odditudes-and-weirdities

Holidays today are about kids "shadowing" someone working during the day, coaching/mentoring African Americans, changing your windshield wipers, playing the ukulele, kiwi fruit, crepes, heavenly hash dessert, tater tots,an important delivery via sled dogs, ostriches, wetlands, and predicting the timing of spring using groundhogs/marmots/hedgehogs: World Wetlands Day World Ostrich Day Sled Dog Day Play Your Ukulele Day National Tater Tot Day National Change Your Windshield Wipers Day Marmot Day Hedgehog Day Heavenly Hash Day Groundhog Job Shadow Day Groundhog Day Crepe Day California Kiwifruit Day African American Coaches Day Sled Dog Day recognizes the dog sled teams that delivered diphtheria antitoxin serum 700 miles to Nome, Alaska on this date in 1925. It's that time again when us Northern Hemisphereans try and decipher the start of spring by observing the behavior of critters like Marmots, Hedgehogs, and (especially in the US) Groundhogs (aka Woodchucks). Photo by Abi...

Here's a holiday you might see on Facebook but isn't documented in very many places: World Ostrich Day . Ostriches are ratites , just like Emus, Cassowaries, Kiwis, and Rheas. Ostriches are big; they can be over 9 feet tall and weigh more than 340 pounds. No land animal has bigger eyes, and no living bird lays bigger eggs. And they're relatively fast, able to sprint at 43 mph and run longer distances at 34 mph. There are 2 extant species, the Common Ostrich and the Somali Ostrich . Taxonomy isn't an exact science; the Somali used to be considered a subspecies of Common Ostrich, suggesting that there's not vast differences between the 2 species. (Apparently the Somali has a bluish neck and thighs, especially in the males.) The Common Ostrich still has 4 subspecies, at least for the moment. Today is a day to celebrate these impressive birds. Photo by John-Paul Rowe on Unsplash