Kindle Vella and How it Works
Amazon’s Kindle Vella is a new platform designed for reading serialized content (Novels, Novellas, Short Fiction, and Non-Fiction). Each “Episode” is from 600 to 5000 words. The first three episodes of all Kindle Vellas are free to read on any device (format favors mobile devices). After that, you must purchase tokens at about a penny each to unlock additional episodes, and two dollars buys you about 20,000 words.
Brush Country Rambles is a series of nature essays written by Karen L. P. Benson. Karen is a Texas Master Naturalists and has a unique perspective about the South Texas Brush Country she loves. She takes you along as she “rambles” through one of the most diverse habitats north of the Rio Grande River. I’ve included the first essay here with a link to additional essays on the Vella platform. Please get in touch with me if you have questions. I’m happy to help. Robert.
Essay 01 – Red Pop-Green Pop
If you haven’t seen a Painted Bunting, you probably have seen a photo. Painted Buntings are the quintessential “calendar” bird.
This avian jewel is, without a doubt, Texas’ most colorful bird. Its striking blue heads, red eye-ring, vivid red underparts, and a lime green back make them almost gaudy. You’d think they would stand out like sore thumbs! But surprisingly, they are often hard to see.
Hard to see? How can this be? The colors themselves may, in some lights, be deceptive. The rich purple-blue of the head is the color of shadows, and the lime green of the back is the exact shade of sunlight on a fresh green leaf. In addition, there is the concept of “disruptive coloration.” The human eye sees each block of color on the bird as a distinct shape. So when you first glimpse a Painted Bunting, you see a blue circle, a lime-green oblong, and a red crescent. Initially, these shapes don’t register in the brain like a bird outline, so you don’t recognize them as a bird. This momentary “disruption” of the bird outline serves as a kind of camouflage. This camouflage is even more effective when seen embedded in a tree’s sunny leaves and shadows.
Fortunately for birders, the male Painted Bunting prefers to sing from an exposed branch or treetop. With patience, you can get a good look at him. It helps to know the song to pinpoint him by ear until your eye picks him out. The song is a simple, reedy warble that is easily recognized once you’ve heard it a few times.
Several times I have observed a Painted Bunting singing from a power line. Out in the open like that, he was easy to see even with his disruptive coloration. Oddly, though, I once saw an all-green bird singing the Painted Bunting song. Female Painted Buntings do not sing, so this had to be a young male. The female and young male Painted Buntings are leaf green. It takes newly fledged male Painted Buntings several molts (over two years) to acquire the bright adult colors.
What could be the advantage of a male looking like a female? Researchers have postulated that these first-year males are mature enough to breed. The fully plumaged males overlook these “females” and do not run them off. The young males have a chance to sneak into an older male’s territory and form a temporary liaison with the resident female. Thus, a first-year male gets a headstart on breeding. Plus, the hard-working and unwitting older male raises the intruder’s offspring for him!
Our grandparents called Painted Buntings “wild canaries.” Indeed, in the 1800s, the buntings were kept as cage birds for a while. Like canaries, they can subsist on a diet of seeds. (Nestlings require protein-rich insects for growth, however.) And like canaries, their songs are pleasing and their colors brilliant. So it is not surprising that Painted Buntings were offered for sale in some large city markets. Trappers most often captured young birds just off the nest. Enterprising vendors usually didn’t want to keep the birds until their adult plumage was attained, so they offered them as “pops.” When your new pet molted, you either had a “red pop” or a “green pop,” depending on the sex of the bird. There must have been a certain thrill in the waiting and the surprise!
This experience must have been an entertaining pastime for the well-to-do in the slower-paced world of the nineteenth century. But it isn’t possible to have a caged Painted Bunting today, and keeping native wild birds in captivity is not legal in this country.
Since 1965, the USF&W Breeding Bird Surveys have shown a steady decline in Painted Bunting populations in the US. Habitat loss seems to be the primary reason for the drop in numbers, particularly in the east coast populations. In Texas, however, the reason for the decline is less apparent. Graduate Student Stephanie Prosser recently completed a study of the Painted Bunting populations in San Patricio County. Her findings indicated that the buntings preferred a habitat rich in mesquite trees and that the birds are generally thriving in South Texas. Her surveys led her to estimate a population of over 800,000 breeding pairs in the Texas Gulf Coast region!
Aren’t we lucky to be living in an area full of mesquite trees and gorgeous Painted Buntings?
Click here to read more free essays. This link takes you to the Amazon Kindle Vella page. Vella is kind of cool!