A Zoom in the Hand Is Worth a Bird in the Bush Weekly Link Round-Up

This is one of those rare weeks when I really don't have a thing to talk about. I'm just enjoying the summer. Reading some wonderful books out in the shady end of the pool. Enjoying having an air conditioner that works. Sitting outside in the evenings to listen to the fountain and watch the colors change on the solar ornaments. Rough, I know.

My first Phainopepla

The photo I'm sharing with you this week isn't the best in the world, but it just goes to show how handy a good zoom is on a camera. This bright-eyed, top-knotted bird is a juvenile Phainopepla-- the first one I've ever seen-- and Daisy and I saw it at the Desert Botanical Garden. You can see some of the downy feathers that are still clinging to it. It may not be a good photo, but it was good enough to enable me to get an identification.

Phainopeplas ("silky flycatchers") are interesting birds in that they breed twice each year in two different habitats. Here in the desert, they're territorial loners defending their nests from all comers, and gorging on up to 1,100 mistletoe berries each day (if they're available... and I wonder who counted the berries...). In woodlands, as many as four nesting pairs can share one large tree. I was tickled to be able to see one at last.

But I'd better stop bird watching and start link sharing. The corral is packed, and they're getting restless. Head 'em up! Moooooooove 'em out!

►Books, Movies & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• How a Portuguese-to-English phrasebook became a cult comedy sensation. 
• How do board games go viral? 
• Mark Rylance dines at Buckingham Palace in a BFG movie clip. 
• Miss Havisham: a history. 
• Everything you wanted to know about book sales but were afraid to ask. 
• Gone With the Wind star Olivia de Havilland talks with People on her 100th birthday.
• Penguin Random House raises $44,000 to support literacy. 
• Women, stop apologizing for reading "women's novels." 
• The world's oldest library has reopened. 
• What does "Kafkaesque" really mean? 
• The bestseller code: the words that make a successful book.
• If you find a pile of books on a bridge, this is why.
• The USS Enterprise boldly goes from the Smithsonian's basement into the main gallery. 
• What kind of writer are you: cook or baker? 
• The female superhero is finally here. 
• In the UK, it's still legal to place people in the stocks. 
• The deaths behind famous poets.

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• A rare Thomas Jefferson letter railing against England has been discovered in an attic trove.
• Lindisfarne monastery evidence has been found by an amateur archaeologist. 
• A Las Vegas collector has stumbled upon an historic copy of the Declaration of Independence. 
• A new project has uncovered ancient games amd gladiators through the graffiti of the fans. 
• The obsessive treasure hunters who travel the world with metal detectors. 
• Teams excavating toilets flush out thousands of 18th-century artifacts. 
• A faked Scottish masterpiece is at the center of a gallery riddle. 
• Would you like some salt and pepper? How about 80,000 shakers' worth?
• Bavaria sold Nazi looted art back to Nazis.
• A tunnel used by Jewish prisoners to escape the Nazis has been found in Lithuania. 
• A "fairy godmother" in Boston left a hat box filled with valuable 100-year-old baseball cards in a closet. 
• An ancient trove of silver has been unearthed in Scotland. 
• At age 89, the Spirit of St. Louis has given up some long-held secrets.
• Ancient baby teeth are revealing secrets of a Polynesian empire.  

►Channeling My Inner Elly Mae Clampett◄

• Nonstop flight: How the frigatebird can soar for weeks without stopping.  
• Ranger cries when Grand Canyon tourists ignorantly "help" a fawn. 
• Skomer Island in Wales is a wildlife paradise and one of the world's most important habitats for burrow nesting seabirds.

►The Happy Wanderer◄

• The UK's Daily Mail talks about the incredible gardens you can visit around the world... and one of them is right here in Phoenix. 
• YES!!!! A section of Route 66 will become America's first public solar road. 
• The secret apartments of New York libraries. 
• Streamliner trains that oozed the elegance of Old World travel. 
• The real "No-Go Zone" of France. 
• Plan a Back-40 getaway at one of these four exceptional farm stays. 
• I was recently introduced to the excellent blog Where Five Valleys Meet through these wonderful photos of the English Lake District. 
• Seven U.S. national parks you can visit where famous movies were filmed. 
• A bookstore that wanders: Dylans Mobile Bookstore.

►A Few Fascinating Folk◄

• Victor Lemoine, the unknown French horticulturist who made lilacs happen. 
• Linda Cox, the woman who blew up the glass ceiling. 
• Baron Franz Nopcsa, whom history forgot, discovered dinosaurs and died penniless. 
• Childhood leukemia was a death sentence... until Dr. Don Pinkel. 
• Richard Dunning, the son of a bus mechanic, preserves a hallowed crater from World War I. 

►I ♥ Lists◄

• Five literary politicians we wish could be president. 
• An illustrated guide to the best places to read with children. 
• Eight literary gardens to escape to this summer. 
• The top ten children's books set in New York City.

That's all for this week! Don't forget to stop by next Friday when I'll be sharing a freshly selected batch of links for your surfing pleasure.

Have a great weekend, and read something fabulous!