Horned Larks and Rainy Day Birding

The sun has not appeared since the switch to daylight savings time and we have had plenty of rain since the end of last week. It has been dark and dreary on workday mornings and I don't think that I have been the only person feeling tired and somewhat out of sorts with the time change.

Today one of my friends at the hospital invited me to go birding with her after work. It was pouring rain and the temperature was just above freezing when Deb called to make sure I still wanted to go out. Why not? Looking out at the rain through a car window could not be worse than looking out at the rain from indoors. I saw my first spring robins and took a picture of one of them against the grey sky. (the blue sky was photoshopped in)

We saw Red-winged Blackbirds, Purple Grackles, and a large mixed flock of Goldfinches and Pine Siskins. Horned Larks are still plentiful along road sides but it is hard to get a good picture of them as there is little contrast between the birds and the gravel. Deb is an expert "car birder" and spotted this Horned Lark in a parking lot. She approached slowly and started pishing through the open window. (Here is a post about pishing from Monarch's Nature Blog)

The lark turned to pay attention to the sound and gave this inquisitive look. Along another road, she stopped as we listened to the sounds of a Horned Lark's song. She described the singing as "tinkling or breaking glass". Here is a sample from the Cornell's online birding guide. This lark is a beautiful songster!


I had tried to get a decent picture of Horned Larks on a sunny afternoon a couple of weeks ago and my efforts were less than pleasing. It was easier to get a clear picture on this dull day without the glare of sunshine.

On the weekend I went looking for Red-winged Blackbirds in the rain and took this short video of a House Finch singing. Kim from The Kitchen Window Birder had posted this video of a different House Finch song. The song in the video below is far longer and more complex and continued until someone came along with a big dog and scared the bird away. The finch was truly "singing in the rain".
And if it can do that, then so should I!

March Musings

March is such a messy month with melting snow, mud, mist and muted monotone landscapes. Local trails look less than inviting at first glance but are worth exploring as little changes can be seen every day.

This Saturday the first male Red-winged Blackbirds were heard and seen in nearby swamps. Local birding lines reported several sightings as people noted with pleasure the first of our returning spring birds. By next week we should see Robins in the neighbourhood.

Our year round birds are singing a different tune as they mark their territories and begin the nesting season. Male Cardinals whistle from treetops and perch conspicuously in posts and branches. The pouring rain did not deter this bird in the least.

A pair of White-breasted Nuthatches circled a tree trunk rapidly then darted about in an aerial dance.

And here is my first chipmunk sighting of the spring season. Our squirrels have been out on all but the very coldest days, but these cute little rodents have been in hiding since last November.

March... a mixed month where we have spring one day and winter again the next. Here's hoping that Mother Nature's teasing will soon be over and spring decides to stay.

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International Women's Day: Women are Persons!

While in Ottawa, we visited the monument on Parliament Hill entitled "Women Are Persons!" It is a tribute to five Canadian women, Nellie McClung, Irene Parlby, Emily Murphy, Louise McKinney and Henrietta Muir Edwards, who won the "Person's Case" in 1929. The Supreme Court of Canada had ruled in 1928 that a woman is not a qualified person and therefore could not be appointed to the Senate of Canada. The Famous Five as they are called, appealed to the British Privy Council and the decision was overturned. The larger than life bronze sculptures were popular with visitors who could sit in an empty chair beside the ladies.

Women's rights in Canada have come a long way in the past century because of the efforts of strong women who fought for equality in our nation. The right for a married woman to own property, the right to vote, the right to govern, the right of equal pay for equal work, legal rights against sexual harrassment;- these milestones have been achieved in the lifetime of some people still living today.


My maternal grandmother was affected directly by the changes in our society in the early 1900's. She became a medical doctor in 1918, graduating from the University of Toronto. (I have written about this in a previous post). Her personal library contained many books by Canadian women who pioneered change for women in this country including Nellie McClung, Susannah Moodie, and Emily Carr. I spent many hours at her house reading these books, many of which have been passed down to me. I do not consider myself a feminist, and find "male-bashing" to be distasteful, but I hope I never take the rights enjoyed by women in Canada lightly.


Today is International Women's Day and the United Nations' theme this year is "Women and men united to end violence against women and girls." Here are some global statistics from the website. Lack of education, money and health care continue to leave many women without the power to change their circumstances.

