{"id":6320,"date":"2012-09-13T09:12:01","date_gmt":"2012-09-13T16:12:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=6320"},"modified":"2012-09-13T09:32:01","modified_gmt":"2012-09-13T16:32:01","slug":"seeing-the-unfamiliar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=6320","title":{"rendered":"Seeing the unfamiliar"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>While rummaging through a bookstore nearly a half century ago, I discovered an interesting paperback. It was an English edition of the 1937 Dutch book by Marcel\u00a0Minnaert:\u00a0<em>Light and Colour in the Open Air<\/em>. I read it, reread it, and gleaned many insights to interpreting nature.<\/p>\n<p>A striking point he made in the preface was that:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>However remarkable it may seem, it remains a fact that we do not observe much more than the things we are already familiar with; it is very difficult to see something new, even if it stares us in the face. In ancient times and in the Middle Ages, innumerable eclipses of the sun were observed, and yet the corona was hardly noticed until 1842, although nowadays it is regarded as the most striking phenomenon of an eclipse and may be seen by anyone with the naked eye. In this book, I have tried to collect and draw to your attention all those things that in the course of time have become known through the activities of many outstanding and able naturalists.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Minnaert&#8217;s book did not talk about birds (he was an astronomer), but his remarks are certainly applicable to my recent observations of four unfamiliar birds. Although none is uncommon, each was new to me and I had to seek help to identify two of them.<\/p>\n<p>It is just rather difficult to see something new.<\/p>\n<p>Nashville Warbler<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-6324\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/nashvillewarbler120906as.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Female Yellow-rumped Warbler<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-6323\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/yellowrumpedwarblerF120906s.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>American Pipit<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-6322\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/pipit120907as.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Savannah Sparrow<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-6321\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/savannahsparrow120907bs.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; While rummaging through a bookstore nearly a half century ago, I discovered an interesting paperback. It was an English edition of the 1937 Dutch book by Marcel\u00a0Minnaert:\u00a0Light and Colour in the Open Air. I read it, reread it, and &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=6320\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birds","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6320"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6326,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6320\/revisions\/6326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}