The Canadian Record (Canadian, Tex.), Vol. 115, No. 33, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 18, 2005 Page: 30 of 40
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30
THURSDAY 18 AUGUST 2005
COMMUNITY PAGE
THE CANADIAN RECORD
The Citadel featured on new Home
& Garden Television show, 'Rezoned'
The Citadel, home of Dr. Malouf and Therese Abraham, will be featured on a new Home and
Garden Television series entitled "Rezoned." The show, which features unlikely buildings that have
been turned into homes, premieres on October 2 at 9:30p.m. ET. The Abrahams gave the show's
producer, Laney McVicker (right foreground), a recorded tour of The Citadel on August 3 sharing
interesting facts about the renovation, design and decoration of their home, which was formerly a
Baptist church. The Abrahams plan to turn The Citadel into an art gallery in the future. Information
about when the segment will be aired was not available. Also pictured in the photo are cameraman
Michael Flueck (leftforeground) and (above) Therese and Dr. Malouf Abraham.
Local NWTF chapter
to host youth event
The Canadian River chapter of the National Wild Turkey
Federation will he hosting a Texas hunters education class
August 27 & 28 at the Hemphill County Exhibition Building in
Canadian, TX.
The event is part of the NWTF's JAKES (Juniors Acquiring
Knowledge, Ethics and Sportsmanship) program. Developed in
1981, the JAKES program is dedicated to informing, educating
and involving youth in wildlife conservation and the wise
stewardship of our natural resources.
Each JAKES event focuses on conservation and outdoor
recreation, with expert instructors teaching important lessons in
wildlife management tied into a strong family-values theme.
With an emphasis on fun, the events keep kids interested while
learning.
For more information contact Jason McAnally, at 806-323-9198
or 806-255-5789.
The class will run 8:00 am - 4:00 pm Saturday with lunch being
served at 12:00 noon.
Then the final hours of class will be from l :00 pm - 4:00 pm
Sunday.
Once again do to the generosity of the community towards the
NWTF the class and lunch will be free to anyone needing the
class adult or youth.
Learning
By
Ruth Beasliy
Towhees
When I saw my first Spotted Towhee, the thing I noticed most was the deep red color
of its iris. The rest of the bird reminded me of a robin, but a very small robin. Such a bird,
I thought, would surely be easy to identify—how many red-eyed, tiny robins can there
be?!?
It was, in truth, quite easy to look through the books and discover that my red-eyed
bird was a Spotted Towhee. Towhees are the largest members of the Emberizid family,
often known as the New World Sparrows.
There are half-a-dozen kinds of towhees, but two of them are much alike, and were
long considered to be one bird instead of two. The old name for this bird was the Rufous-
sided Towhee, found across the United States.
I suspect a committee was involved when the Rufous-sided name went out the win-
dow, and its two replacements, the Spotted and the Eastern, took its place. The Eastern
Towhee occupies the eastern half of the country, and the Spotted occupies the west, an
area that includes these High Plains.
That old name was quite informative, as these towhees both have flanks, or sides—
the same brick-red color found on a robin's breast. But while a robin's breast is solid red,
the rufous is only on the sides of these two towhees, and both are white down the middle.
Imagine if you will a bird in formal attire: a bright white shirt is worn with a natty red
vest left open. Over this is a somber top-eo;at, and the bird's head and neck are completely
covered by a solid, dark hood.
The Spotted Towhee is told from its cousin the Eastern by a smattering of bright
white spots on the wings, and by its eyes, which are reliably red. (The Eastern bird
comes in both red- and white-eyed varieties.)
Spotted Towhees are solitary birds that inhabit the edges of woodlands and shrubs,
where they forage for food on the ground. They are less likely to form large floeks for
protection because their shrubby habitat gives them protection instead.
Like many sparrows, they employ a style of foraging called the "double-scratch"
method. This is a kind of moon-walk for birds, for the feet move underneath but the bird
doesn't go anywhere. It hops up and both feet jump forward and thenrake back together
in a double hop that returns the bird to a normal position. In the process, debris is raked
aside, the surface of the soil is scraped, and the bird has a chance to pounce onto anything
revealed underneath.
Towhees eat mostly insects in warm weather and mostly seeds when its cold. Such
dietary shifts can be a strain on physiology, and can result in measurable changes to the
birds. The bills of Spotted Towhees are shorter in winter and longer in summer, perhaps
beeause their diet of hard seeds wears down the bills in the colder months. Once their
diet shifts again to insects, the bills re-grow to normal length.
Another common name for the towhee is the "chewink"—a name that supposedly
describes the sound of its call. "Towhee" is also supposed to describe the call. How "che-
wink" and "towhee" came to describe the same sound, I'll never know. But perhaps
towhee describes instead that double-scratch, for the bird does hop from "toe" to
"heel"—say it fast, and you've got a towhee!
Whatever you call them, listenfor a rhythmic double-scratch in the leaves and look for
the little robin with deep red eyes. If you find one, you've got a Spotted Towhee.
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Brown, Laurie Ezzell. The Canadian Record (Canadian, Tex.), Vol. 115, No. 33, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 18, 2005, newspaper, August 18, 2005; Canadian, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth220694/m1/30/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Hemphill County Library.