• Females in developing countries on average carry 20 litres of water per day over 6 km
• Globally women account for the majority of people aged over 60 and over 80
• Pregnant women in Africa are 180 times more likely to die than in Western Europe
• 530,000 women die in pregnancy or childbirth each year
• Of 1.2 billion people living in poverty worldwide, 70% are women
• 80% of the world's 27 million refugees are women
• Women own around only 1% of the world's land
• AIDS sees women's life expectancy of 43 in Uganda and Zambia
• Women are 2/3 of the 1 billion+ illiterate adults who have no access to basic education
• Women do two-thirds of the world's work but receive only 10% of the world's income
• Women's education is the most powerful predictor of lower fertility rates
• One year out of college women earn 20% less than men and 10 years later 31% less

It is challenging to fight cultural, religious and economic barriers that affect the status of women, but like Canada's Famous Five demonstrated, committed individuals can lobby successfully for the equality, education, safety and health of women around the world.

Friday Flowers: Tulips for Lungs

March 4, 2009 was The Lung Association’s Tulip Day in Ontario. To celebrate the imminent arrival of spring after a long winter, the association sells tulips to raise money and hope for improved lung health in Ontario. Volunteers sold bunches of tulips at the hospital and I had trouble choosing between yellow, white, red and these orange "grown in Ontario" blooms. They are just starting to open up and will give me a little taste of what will grow in my garden sometime next month.

I have worked with patients suffering from respiratory ailments for much of my career. I used to be involved with the Cystic Fibrosis Clinic at the hospital in the late 1970s when the life expectancy for children born with this disease was much shorter than it is now. Cystic Fibrosis is found in the Old Order Mennonite population in our region and in large families, several children may be affected by it. It is also commonly found in other demographic groups. My brother Philip used to help me with an evening Swim and Gym program for children with CF. They had lots of energy and loved the recreational opportunity.

I worked for over ten years in the Intensive Care Unit doing therapy with people suffering from respiratory failure and a host of other serious illnesses. The majority of lung diseases are secondary to smoking (as well as many other illnesses!) but patients with severe asthma, end-stage pulmonary fibrosis, and fast moving infections also end up in acute care. I am sure that everyone has known someone close to them who has suffered from lung disease. We are becoming more aware of the effects of air pollution on lung health and the anti-smoking message is being heard. Ontario does not allow smoking in any public venue including restaurants and workplaces. In the 1970s, students could smoke during university lectures, smoking was allowed in buses, planes, workplaces, malls, even in hospital wards. Wherever I went I came home smelling of cigarette smoke.

The rehabilitation hospital where I now work has a very successful outpatient Pulmonary Rehab program. Patients are referred from the community and attend education and exercise sessions a few times a week. Graduates of the program can return once a week to use the equipment and meet up with friends they have who also have lung disease. Some people can barely walk into the building as they tote their portable oxygen with them, but soon they are doing laps around the first floor or using the treadmills and other equipment available for strength and aerobic training.

Outpatient programs are being cut from hospital budgets at an alarming rate in Ontario. Because the people are not acutely ill and because they can sometimes access similar services for a fee in the community, hospital administrators balance their budgets by reducing these therapeutic clinics. A person with COPD could join a gym or attend a public pool, but it is more motivating for them to be in an environment with trained professionals and other people with similar conditions.

I bought the tulips in support of the efforts of the Ontario Lung Association and hope they will continue to promote positive change for the lung health of all of us.

Canadian Lung Association
American Lung Association

The Sky's the Limit!

The imagination of mankind knows no limit. What we can actually achieve does have limits even though those boundaries are pushed back further all the time. These pictures represent the whimsical pursuits of imagination and our inner desire to be bigger, higher, and stronger than others around us. Reaching upward to the sky, even in play empowers us.

Whether it is a hot air balloon ride with Mr. Peanut or a ferris wheel at a small carnival, we get a thrill when moving away from the force of gravity.

The National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario has this giant spider on display in its plaza. Maman, is a 9.27 metre (30-foot) gargantuan bronze spider created by Louise Bourgeois. She carries a sac of 20 pure white marble eggs under her belly. "Spiders, with their ability to fabricate complex and calculated webs, serve as a natural metaphor for creativity. This artist intended this sculpture to be an ode to the artist’s mother, who was a restorer of tapestries." (source)

Our efforts to reach for the skies continue to be inspired by nature, the birds, the sun, the moon and stars. Who cannot help but admire the crescent moon and Venus on a clear, cold night? So simple, so beautiful, so beyond our reach...but we can imagine.

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RateMDs

One of my coworkers forwarded me this link to RateMDs.com. The site allows patients to rate and read about their doctors and dentists in several countries including United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand and India. Comments can be made anonymously and this has invited criticism from physicians and medical associations who fear that defamatory reviews could potentially damage a doctor's career. Having worked in an allied health profession for over thirty years, I have seen the best and the worst of medical care. Most of the doctors I have worked with are top notch but it is frustrating to see physicians who get away with being consistently rude and negligent in their practice. Complaints can be made to the College of Physicians and Surgeons but I have heard of only a few instances where disciplinary action was taken and they were related to extreme cases of illegal dispensing of narcotics or inappropriate sexual behaviour with patients.

