Last Broods

Daylight hours are getting shorter.  Leaves are dusky and some isolated ones are turning.  Apples and grapes are ripe and mornings are a bit cooler and crisp.  Yes, Autumn is coming.  And with it we are seeing the last broods of our birds.  There may be a few lingering late fledglings, but for the most part, the breeding season is over.

Our woods are full of birds as we are beginning to see some of the early migrating birds join our summer birds and year-'round birds.  Many of them have muted colors compared to their brilliance during the Spring migration.

This little Pileated Woodpecker (on the right) will soon be feeding herself.

 The little Red-bellied Woodpecker (left) has no red at all.

It blends in perfectly with the tree bark.

 In time, the gray head will get red.  As well as a bit of red on the lower belly.

Both of these birds stay with us all winter.  We will see them come to our suet feeders.  But we won't delight in seeing any fledglings for quite a while.  And that's all right.  We will appreciate them all the more when nesting season resumes.

Thank goodness for birds and football to take our minds off politics.  Although I have to mute the sound during football.  The announcers seem to think I care what they think about the flag and the National Anthem.  Jeez!  That very flag stands for our freedom; to salute or not salute, to pledge or not to pledge, to stand or not to stand.  Enough already.  (Yes, I know many of you disagree.  My own husband thinks it's an inappropriate way to make a point.  But if the media would simply leave the issue alone, it would become a non-issue very quickly.  Stop stoking the fire if you want it to die out.)

But...how 'bout them Packers?

We Love Lucy

It's September and we are once again plagued with much near-record high temperatures.  High school football games around here will begin with 87-degrees.  It surely doesn't seem like football weather.

We have so many things to worry about right now.  But our Lucy plugs along with few worries of her own.  One of her worries concerns anything unusual on the deck.  We have several sets of photographs of her looking intently out the window at the deck.  And standing in an anxious posture.

Looking out the window at dusk

 She remains focused

 And what has her attention for this long?  OK, sometimes it's a leaf twirled by the wind.  But more often it's a fallen bird.  And this time it's a hummingbird.  For reasons I will never understand, the hummingbirds spend more time fighting and defending the feeders than nourishing themselves for their long migration.  Like miniature helicopters, they twirl and twirl.  And every now and then they collide and one of them falls to the deck below.

Lucy stares at any fallen bird until it takes off again.  As if sending encouraging messages, she wags her tail each time the fallen birds moves.  She watches until the bird flies away, then settles herself back on the bed.  As if to say, "Well folks, I saved another one."

 The silly little hummingbird

North Korea has detonated yet another nuclear weapon underground.  A very frightening thing indeed given the evil and unstable nature of their leader.  Makes you think even more carefully about how to cast your vote in our upcoming election.

More and more pregnant women in the US and US territories are infected with the Zika virus, known to cause severe birth defects.  And what is our Congress doing about it?  Can't they, just this once introduce a bill that contains only the provisions about Zika funding?  Apparently not.  One party keeps adding amendments to a Zika funding bill that would de-fund Planned Parenthood and/or strip most of the Affordable Care Act, making passage of a bill less and less likely.  So our elected leaders are willing to put more and more women at risk, not to mention adding additional costs to our health care system.  Makes you think even more carefully about how to cast your vote in our upcoming election.

[BTW:  PLEASE contact your own Senators and Representatives, telling them you want a clean bill passed for Zika funding.  And asking them what specific measures they are taking to ensure passage of a Zika funding bill while they are in this short session.  You can find the contact information for Senators here or your Representative here.]

Our quote today comes from the late Russian painter, Elena Gorokhova whom seems to know a bit about American politics.

The rules are simple: they lie to us,

We know they're lying,

They know we know they're lying,

But they keep lying to us,

And we keep pretending to believe them.

So once again, I implore you to think even more carefully about how you will cast your vote.  Don't throw your vote away this very crucial time in our history.

HAVE A MOST WONDERFUL WEEKEND, EVERYONE

CONTACT YOUR LEGISLATORS

We Honor Workers

It is Labor Day here in the US.  Labour Day in Canada.  It is a day in which we should honor all workers.  Already celebrated celebrated by many of the states, Labor Day became a federal holiday in 1894.  In the past, Labor Day was marked by parades and speeches, much like Independence Day.  Now the celebration of the holiday is more muted.  Perhaps we have forgotten just how workers were treated in the past with child labor, long hours and unsafe working conditions.

