egg was so small, I figured I would add my thumb into the picture for scale.

The App whirled and whirled as it began the identifying process. Now our rural-ness doesn’t always give us great connectivity to the powerful internet and this was one of those days. I refreshed the screen dozens of times but it just kept whirling without conclusion for longer time than I had patience and I closed the App while I finished the chores in the barn and went about other farm duties.

Later in the day, when I reopened the phone and checked on the progress of the identification, the App had decreed my thumb to be of the fungal variety. So that is it, I am reduced to a fungus, just like that.

Since installing the App more than a month ago, I had wondered what it would classify me as if I took a screen shot selfie, now because I already know what it thinks of my thumb, I think I will leave further classification to the greater unknown.

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