Lectionary Readings Class

2026-09-04 by Rev. Fr. Robert Bower

The class will every Saturday at 3:15 pm in the undercroft of Sts. Peter and Paul Orthodox Church starting on Saturday, September 12th.

The class will study the lectionary readings for the following day, Sunday. Our first class will be studying two sets of readings:

The 15th Sunday after Pentecost

2 Corinthians 4:6-15

Matthew 22:35-46

The Synaxis of Serbian Saints

Hebrews 13:7-16

Matthew 5:14-19.

Here is a link to the Sunday readings for the rest of the year.

The pocket Serbian Calendar has the same information.

Free Ebooks from Ancient Faith

2026-02-09 by Fr. Robert

I didn't know if you are aware that you can get some free ebooks from Ancient Faith. Some are at the Ancient Faith online Store and some are from Orthodox Christian Ebooks (which is part of Ancient Faith).

The books you can get from the Ancient Faith store are:

A Life Testimony

Orthodox Worship: A Living Continuity with the Synagogue, the Temple, and the Early Church

Ancient Faith Prayer Book

Know the Faith: A Handbook for Orthodox Christians and Inquirers

The two from Orthodox Christian Ebooks are:

What Orthodox Christians Believe

The one below you need to sign up for texts alerts to get the coupon code. The link for the coupon code

Arise, O God: The Gospel of Christ’s Defeat of Demons, Sin, and Death

Birds at McKinley Terrace

2025-01-26 by Rev. Fr. Robert Bower

This page is no longer updated. Please go to Birds at McKinley for current information.

Here are the birds BirdNET-GO identified at my feeder on with a confidence greater than 0.799. Please note: These results are using AI only and not reviewed by anyone.

2025-01-26 - American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)
2025-01-26 - Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata)
2025-01-26 - European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)
2025-01-26 - House Sparrow (Passer domesticus)
2025-01-26 - Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus)
2025-01-26 - Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor)
2025-01-26 - White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis)
2025-01-25 - American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)
2025-01-25 - Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus)
2025-01-25 - Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata)
2025-01-25 - House Sparrow (Passer domesticus)
2025-01-25 - Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus)
2025-01-25 - Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis)
2025-01-25 - Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor)
2025-01-25 - White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis)
2025-01-24 - American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)
2025-01-24 - Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata)
2025-01-24 - House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus)
2025-01-24 - Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus)
2025-01-24 - Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor)
2025-01-24 - White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis)
2025-01-23 - American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)
2025-01-23 - Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus)
2025-01-23 - Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata)
2025-01-23 - Downy Woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens)
2025-01-23 - House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus)
2025-01-23 - Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus)
2025-01-23 - Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor)
2025-01-23 - White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis)
2025-01-22 - American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)
2025-01-22 - Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus)
2025-01-22 - Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata)
2025-01-22 - House Sparrow (Passer domesticus)
2025-01-22 - Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis)
2025-01-22 - Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus)
2025-01-22 - Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor)
2025-01-22 - White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis)
2025-01-21 - American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)
2025-01-21 - Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata)
2025-01-21 - Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus)
2025-01-21 - Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor)
2025-01-21 - White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis)
2025-01-20 - American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)
2025-01-20 - Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata)
2025-01-20 - Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus)
2025-01-20 - House Sparrow (Passer domesticus)
2025-01-20 - Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)
2025-01-20 - Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus)
2025-01-20 - Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor)
2025-01-20 - White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis)

Using BirdNET with a RTSP stream

2024-06-14 by Rev. Fr. Robert Bower

BirdNet is available for multiple operating systems including Linux. BirdNET is designed to work with sound files and not an audio stream. I have written a small script that creates audio files from a RTSP stream and continually sends the files to BirdNET for processing. The script can be found at https://gitlab.com/frrobert2/birdnet-addons/-/blob/main/birdnetrtsp.

Zettelkasten ID birnetrtsp-2024-06-14-1453

Barrow's Paper on the House Sparrow

2024-06-12 by Rev. Fr. Robert Bower

While new to birding, I quickly found out that house sparrows are a hot button topic. House sparrows being am invasive species in North America and aggressive towards many native species there are those who want to thin out the flock, some by passive means and some by active means. There are also those who want to let the house sparrow be. No matter which side you are on it would be helpful to reference Walter Bradford Barrow's paper,The English sparrow (Passer domesticus) in North America : especially in its relations to agriculture.

Barrow's paper was the first study about the house sparrow. In his study, he identifies the different native species of birds that are harassed by house sparrows. Many articles on the Internet mention Barrow's study and paper but most do not provide a link to the actual paper. Barrow's paper is available on archive.org at the following link, https://archive.org/details/cihm_06680/page/n5/mode/2up. Barrow's paper is really a book of 423 pages. However the section on Relation of the Sparrow to other Birds is nineteen pages.

I would suggest everyone read the section on Relation of the Sparrow to other Birds as a good background to the House Sparrow question.

Zettelkasten ID housesparrows-2024-06-12-0832