Today, Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer almost as much as it marks a celebration of workers.  In the past almost all businesses were closed so their workers could celebrate the day.  Now many of them stay open on Labor Day hawking big sales and savings.  Labor Day heralds the official beginning of fall sports with the first seasonal NFL and many college football games beginning in earnest after Labor Day.

When I was a child, Labor Day meant putting away white shoes, hats and jackets until Easter.  And you wouldn't be caught wearing seersucker again until Spring, no matter how hot the September weather.  (Remember seersucker?  Well, look around next summer.  It's making a big comeback.  In fact, the Australian Olympic team wore seersucker jackets in the 2016 Rio Olympics.)

This Labor Day, stop for a moment and honor the past workers who led to the changes in the workplace that all of us enjoy.

Then go out and enjoy the picnic or outing.

I hope you have good weather in which to celebrate.

We Love Lucy

It's the start of a holiday weekend here in the US.  Labor Day is on Monday which heralds the unofficial end of summer.  We will note our appreciation for those who braved the horrid working conditions in the past and who work so hard to provide food and materials for us today.  Then we will feast on hot dogs.  I will share a secret...I LOVE HOT DOGS.  Since they are not at all nutritious I limit myself to one on Independence Day and another on Labor Day.  (All right, I also might eat one when our daughter visits and she and I go on our little jaunts through the mountains.)

Lucy, of course, does not recognize most holidays.  I'm sure she smells the turkey roasting on Thanksgiving and she certainly notices all the decorating at Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, but they don't make much difference to her.  She rather enjoys watching us putting out decorations, especially decorating the tree.  But otherwise holidays don't affect her.  There are two exceptions, Independence Day and Labor Day.  On those days the park she normally visits daily is taken over by folks celebrating the holidays.  So she doesn't get to go since she would not be able to run off lead.

My husband takes Lucy to the park very early in the mornings, especially during summers.  She loves the cooler air, and my husband loves the quiet.  On a recent visit, he took some photographs of Lucy during rest periods.  Lucy is eleven now but does not understand the aging process. (In fact, I think she believes this acting grown up thing is highly over-rated.)   Consequently she will not pace herself.  So after a period of sprinting, we make her sit.

She sits in the mossy/sandy area near the beach.

I love the long shadows contrasting with the bright sunlight.

There are many things to fear in this world of ours.  But we cannot let the fear-mongering spouted by some politicians affect our thinking.  They seem to think if they shout the unfounded fears loudly enough, people will begin to believe them.  Unfortunately they are right.  Many people are duped by the rhetoric, half-truths and down-right lies.  So it is fitting that today quotes are about fear.

The first is by the Greek philosopher Plato:

We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark;
The real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.

The next one is from American author Neale Donald Walsch:

FEAR is an acronym in the English language for
False
Evidence
Appearing
Real

Our thoughts go out to those affected by the Hurricane Hermine as she moves along the Atlantic coast.  And for the displaced everywhere.  And for those who live in danger and fear.

And especially this weekend, our thoughts go out to the laborers everywhere.

HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEKEND, EVERYONE.

STAY SAFE AND HELP OTHERS.

 

Lovely Warblers

We tend to think "yellow" when we think of summer warblers.  Perhaps because there are so many of them.   But two of my favorite warblers are mostly black, blue, and white.  Occasionally sighted in our woods, neither of these birds come to our feeders.  But last week I encountered a warbler right on our deck.  A Black-and-White Warbler.

I especially love the  black and white because its presence here signals that Spring is arriving.  It is one of the earliest migrants to arrive and it spends the summer with us.  We don't see it near the house but in the woods we see it creeping along the branches of trees searching for insects.  They may look like warblers but they act much more like nuthatches or brown creepers.

The black and whites are fierce little birds and are at the ready to attack any other small birds that invade the territory they have decided to defend.  I've never seen one come to our suet feeders, although their feet seem suited to hang onto a suet feeder.  They have an extra long back claw and legs thicker than most warblers.  Most other warblers would not be able to creep along the bark of trees like the black and white.
[NOTE:  You might wish to enlarge the photographs to see the details]

Just one quick shot before he flew

Wonder if he thought the deck wood was hiding bugs?
Yes, the photograph is in color...but it is after all, a black and white bird on a gray deck

A more delicate non-yellow summer warbler we find in our woods is the Black-Throated-Blue Warbler.  Most North Carolina birders see this bird only during migration.  Here in the mountains, we are lucky to have them nest and stay with us all summer.  The black throated blue generally lives deep in the woods and does not come to bird feeders.  They are considered foliage gleaners because they eat the insects on the underside of leaves.

