Limerick Day

BirdNote^®

Limerick Day – Limericks about Birds

Written by Ellen Blackstone

This is BirdNote!
May 12th is Limerick Day, the birthday of Edward Lear. Lear was an illustrator of birds and animals, and author of nonsense verse, including limericks.
In honor of Lear’s birthday, we present some limericks written about birds.
[Spring medley, garden in NE US]
Here’s one by Howard Spindel: (pronounced spin-dell′)
   And now spring has arrived, Nature's stirred.
   "The bird's on the wing," I have heard.
   Well, that drives me insane.
   If you have half a brain,
   Then you know that the wing's on the bird.
This one comes from Bob Dvorak (D’VOOR-ack) and begins to define what a bird is:
   The birds, ornithologists say,
   Have warm blood and a feathered array; 
   They stand on two legs, 
   And they breed via eggs
   That they guard with their lives night and day.
And finally, here’s the famous limerick, written by Dixon Lanier Merritt in 1910:
   A wonderful bird is the pelican.
   His bill will hold more than his belican. [Vocalization & Splash from 071205BRPEKPLU]
   He can take in his beak,
   Food enough for a week,
   I'm damned if I know how the hell he can! [Splash]
Would you like to receive stunning photos each week of the birds we’ll feature in the week ahead? If so, come to birdnote.org and sign up on the link entitled “Advance Notice.” I'm Frank Corrado.
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Bird audio provided by The Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. NE garden ambient recorded by G. F. Budney.  Brown Pelican plunge recorded by W.W.H. Gunn.
Call of the Brown Pelican recorded by Martyn Stewart, naturesound.org.
Ambient waves by Kessler Productions.
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Chris Peterson
© 2007 Tune In to Nature.org

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