Hiccup comes in the middle of my interview with Archie

I spent most of the afternoon doing an interview with Archie Ahkiviana, who told me about his history and how his and 26 other families snowmachined over from Barrow to make anew the village of Nuiqsut in their ancestral homeland, lived in tents for 18 months but loved it and thrived in temperatures that dropped into the -60's. As a small child, he and his family had to move from their home on the coast when it became law that all children go to school, so off to Barrow they went.

Suddenly, I heard a flutter of wings. It was Hiccup, the cockatiel. Archie told me about two parrots he said drowned after they got dirty and then were given a bath. His daughter who is an EMT was present. She put a straw down each of their throats and performed CPR on them. "Then they were alive again," Archie recalled.

I step outside and find a seemingly stranded baby robin

I stepped outside and found this baby robin, just beyond the porch, near the front left tire of the car. It sat immobile, turning its head a little bit, occasionally opening its beak as if asking for food, but otherwise not moving. Usually, in such a situation one can expect the parent robins to start raising a fuss, to try to draw you away from their baby. But there were no parent robins in sight. I listened carefully but could hear no adult robins. I looked all around but could see no other robins.

I told Margie and brought her out to see. She said she had heard some robins earlier in the morning, on the wires in the northwest corner of the yard. I did not know what to do. It appeared the baby robin was helpless and that the parents had given up on it and abandoned it. But I did not know this for sure. There was nothing I could do for the baby robin but leave it alone and hope its parents came back for it. I took a couple of pictures, but did not touch it. Then I left it alone.

I checked back an hour later. The baby robin was gone. I could hear an adult robin chirping somewhere in the trees in the front yard. I do not know what happened. I hope it turned out okay and that the baby robin will get a chance to grow and to try to survive in this harsh world. I have no way to know.

Maybe a cat got it. Not one of my cats. Chicago never goes outside and I have not let Jim go out for weeks, precisely because I knew robins had nested in the yard. When he does go out, I chaperone him every minute.

I accept an invitation to dine with gulls; Kalib goes to jail, Jobe claims a moose, Lynx opens a door and other wild tales from the past week

I just got another call from Seagull Dan. He wants me to join them again for lunch. I don't think I

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I goof up and so make an unintended post: The dove; Mahatma Ghandi in his own words; the pigeon

This is not what I intended to post tonight at all. Nor did I intend to include it anywhere in my year end wrap-up, which I am

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