My first clinical rotation is finished and I arrived in Melville last night in the midst of pouring rain and cloudy skies. The drive to Melville was one of the most bizarre drives, with periods of absolutely beautiful blue skies, sunshine and temperatures in the mid twenties and then only minutes down the highway - complete torrential downpour, thunder&lightning and clouds as dark as the night! A pattern that repeated about 3 times from one end of the province to the other!
Tonight my brother drove in from New Brunswick and we invited my grandparents over for dinner and a game of cards. I tried my hand at lemon meringue squares, really nothing fancy (Dr. Oetker; Shirriff Lemon Meringue), but what I wanted a go at, was whipping the egg whites!
The reviews were good! And some even dove in for seconds!
While the meringue was setting in the fridge, we found this little guy outside on the lawn! This is a Northern Flicker or Colaptes auratus native to North America, Central America, Cuba and the Cayman Islands (Wikipedia). It has many common names including yellowhammer, heigh-ho or wick-up to mimic it's colours or bird call.
Above you can clearly see the red "V" distinctive to the back of its neck and below, if you zoom in, the distinctive yellow colour under its tail. The Northern Flicker also has a thick black band across the breast and for males, a red or black spot along the beak which mimics a moustache!
Wikipedia tells us that they consume ants as a major source of their diet, up to 45%! Which is great for us, because that is one less ant that will make it's way into the house!
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