Say's Phoebe

Say's Phoebe
Lake Del Valle, Livermore, California, USA
October 2015
Member of the Flycatcher Family
§A Zapper of Flycatchers (dubious)§

~true bird fact~ Say's Phoebes are really tough and love dry, arid, desolate landscapes. They live the furthest north of any Flycatcher, and would probably go even further if they could. The only thing stopping them is a lack of places to nest, and humans are helping with that. They breed even north of the treeline, using the Alaska pipeline as a place to build their nests.


Harbors a great amount of guilt for some past action
Finds beauty in unexpected places
Prefers to speak minimally
Makes good money, but always sends it 'home' to some unknown end


...

Thomas Say

1787-1834

An American self-taught, naturalist-of-all-trades, Thomas Say was actually best known for his work in Entomology (Insects) and Conchology (Shells). So well known, in fact, that he is known as the father of descriptive entomology. Say had a brief, but exciting life, helping to found the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, making expeditions into the previously uncharted territory of the Rocky Mountains and islands off the coast of Georgia and Florida, (...well, uncharted by white people), and eventually marrying the first female member of the American Academy of Sciences, Lucy Way Sistare. He met Lucy when he lived in an experimental Utopian socialist society called New Harmony, that he arrived at via a barge that was called "The Boatload of Knowledge" at the time. You probably want to read about this, because it's incredible. He died of typhoid fever at 47, having deliberately avoided making any money from his work, much to the detriment of his family.