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Friday, July 19, 2013

A MOURNING DOVE'S FEEDER ESCAPADE!


Because I now have two pigeons visiting my garden (pictured above) and more than an occasional mouse (pictured below),



I have been trying to figure out another way to feed my wild song birds (eg a few blue jays; my cardinal couple; a lone chickadee as well as a lone downy wood pecker;  a number of dark-eyed juncoes, house finches, mourning doves, tuft titmouses, and white breasted sparrows) while deterring pigeons and mice who have been showing up to nosh on the crumbs my song birds spill on the "floor" when they eat from my feeders!

It would probably be prudent for me to simply stop putting bird seed in my feeders and changing the water in the bird bath for a few weeks to discourage the pigeons and mice.

However, in New York City where I live, we have been under a siege of oppressively hot temperatures since last Friday July 12th (with real feel temperatures reaching past "the century mark," according to Acu-Weather and the thermometer in my garden), and, therefore removing food and water sources during this stressful weather conditions for people as well as wild birds seems cruel.

Hence, I only removed my larger feeders and when putting seed in the smaller feeders (such as the one pictured below), 



was conservative with any amount I used in an effort to reduce spillage of seeds, and the smaller feeders which I have are designed for such purposes. But as you can see (in the images above and below), a lone (and very smart) mourning dove surveyed the situation by staring — shamelessly — at a lone house finch who was trying to nosh in peace!





And after making his/her observations of how the finch ate from the feeder, he/she switched his/her gaze to me, and then moved in to the finch's space taking over the feeder!



Moreover, as he/she moved around the feeder (as seen in the images below),






Much of the seed fell to my garden's floor, where, — you guessed it — was swooped up by my salivating pigeon couple!



Don't get me wrong, I know pigeons must eat too, but it is illegal to feed them in NYC;  and I don't want to see a mourning dove arrested!

Saturday, July 13, 2013

What FLORA Knows RE Time Passing


Once upon a time I saw a Mary Englebreit greeting card where the text read, "Time flies whether you are having fun or not." And indeed time does fly, calling to my mind, two of my favorite quotes invloving the passing of time.

Dr. Seuss's "How did it get so late so soon? It's night before it's afternoon. December is here before it's June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?," is one of them.

The second quote re time passing that I appreciate is Kermit's quote: "Time is fun when you are having flies." 

Thursday, July 4, 2013

INDEPENDENCE DAY 2013


I will return to Blogger after the July 4th holiday weekend but if you'd like to read a "story" about the Independence Day glasses pictured below, please click 
here.



Monday, July 1, 2013

HAPPY 1/2 YEAR FROM UNCLE SAM & ME!

Patricia Youngquist uses words and images to tell stories about her passions. Based in New York, she currently is authoring a series of nature books on birds of the city. Now in Apple’s iBooks store @ https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/words-in-our-beak/id1010889086?mt=11

HAPPY 1/2 YEAR, DEAR READER!

Today, July 1st 2013, marks the beginning of the 1/2 year mark for this year! And in bygone years, I have honored the occasion on Blogger with posts that reference the first six months of a given year in entries which you may refer to by clicking here for my 2010 posting, as well as herehere, and here for 2011 posts; and here for my 2012 post.

This year Uncle Sam (pictured above) has come to my succulent garden to celebrate this occasion, as well as to join the cast of characters that are here to perform on Independence Day, which is this coming Thursday, July the Fourth!

And, dear reader, you may be familiar with some of the characters as I referred to them the last time I posted here on Blogger as well as on hometalk.com and on in two entries on tumblr which you can refer to by clicking here and here.

But getting back to my newest succulent garden's guest, Uncle Sam, he has asked me to clarify a matter regarding his identity as he feel misunderstood! He wants to make it clear that he is not just an icon for the ready to eat Uncle Sam Cereal, which according to WIKI is a "breakfast cereal, first introduced in 1908 by U.S. Mills of Omaha, Nebraska. The company relocated to Needham, Massachusetts sometime after the 1970s. Attune Foods out of San Francisco acquired Uncle Sam Cereal in 2009."