I remembered that one spring when we were up in Santa Fe visiting family and out on a hike it seemed there was a spotted towhee noisily foraging in every shrub. Noisily! Sometimes you will hear them rustling around before you see them and like all towhees they are busy rascals!
The genus name Pipilo for towhees was created by Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot in 1816 when he described the eastern species. I’ve found his name associated with a bunch of bird species. He was an early birder…ha, ha.
The 2 legged back hop scratch is little more difficult than some of my other dance moves like the twist or the jitterbug, but I’m getting it. I think I will shorten the name to “the towhee.” I’m already visioning folks circling me and shouting “Do the towheee, Petey. Do the towhee!”
Oh, and the photo is by Laura Hughes. Thank you to her!
This show could also be called Typha latifolia and Grus canadensis, which has a nice scientific ring to it. Cattails are “plants of marshes...
Here’s to a glorious monsoon season! The photo is mine and taken at our home.
The green dodo, Dodoneaea viscosa…I don’t think that the variety angustifolia still applies to our native dodo as botanists Benson and Darrow had it…anyway,...