Doctors are human and can make honest mistakes. But a doctor who truly listens to the patient and is compassionate, open and personable will usually be forgiven if errors are made. The five doctors I work with right now are exemplary in all these areas. Our patients and their families have great respect for them and often say they have never had physicians who really listened to them before. We have our share of difficult patients but they also receive fair and firm treatment.


I spent some time reviewing the physicians I know on RateMD and must say the ratings were right on. Most physicians have very favourable scores and I predicted the poorly rated ones accurately. Most bad reviews were for rude bedside manners and failure to listen to the patient. I looked up Dr. Judy Paley who blogs as Femail Doc and is on my blog roll. She had a five star rating which did not surprise me in the least. And one of her patients who appreciates her sense of humour said if Dr. Paley got tired of medicine she could be a stand up comic. If you read the comments about her here, it is easy to see what patients value in a physician.

Some physicians are asking their patients to sign contracts which prohibit them from posting any information online about the care they receive. This current article from Newsday.com discusses the legal implications of the contracts and suppression of the right to free speech.

Listen... respect... explain... be compassionate...

If every physician, lawyer, nurse, physiotherapist, teacher remembered those words, there would be little to fear on a personal blog or a website like RateMDs.com. And I am about to leave a few positive comments about my doctors, particularly my family physician, orthopedic surgeon and the doctors I work with.

P.S. You can also rate Dr. Gregory House, just for fun!

Child-like Faith

Faith means being sure of the things we hope for
and knowing that something is real
even if we do not see it.

Hebrews 11:1

I was teaching the children about faith this past Sunday and played a game with them to help illustrate the concept. Each child took a turn being blindfolded and I gave them a familiar object to identify by touch. This little boy's head did not adapt well to a silk scarf, but he easily identified the sock. Some objects were less familiar and more difficult to identify. The "seeing" children wanted to blurt out the answer before the blind folded child could figure it out. I assured them that there was nothing gross or scary to be handled in this game, but in life that is not always true.

Last night the Becka and I went to see Slumdog Millionaire. The hospital had received a block of tickets and staff were offered two free admissions each. The movie was excellent, but I cannot say all of it was "enjoyable". It tore at my heart to see how the children lived in the slums of India and I had to shut out some of the images which were depicted. It is illegal here to subject our animals to the treatment these children endured, but the human spirit is strong and hope for a better life was never lost. Jamal's faith in achieving a life "not seen" persevered. People in the audience cheered at the ending, which had to be good or the movie would have been very depressing indeed.



Lyncia is a beautiful young girl who has been in our Sunday School for two years now. Her family moved here from Sri Lanka when she was in grade 5. She is very smart, fluent in two languages, and her spelling and composition in English is far ahead of other children her age in the class. She and her sister are part of a loving family who have come to Canada to seek a better life for themselves and their children. They represent the many decent, hard working people from this part of the world who will work diligently to achieve their dreams.

It is sometimes easy to become complacent and bitter and lose faith in the future. People who have suffered and sacrificed greatly to seek a yet unseen goal are often the most persevering and hopeful people I have met.

Child-like faith is something we all need to nurture throughout our lives.

March Transitions

"If March comes in like a lion it will go out like a lamb", so the old saying goes. Last year we had a big snowstorm on March 1st so the lion qualities of the day were unmistakable. A lion is fierce, strong, and can be frightening, and some of what I saw around here yesterday fit that description.

The temperatures were frigid and a strong wind blew out of the northwest. The windchill values ranged from -12 to -27 C yesterday even though the temperatures under the sun were -5 to -18 C. The Horned Larks were pecking in gravel on the sunny side of the road while the other shady side of the road still had snowbanks. Horned Larks are everywhere in the country right now but are journeying north to nest.

Another winter bird, the Rough-legged Hawk was hunting over recently exposed fields north of the city. Near Hawkesville ON we saw at least three pair of these Arctic hawks who have over wintered in the area. Like the Bald Eagles and Snowy Owls, these raptors will be headed much farther north by the middle of the month.

The legs of these large hawks are feathered all the way to their toes. Along the roadside, two of them hunted from hydro poles and I crept along the shoulder in the car to try and get a picture. As soon as I got near, they would fly to the next pole. I didn't want to aggravate them in their hunt for food so settled for one mediocre picture.

The March rivers are fearsome and the flood plains are littered with large pieces of ice as the waters broke through during a spell of mild, rainy days last week.

Near the hospital, the trails are inaccessible and huge chunks of ice have toppled signs and trail head markers.

I have not seen this much ice debris here for a long time. Many large old trees along the river here have been splintered and toppled like matchsticks by the ice.


The March lion is definitely on the prowl!

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