A Spotted Towhee: The Red-Eye Special

a Spotted Towhee pauses

The first time I spotted a Spotted Towhee, it was at least 10 feet up, perched high upon a tree in Van Dusen Gardens. In the midday summer afternoon, its striking red eyes caught my attention.

Compared to the Dark-Eyed Oregon Juncos, the Spotted Towhee dwarfs the bowl. I haven’t seen these ground foragers/dwellers taking food from the suet feeder–maybe they find said feeder too unwieldy for their relatively large size.

This is the closest that a Spotted Towhee has ventured to my camera, though, and for that, I am glad! These shots clearly show its red eyes, white breast bracketed on either side with splashes of reddish brown — and spots of white on

Daily Prompt: Trading Places

Tomboy (1985 film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Have I ever wondered what it would be like to be a member of the opposite sex for a day? What do I think life would be like? As a tomboy in both attitude and appearance–I eschew Barbie Dolls, My Little Ponies, and the wearing of dresses on my person, even to this day–those have been akin to burning questions all my life. (Okay, I never really warmed to cars or earthworms, though).

I’ve always thought of myself as being 50%-50% as far as “brain gender” goes, but an actual brain gender test (taken several times) revealed that my thinking patterns are 95% female (it’s much better than one of my former co-workers, who also took that same test several times, only to be informed that he thought (overwhelmingly) like a female. He was not a happy camper to hear these results. True story). Here’s a short list of what I imagine that life as a guy for a day would be like. Abject apologies to my followers

Ladybug Closeup

A seven-spot C-7 ladybug (Coccinella septempunctata) is captured walking across an interestingly textured log in Deas Island, Delta, BC.