Birds, Books and Bourbon

So I am actually doing it, the scientist non-writer is starting a blog. The one who still insists on reading paperbooks and hardcovers, the feel of paper between my fingertips a tangible part of the immersive experience. In 2020, coming home from work hoarse after a day of conversing through unfamiliar face coverings, the stress of worrying about illnesses and loved ones heavy on my mind… I turned to the peaceful outdoors of our backyard deck in North Carolina for salvation.

The above Budgerigar is named Pablo. He/she is indeed one of our backyard birds, we assume an escaped captive who is enjoying the free life. Pablo has now been visiting for just over 30 days. We have slowly been earning trust. Hopefully we will be able to gently guide him/her inside before winter comes.

This week we were presented with a pair of summer tanagers. Summer tanagers are a medium sized songbird known for their appetite for bees and wasps. They avoid being stung by catching them in flight and then bringing them back to a tree and beating them to death on a branch, removing the stinger by rubbing on the bark before ingesting the insects. Touche, tanagers. Tanagers will also supplement their insectivorous diet with fruit, though it looked like this male took a mouthful of our peanut woodpecker suet, containing nuts and beef fat. To each his own. Though now that I think about it, we have not been seeing a lot of bees around with the odd cool weather this Spring.

Though Bourbon is my preferred spirit, I will occasionally dabble with other liquors in my cocktails in future blogs. For today’s cocktail, we are going to go with the classic Old Fashioned with a twist. Not a lemon twist, though you could certainly add one as a garnish. The classic Old Fashioned involves whiskey, sugar, and angostura bitters usually served over a large ice mold/cube in a rocks glass. For this version, I substituted Elderflower liqueur (St. Germain) for the sweetener. I used a North Carolina bourbon from Weldon Mills Distillery. We visited a few months ago and were very impressed by the quality and scope of the products from such a young distillery. While they specialize in Bourbon, they also have a variety of other spirits including whiskey, vodka, gin, and tequila, along with flavored varieties.

Now gather the ingredients: bourbon/ whiskey of choice, elderflower liqueur (or simple syrup/ sugar for a classic cocktail), bitters (Angostura is classic but you can mix it up). Ideally also have a mixing glass or cocktail shaker, a rocks glass, cherries, lemon peel and cocktail skewer. Those cherries are super delicious and can be obtained on Amazon. I have no Amazon affiliation and get absolutely no compensation from this at this time. 😛

Finally, I paired my unique songbirds and Old Fashioned with the prequel to the Hunger Games trilogy: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, soon to be a major motion picture. This is the story of how a young Coreolanus Snow, a Capitol student, tasked to mentor a tribute in the games, became the sadistic president we all love to hate. Enjoy and watch out for the snakes. And remember, please drink responsibly 🙂