H.J. Ruiz – Avian101 – Page 737 – "My Backyard Visitors" – All about birds

It’s All About the Weather

Just for the heck of it, the temperature in the part of Georgia where I live was 5°F (-17°C).

The schools were closed because the difficulties to start up the buses and avoiding to expose the children to the harsh cold while waiting for the bus. The reason that I mention this on my blog is because in Georgia we’re used to live in moderate temperatures at any of the seasons.

This morning I had difficulties to fill the feeders because they were frozen shut and couldn’t open the lids, the dishes were stuck to the deck and covered with ice, the whole deck was frozen. Last night we has some rain before the temperature suddenly dropped considerably. It certainly looks like “global warming”…???. Yeah right!

Next I have some fresh pictures that I shoot when the sun breaks through the gray sky.

Tufted Titmouse

Text and photographs © Hj Ruiz – Avian101

Tags: birds, nature, photography, photos of birds, Tufted Titmouse

Pine Warbler

Pine Warbler – Latin name: Setophaga pinus

This is a small songbird of the New World warbler family.

These birds have white bellies, white wing bars, dark legs and thin, relatively long pointed bills; they have yellowish lines over their eyes. Adult males have olive upper-parts and bright yellow throats and breasts; females and immatures display upper-parts which are olive-brown. Their throats and breasts are paler.

The song of this bird is a musical trill. Their calls are slurred chips.

Their breeding habitats are open pine woods in eastern North America. These birds are permanent residents in southern Florida. Some of them, however, migrate to northeastern Mexico and islands in the Caribbean. The first record for South America was a vagrant wintering female seen at Vista Nieve, Colombia, on 20 November 2002; this bird was foraging as part of a mixed-species feeding flock that also included wintering Blackburnian and Tennessee Warblers.

They forage slowly on tree trunks and branches by poking their bill into pine cones. These birds also find food by searching for it on the ground. These birds mainly eat insects, seeds and berries.

Their nests are deep, open cups, which are placed near the end of a tree branch. Pine Warblers prefer to nest in pine trees, hence their names.

Note: The Pine Warbler is a new addition to my List of Birds as: # 200

Info © Wikipedia – Photographs © HJ Ruiz – Avian101

Tags: birds, nature, photography, photos of birds, Pine Warbler

Calendars

The beginning of a new year is always in people’s minds that ponder about what it’s going to bring to their lives. Perhaps we should not look at a regular calendar and instead create one for your on use. One calendar that doesn’t end after 365 days but continues counting days until you decide when to restart the count. This way you don’t have to worry about how bad or good the new year will turn out to be.

In case that things are not going as well as you’d like it to be, you’ll have plenty more days to recover and get to your desired goal.

I’m not trying to get you confused with serendipity of my part. I just want people to do one thing, do not lose faith and do not get depressed because the year ends or the new one starts in any case. Calendars are made to help Society to have chronologic measures and calculate many other things. Calendar were not made to make you feel old, to pressure you to do anything, add stress to your life because you worry about your birthdays pointing out at your age. Listen to me, word by word: Fuhgeddaboudit!

“Just keep going, do not waste your time mulling over or lamenting. Just do something to fix the problem!”

Next are recent photos of my little friends:

Text and photographs © HJ Ruiz – Avian101

Tags: birds, Carolina Chickadee, nature, photography, photos of birds

Bon Appetit!

Believe or not the consumption of bird seeds I provide has increased considerably, because the weather temperature factor, having dropped lower yet, that creates a more difficult situation for birds to find food.

Most insects are gone, so are flowers and fruits, grubs or worms are deeper in the soil and the ground surface is cold and hard. Birds have less opportunities to get their food.

All these factors are taken in consideration by the birds and they come to my feeders more often and in larger quantities than previous Winters.

Good thing that I’m well provisioned with seeds enough for the month of January.

I love to see birds sharing their seeds and braving the weather inclemency!

Bon Appetit!