I think Winter will be Short

I have the feeling that we are going to have a short winter this year. I see more and more birds coming to my feeders and some plants have green shoots starting to show up.

I hope I’m right because I want warmer days and to be outdoors. After living most of my life in the Northeast where it gets very cold every winter, now I’m getting Winter phobic. I don’t like cold weather anymore!

Besides, cold weather is depressing, at least for me now.

I’m bringing you some more bird close-ups for today.

Chilean Flamingo

Helmeted Guineafowl

White Egret

American White Ibis

Text and photographs © H.J. Ruiz

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Good News from PUP

I’ve recently received a happy email from my friend Jessica Pellien from Princeton University Press. Two books that I had the opportunity to review have been picked for awards. Here is an excerpt of her email:

Dear H.J.,

So, I am writing with very good news and to toot our horn a bit.

The Professional and Scholarly Publishing (PSP) Division of the Association of American Publishers (AAP) convened yesterday to announce the winners of the 2011 American Publishers Awards for Professional and Scholarly Excellence (The PROSE Awards) and not one, but two, of Princeton University Press’s bird books were honored.

The Crossley ID Guide by Richard Crossley was awarded the PROSE for best Single Volume Reference/Science book, and also took home the highly prestigious Award for Excellence in Reference Works.

And Avian Architecture was awarded the PROSE for best book in Popular Science & Popular Mathematics.

I am proud to have worked with both of these authors and couldn’t be more pleased that their excellent books have received this recognition. I hope you will join Princeton University Press in celebrating this good news.

I hope you have a lovely weekend.

Best wishes,

Jessica

Details on the awards here: http://www.proseawards.com/current-winners.html

Jessica Pellien

Assistant Publicity Director

ePublicity Media Manager

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Winter Wren Portrait – Video

Another wonderful video by © Lang Elliott and Bob McGuire

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We Should Love Birds!

I’ll tell you why, just picture this in your mind:

Dinosaurs were never extinct and they existed at the time mankind appear on Earth. (Remember that birds are their descendants).

Can you imagine what can of life we would have with those super animals all over the world? We would be the “Doritos” snack for T-Rexes or Velociraptors.

However, Nature made changes to our planet in order to make it suitable and less dangerous for the birth of a weaker but more intelligent species: Humans!

Don’t you get a sense of something grandiose about this. Keep in mind that dinosaurs lived on Earth for millions of years, that’s a long time. We humans have lived an “eye blink” of Earth time, just a few thousand years.

 Consider yourself lucky when you see the next Nuthatch! 🙂

Size comparison Man vs. Dinosaurs - (Click to enlarge)

Text © H.J. Ruiz -Avian 101

Graphic © Wikipedia

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