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Minority Diversity in Medicine
The featured image for this post is that of a Painted Lady butterfly, one beautiful member of a hugely diverse group of such creatures. It reminded me of the state of our physician supply, which is not so very diverse when it comes to inclusion of minorities. Even though I’m moving into the final year…
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Spring, A Time for Optimism
This is the season for optimism and milestones: graduating medical students and residents, new faculty from the graduating resident class—including the milestone of getting the suspicious looking postcard notice in the mail reminding me that I’ll soon be eligible for open enrollment in Medicare. No kidding, I got my first ever Medicare Open Enrollment postcard…
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Saga of the Nestlings
Recall that the house finch nestlings were taken by a marauding crow yesterday. The house finch parents were frantic and devastated for about an hour. Although the crow flew by a second time, it didn’t return. The reason why was clear today. The nest is still in the tree but it’s obviously a wreck. We…
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Marauding Crow Snatches Nestlings
I was sitting at my desk by the front window where we often watch the house finches come and go from their nest. It was just a couple of days ago that 3 baby house finches were squirming about in the nest. I kept hearing a strange noise outside the window. It sounded like a…
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The Bird Saga
The bird saga continues and it has been a little rocky. The cardinals are having an up and down course with their young. They lost a chick. One egg was laid a bit late and so the two chicks remaining are vastly different in size. The house finches are hatching. So far there were two…
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The Groundhog Effect
Last year, we noticed a groundhog waking up and bulldozing our back yard, even though snow was forecast that day. It’s pretty good at just putting its head down and pushing through almost anything in its path including leaves, sticks, small rocks, flowers, and so on. Their single-minded digging has helped uncover bones and pottery…
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What’s Up with the Birds?
Since my last post about our birds, we’ve had some new developments. The robins actually have a pretty fine nest now under our deck. I managed to get a blurry snapshot of mama robin actually sitting in the nest. I’ve also caught sight of a portly male cavorting with her on our porch rail. Early…
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Spring
I’m coming up on my last 3 days for the academic year and reflecting now that my favorite season is upon us. Spring does that to me, especially now that I’ve been in the phased retirement contract for the last 2 years. I’ll be going into the 3rd and final year as of July. I…
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OK, Maybe Robins Can Build Nests Anywhere
I’ve been making fun of birds who build funny-looking and impractical nests. Maybe I’ve been wrong about the robins, though. My wife alerted me by phone that the robin I joked about in my YouTube video, “Nest Building for Bird Brains,” had actually cobbled together a convincing nest underneath our deck. I couldn’t believe it.…
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Bird Brains Building Nests
I just can’t figure how some birds ever get the nest-building job done. It’s mind-boggling how clueless some of them are. And it’s no wonder—they’re all bird brains trying to figure out something that they obviously don’t have much more than bare instinct to go on. Robins are some of the worst nest builders around.…
Go Retire Psychiatrist 