Good thoughts requested

I'm taking Mickey to the vet on Saturday for his repeat bloodwork. Here's hoping those liver enzymes are back down to normal levels.

If it turns out to be Something, let it be curable/manageable.

Anyway, all finger crossings appreciated.

Good thoughts requested

I'm taking Mickey to the vet on Saturday for his repeat bloodwork. Here's hoping those liver enzymes are back down to normal levels.

If it turns out to be Something, let it be curable/manageable.

Anyway, all finger crossings appreciated.

Starlings sing songs with pauses and clauses

Starlings can apparently insert clauses into existing songs, thus embellishing them. The best singers get the girls, apparently. Gee, that's a shocker.

A karentraviss sort of story

Mark Spreyer, a starling expert and director of the Alexander Stillman Nature Center in South Barrington, said he is not surprised that starlings can recognize complex rules of grammar.

"Our intelligence tests for birds were from a mammalian point of view," he said. "We were trying to run IBM software on a Mac. Now that we're getting a better handle on how to test for bird intelligence, some of these discoveries won't sound as shocking as they might have 10 years ago."


rest of story here (Registration required):

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0604270215apr27,1,5918663.story?coll=chi-news-hed

Starlings sing songs with pauses and clauses

Starlings can apparently insert clauses into existing songs, thus embellishing them. The best singers get the girls, apparently. Gee, that's a shocker.

A karentraviss sort of story

Mark Spreyer, a starling expert and director of the Alexander Stillman Nature Center in South Barrington, said he is not surprised that starlings can recognize complex rules of grammar.

"Our intelligence tests for birds were from a mammalian point of view," he said. "We were trying to run IBM software on a Mac. Now that we're getting a better handle on how to test for bird intelligence, some of these discoveries won't sound as shocking as they might have 10 years ago."


rest of story here (Registration required):

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0604270215apr27,1,5918663.story?coll=chi-news-hed