#field guides

[Image Description: A digital drawing of Splashheart from the Warrior cats books. He is a gray cat with orange eyes and a huge tail. Half of his head, splash marks on his front paws, his back, an upside down heart shape on his hind leg, and tail are dark gray. He is posed with one paw out, as if splashing water. Above his back “Splashheart” is written in orange. End description.]

“[Splashheart] would catch the plumpest fish he could find in memory of Aspentail and take it straight to the elders’ den. And if he ever became leader of his Clan, he would make it part of the warrior code that elders and kits should be fed first, in honor of all they had done, and all they would do, for his Clanmates to come.”

Splashheart is a dark gray tom with amber eyes.

[Image Description: A digital drawing of Yellowstar from the Warrior Cats book Code of the Clans. Yellowstar is a yellow cat with ripped ears, scars over their left eye, and a yellow eye. On their chest is a marking shaped like the top of a star. Their tail, chest marking, face and ears are darker yellow. They are sitting. Above their tail “Yellowstar” is written in yellow. End Description.]

Yellowstar is a cat.

notes:

- according to su susann, yellowstar was a very pale cream she-cat with green eyes. Her fur sometimes look yellow in light.

A Hawkish Fearthursday

With what is going on in the world today, a few of us are feeling a little hawkish, but instead of acting on these feelings in some bellicose way, we’ve decided to channel that angst into these images of lovely North American raptors. These are color lithographs from our 1907 edition of Bird-Life, A Guide to the Study of our Common Birds, by American ornithologist Frank M. Chapman, with illustrations by the English-Canadian-American wildlife artist Ernest Thompson Seton, published in New York by D. Appleton and Company. Shown here from top to bottom:

1. American Kestrel(Falco sparverius), identified here as a Sparrow Hawk.
2. Red-shouldered Hawk(Buteo lineatus).
3. Northern Harrier (Circus hudsonius), identified here as a Marsh Hawk.
4. Sharp-shinned Hawk(Accipiter striatus).
5. Osprey(Pandion haliaetus).

While all are “hawkish,” their familial relationships aren’t always straightforward. Of the birds shown here, all are in the order of Accipitriformes, except for the American Kestrel which is in the entirely separate order of Falconiformes. The rest are in the family Accipitridae, except the Osprey, which is in the family Pandionidae. Of the remaining Accipritidae in this group, all are in different sub-families and genera and … oh the family politics!

We just hope that your own hawkishness is spent contemplating the beauty and grace of this very diverse group of birds.

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