Baby names and birding

It's going to be a Big Year in the family when the first baby girl is born since pteradactyl days. I'm not pinking out. I Am Not Pinking Out. My concern is baby names, and how not to alienate my daughter-in-law or her mother over this sensitive matter.

This was a Big Day as we finally realized most of the adorable birds in the garden were Yellow-rumped Warblers, Dendroica coronata. Cute as they can be. Still, I bet they wish their mom had named them something more dignified.

Just a few pages back in the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America there's another cute little bird I saw today, but it doesn't have the same issues. Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Regulus calendula, is a name a bird can proudly wear through life.

Parents were hollering for their kids to slow down. Elliott and Eustice seem like perfect names for Great-horned owls, but for human preschoolers? Elly started hollering for Eusty, too. I was sure Eusty would hack up an owl pellet.

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Up the trail a Downy Woodpecker, Picoides pubescens, was pecking away at a pergola post.

Pergola doesn't seem like such a bad baby name compared to many popular choices.

© 2014 Nancy L. Ruder