24
Wednesday, October 21, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Sisters Country birds
By Douglas Beall
Correspondent
The
Common
Yellowthroat [Geothlypis
trichas] is a warbler
that inhabits many envi-
rons, from low swamps
to 6,000-foot-elevation
streams. Its <witchity,
witchity, witchity= call can
be heard all along Central
Oregon rivers. One of the
first warblers to arrive in
spring, it behaves in a wren-
like fashion as it flits about
through low vegetation.
The male displays to the
female during courtship
by flicking wings and tail,
following her closely, and
performing a flight display,
flying up to 25 to 100 feet
in the air and returning to
another low perch, calling
and singing. A low-lying
nest is built and three to
six creamy black spotted
eggs are laid and incubated
for 12 days and the young
fledge in 8-10 days. Often
two broods are raised dur-
ing the summer.
Their diet is mostly
insects: grasshoppers;
dragonflies; damselflies;
mayflies; beetles; grubs;
cankerworms; and other
caterpillars. The Common
Yellowthroat was one the
earliest described birds dur-
ing the European human
migration. Originally named
the Maryland Yellowthroat,
its genus name, Geothlypis,
means ground finch which
helps to describe its feeding
habits.
Warblers are referred
to as a <wrench,= <bou-
quet,= <confusion,= or a
<fall= of warblers. For more
Common Yellowthroat pho-
tos visit http://abirdsings
becauseithasasong.com/
recent-journeys.
PHOTO BY DOUGLAS BEALL
The call of the Common Yellowthroat can be heard along Central
Oregon riverbanks.
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Commentary...
My hour with RBG
By Dan Glode
Columnist
A few years after I
left the Lincoln County
DA9s office I went to
work for the American
Bar Association9s Central
European and Eurasian Law
Initiative (CEELI), now
called ABA ROLI (Rule of
Law Initiative). I lived and
worked in Moscow for a
few years. The program had
expanded well beyond cen-
tral Europe and Eurasia and
was involved in democracy
and institution-building pro-
grams around the world.
In 2006 I was the coun-
try director for Russia. That
year, all CEELI countries
submitted candidates for
our annual HumanRights
Advocate of the year
award. Our candidate, Yuri
Schmidt, won the award
that year. Yuri (who died in
2013) was a human rights
attorney and advocate and
he had defended dissidents
from the 1970s to the day
he died. Not an easy task
during Soviet times and in
modern Russia. He was on
the legal team for Mikhail
Khodorovsky the Yukos Oil
magnate who challenged
Vladimir Putin for the presi-
dency and who was subse-
quently sent to a Siberian
prison for some trumped-up
tax-evasion charges.
The annual meeting was
in Istanbul that year and we
were set to present the award
to Yuri but at the last min-
ute he became ill and could
not make the journey. It was
decided that I would accept
the award on his behalf and
present it to him at the St.
Petersburg Bar Association
a few months later. By a
stroke of luck there was an
international conference for
appellate and supreme court
justices in Istanbul at the
same time and Justice Ruth
Bader Ginsburg was asked
to present the award to Yuri.
I was charged with draft-
ing some biographical/
background remarks about
Yuri for Justice Ginsburg9s
presentation. I have to admit
that although I didn9t get
rattled too often at that stage
of my life I was a bit rattled
that day. I did the best I
could. Justice Ginsburg met
me about a half hour or so
before the presentation to go
over her remarks.
She came in and extended
her hand and we shook. We
then sat down alone for a
time before the event. She
must have recognized my
nervousness immediately as
she put her hand on my arm
and told me to tell her about
me. She seemed genuinely
interested in my life and
asked questions while all
the while maintaining direct
eye contact. She put me to
ease immediately. We then
reviewed the biographical
material I had prepared on
Yuri. She asked a range of
questions about Yuri and
took the remarks I had pre-
pared and marked them up
and scribbled in the margins.
She was amazing at
quizzing me while glean-
ing all the information she
could. A skill I assumed she
honed from many years on
the bench. It was an amaz-
ing back-and-forth dialogue,
both pointed and direct. She
got a great deal of infor-
mation from me in a short
amount of time. Thankfully
I was able to answer all her
questions.
When it came time for the
presentation I realized my
assumption that she would
read from my remarks was
entirely incorrect. While
my remarks gave pertinent
information she added a
depth of emotion and under-
standing about just who
Yuri Schmidt was and what
he stood for. Her passion
for human rights advocacy
came through very clearly.
She added a depth I could
only imagine. She spoke
from the heart, her heart.
We then walked out of
the room for the coffee
break of the session. I went
to get her coffee and when
I returned she was stand-
ing next to Justice Antonin
Scalia. He had also attended
the justices9 conference. I
felt a little speechless but
it did not matter. They both
carried on and included me.
They allowed me to bask
in the moment and I did.
Sometimes you can tell in
a brief encounter if people
are friends. They certainly
were. Some lucky and tal-
ented people have a facility
for making everyone feel
comfortable regardless of a
person9s station in life. They
certainly did.
As I get older I am,
frankly, hard to impress.
Justice Ginsburg certainly
impressed me in so many
ways. She was a cut above
4 a large cut above 4 the
rest of us.