Hello folks who wonder if anyone who claims to be spiritual but does not use essential oils is an impostor,

Let's say you lead a good life. You have a stable job, friends who regularly ❤ your Instagram posts like clockwork, the Starbucks barista always remembers that your vanilla latte has exactly 5 pumps of vanilla syrup along with non-fat milk(because people raise eyebrows if you order whole milk) and you also like to complain about hipsters.

One day you post pictures of the Holiday party at work on your Instagram account. 75 ❤s and 20 comments saying "looking good!". But wait, there is one comment from a friend which says "Looking good in that outfit. You remind me of Adele". What does that mean? The pre-2020 Adele or the post-2020 Adele? You weigh yourself on the scale, you are still the same weight as you were in August. Maybe you were chunky all along and no one told you about it. No Sugar, No Fat, No Carb, No Fruit, No Taste diet from tomorrow. 

Your diet holds strong till 8 am when a colleague at work brings Chocolate iced donuts which are your favorite and you find out the company is ordering Pizza today to celebrate end of year sales. This diet is just not working, there has to be some other way. You look up "How models stay skinny?". Bulimia! That's a term you never have heard before. Google educates you that it is a magical thing, eat what you may in any quantity, excuse yourself for a bathroom break, stick your finger in your mouth, get rid of the fat, repeat. You get all of the taste, none of the guilt. 

European Starlings are the King Joffrey of the birding world. Most North American birders blame them for taking away jobs from native birds and making birds like Western Bluebirds homeless. Starlings like to hang out in large numbers and intimidate other birds and bully them. They can often be seen on top of trees singing their song or flying in tight flocks.


One lone European Starling was spotted acting a little strange. This starling was seen making it's throat muscles contract and relax rapidly and repeatedly. And it wasn't making any sounds, so I stuck around to see what it ended up doing.


Turns out, it was trying to purge some berries it had ingested earlier. And then it repeated the same thing multiple times. Was it merely bulimic or had it previously eaten something that the body did not clearly like and wanted to get rid of it. Your guess is as good as mine.


While we are on the topic of introduced birds in North America, one bird that escapes the attention of birders is also the one that is found in almost every urban area. Give it up for "House Sparrows". *crowd boos.


You see, these sparrows get a lot of flack because their ancestors were not born in the land of the free and the home of the brave. But next time take a closer look and you will see why they are so successful.

House sparrows unlike other birds are not picky in their diet. They will eat everything from grains, seeds, Funyuns, Doritos to insects. Most birds spend a good chunk of their day searching for food, but not these birds. A crew(that is what a group of house sparrows is called) is seen hanging out just outside the San Jose Diridon Station which has major bus and train connections and hence a lot of commuters waiting to board their bus or train. With time to kill, bags of chips or crackers magically come out of the backpack to combat the boredom. And since no one is watching these adult humans, they will munch on their snacks like a 2 year old with a bowl of Lucky Charms cereal. They do this since no one is watching them and judging. They couldn't be more wrong.

House Sparrows watch all the activity from the rooftop of the building silently judging the dining etiquette of travelers.


When the travelers leave to catch their connection, these sparrows swoop in so that the crew can start their heist. A true clean-up crew eh?


Another thing I noticed about these sparrows is how toilet-trained they were. So keep that in mind the next time you rave about how your dog or cat can poop in their litter box. Seen below is a female sparrow using the public waste bin for disposing of her waste.

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