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Nature Done Wright
Incorporating the Celery Farm and Screech Owl Companion blogs
May 7, 2012
Monday Morning Mystery 050712
Where's this nesting box, and what species is it intended for?
3 comments
-
If I’d had more time, I’d have made it shorter. And with fewer mistakes and typos (e.g., Prothonotarius).
Cheers,
J. -
Close enough. Just wish your answer had been a little more detailed.
:- ) -
Location: Wright-side of the channel on the path leading away from the Warden’s Watch.
Intended species: Set up years ago by then Marsh Warden Stiles (“Field of Dreams: Build It and They’ll Come”) Thomas to attract a species that Audubon had named “Golden Swamp Warbler.”
A name that perfectly described the bright orange-yellow color of this bird and its habitat (it still lights up the swamps of my Arkansas youth). But the name didn’t stick, because a Dutch naturalist had already named it, and the powers that be decided the original name should take precedence.
That naturalist must have been a fairly devout Catholic and/or a student of Vadican administrative arcana, because he baptized this bird after the “pronotarius,” a secretarial official of the Catholic Church who wore bright yellow robes and whose role it was to take notes. Perhaps the idea was that the Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) needed an ink-stained partner).
In any event, Prothonaries at the Celery Farm have been mainly one-day wonders. They’re migratory overshoots and we’re not wooded or swampy or southern enough for them. Check out the Great Swamp, however, just to our south.
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3 comments
John
If I’d had more time, I’d have made it shorter. And with fewer mistakes and typos (e.g., Prothonotarius).
Cheers,
J.
Seymour Drakes
Close enough. Just wish your answer had been a little more detailed.
:- )
John Workman
Location: Wright-side of the channel on the path leading away from the Warden’s Watch.
Intended species: Set up years ago by then Marsh Warden Stiles (“Field of Dreams: Build It and They’ll Come”) Thomas to attract a species that Audubon had named “Golden Swamp Warbler.”
A name that perfectly described the bright orange-yellow color of this bird and its habitat (it still lights up the swamps of my Arkansas youth). But the name didn’t stick, because a Dutch naturalist had already named it, and the powers that be decided the original name should take precedence.
That naturalist must have been a fairly devout Catholic and/or a student of Vadican administrative arcana, because he baptized this bird after the “pronotarius,” a secretarial official of the Catholic Church who wore bright yellow robes and whose role it was to take notes. Perhaps the idea was that the Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) needed an ink-stained partner).
In any event, Prothonaries at the Celery Farm have been mainly one-day wonders. They’re migratory overshoots and we’re not wooded or swampy or southern enough for them. Check out the Great Swamp, however, just to our south.