Roger Wiley

Hi Michael, nice picture of the magpie.

You are right about Corvids' intelligence. Birding in the Texas hill country last month I added the western scrub jay to my Corvid list.

Wikipedia says, "the brain-to-body mass ratio of adult Scrub Jays rivals that of chimpanzees and cetaceans, and is dwarfed only by that of humans. Scrub Jays are also the only non-primate shown to plan ahead for the future, which was previously thought of as a uniquely human trait." That refers to the jays' documented habit of creating and remembering multiple caches of food for future use. Squirrels bury nuts but don't actually recall where they are buried, finding them later only by random digging.

Roger

Noel

Michael wrote: "...other than relaxing, and reading, and going to the occasional barbecue beside a lazy Shenandoah river, or inner tube float down one, both pleasantly beer-sodden."

Except that you skipped out on BOTH last summer, you sod!!! :>

The invitiation, however, is always still open if you want to try again.