We rarely see these birds near our deck, but one bird decided to try seeds for a change.  I was lucky enough to get a few photographs before he realized he didn't really care for seeds.

Here he sits on the pole holding a feeder

He looks questioningly at the feeder

You can easily see the white "pocket handkerchief" which is an identification hallmark 

As you can see, the black throated blue is much smaller than a goldfinch.

Note his black throat standing out against his blue body and white breast

He quickly decided there was nothing for him so he flew back into the woods.

I did not get a good photograph of the bird's back.  But the black throated blue here in the Appalachian mountains has a black stripe in the middle of his blue back.  Some think this might be a separate and distinct sub-species.  The more common black throated blues of the Northeast and Canada do not have the black stripe.

I have seen many male black throated blues, but I have not once seen a female.  And I've been looking.  The female is quite drab in color and has few markings in common with the males.  She does have a white handkerchief like the male but it is less distinct.  The females are so different they were at first mis-identified as a separate species altogether.  Perhaps it is not surprising that I haven't seen a female.  Interestingly enough, the females nest and forage at much higher altitudes.  After nesting, the males descend to lower elevations while the females remain at the higher elevations.  (Our house is at 3,000 feet which is not a high elevation for the NC mountains.)

Since I've never seen one, much less photographed one, here is a photograph from Wikipedia:

Perhaps one day on a trip to the higher mountains I will glimpse a female Black-Throated-Blue Warbler.  And if I'm lucky I will have the right camera lens with me.

The Autumn migration will begin before long and both these warblers will leave us to winter in Florida or points south.  Even though we don't see them as frequently as we'd like, we are delighted each time we get a glance.

We Love Lucy

Time is still a-flying.  Next week is September.  Our weather has turned hot and humid once again, and darkness falls far too early in the evenings while the sun sleeps in later every morning now.  And that will get far worse before it turns around.

Wouldn't it be nice if we just totally suspended all the Presidential campaign rhetoric?  Given the two major party candidates, breathes there a soul who is going to change his/her mind at this point?  Or doesn't know already he/she will choose a third-party candidate instead?  Or simply choose not to vote?  I cannot think of a single thing that would change my mind at this point.  I'd rather see a bit more attention given to the candidates "down ticket" and much less to the Presidential candidates.

Living a dog's life may be easier.  Our Lucy cares not a whit about elections or anything outside her insulated little world.  She does worry a little bit about dinner.  If my husband so much as moves in his chair anytime between 4:15 and 4:30, Lucy is on her feet just in case he has forgotten that dinnertime is 4:30.  This in spite of the fact that no one has ever forgotten her dinner.  Not once.

Lucy, up close and personal

We have two quotes for today.  Both of them on the lighter side.

The first is from the late Terry Pratchett.  Actually that is SIR Terry Pratchett, genius extraordinaire:


The trouble with having an open mind, of course,
is that people will insist on coming along
and trying to put things in it.

The second is from old reliable, Mark Twain:

It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble.
It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.

HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEKEND, EVERYONE

HELP OTHERS

THEN HAVE SOME FUN

 

Getting a Little Cuter

Most baby birds are quite ugly when they hatch, all feathers and beak.  As they grow, they become much more attractive and by the time they fledge they are downright cute.  You may recall the very young Northern Cardinal fledgling I posted a few weeks ago.  It was by far the youngest cardinal I have seen outside the nest and was not the most attractive one.  I don't think it could fly to perch on the feeder to get fed.  The bird was fed by the father on the deck railing for quite some time.  I did not see the female feeding this little one.

Now the cardinal comes to the feeder independently.  Interestingly enough, it never eats at the feeder but rather brings a sunflower seed to the deck and eats there.  Perhaps that is what it became accustomed to when it was being fed.  I fear it is not much more attractive.

The young cardinal has a sunflower seed on the railing in front of him.

It saw me and I was afraid it would fly when I clicked the camera.

 But it didn't fly and gobbled up the seed.

 The bird is showing signs of maturing but is still rather clumsy.

This is how it looked the end of June when the father was bringing food and feeding it.

We did not see the female. It made us wonder if something had happened to her

Summer is definitely waning here.  The katydid chorus is so loud in the evenings it makes outside conversation difficult.  Our weather has returned to "normal" and we are delighted.  We feel almost cheated out of our marvelous mountain summer this year.  So it is especially wonderful to have the mild days, cool nights and mountain breezes we are supposed to have.  We are blessed indeed.