Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for February 24, 2015

Nobody tell Dick, the Bachman warbler will outlast him — barely.

Some of GBTs best stuff.

Probably not, some gun nut’s probably killed them all by now.

It wouldn’t be until six years later that Dick would photograph a Bachman’s Warbler. Unfortunately, it was the last thing he ever did.

What was the original date of this strip?

Tell your friend to ‘take a picture’, it’ll last longer than both of you. Now go back to sleep.

Strip aired in 81 that would place him over 100 now. Did he ever get to see the Bachman’s warbler?

Right, Obama’s coming in a black helicopter to seize your precious guns and take you to a FEMA camp. If I were you, I’d stay up all night, every night, with your guns aimed at the door.

Remind me not to let the artist ever draw my nose on my face. I’d hate to see what he would come up with.

For those keeping score, there are actually >900 species of wild birds in NA, including the aforementioned Bachman’s Warbler.

I was thinking the same thing. I wnder if they’ll sue for copyright violation.

In my almost 80 years, I only once spotted a Red-headed, Heavy-breasted Mattress Thrasher and before I could get my camera out she drove away.

" If some of you have your way, pretty soon it won’t be safe to carry them in the back window of my truck"You make me feel sooooo safe knowing people that are not amenable to rational argument are running around with plenty of firepower. Just out of curiosity, do you really think that any weapon you have access to is really a deterrent to a government bent on enslaving you? You get it that their armament is several orders of magnitude above anything you can field, right? And that is not even counting nukes. Frankly, anyone who thinks that arms are going to further democracy at this stage of history is not playing with a full deck, imo. Why is that any different than other (religious) fundies who try to impose their will on others by force? The U.S. government was set up in such a way that we have extensive recourse to preserve our rights without killing and, given the state of technology, fighting against the government is certain to end with (a presumed “dictatorial”) government not only winning, but using any uprising a means of further denying private rights. Given that, doesn’t that make anyone planning to “defend” themselves in such a way more of a problem than an asset to freedom?Moreover, there are many who would say that our freedoms are more encroached upon be the corporate world, aided by unbridled capitalism, than by any governmental overreach. I don’t see much outrage at this loss to our democratic freedoms by the same people who would “fight the government to the bitter end”. Seems awfully blinkered, to me.

I have no illusions about my words mattering. Indeed, I am not at all sure what should matter to people at this stage of things, but sometimes, I just need to spout off…

I’m a little surprised no-one has brought up what seems to be a major source of losing birds: people see one on their property, have a (not unfounded) fear that they will never be able to do anything with their property again, kill the bird, and bury the evidence..Apparently, in some (prime habitat) areas, it’s common wisdom that this is what you have to do when you spot one on your property..I’ve seen quite a few articles about this; Google it yourself..As my child can tell you: every law has more unintended than intended consequences.

Ain’t foreshadowing a mature female dog?