Another month over . . .

Thirty days hath September, and by the end of this day, the month of September will have ended for 2013. It has passed slowly for me on a certain level for I have spent the month recovering from an accident I had one month and one day ago on August 29th 2013. 

Additionally, I was knocked out of commission by a nasty virus/cold for nearly twelve days beginning on September 15th 2013 (two days after my last posting here on Blogger) until this past Tuesday, September 24th when Juan V came to work in my garden and ultimately took the image atop today's entry.
However, I must confess that, even as of today, a few of my symptoms are still lingering. Hence I have (for the most part) been out of the loop re my cyber-posting except for an occasional posting on TLLG's Facebook Page and FB related pages, and for those of you who may have visited me here on Blogger during that time period — in anticipation of new content —  I apologize for not putting up a notice re my absence and I thank you for your readership.

But, getting back to Juan V's image, as it is a good place to start in my return to Blogger (where a number of my recent postings have been "dedicated" to the feeding of my visiting birds), you can see he has "featured" most of my "accommodations" that I have provided for my feathered friends.

The feeder in the upper right hand corner (indicated by the number one) is a whole peanut feeder and it has yet to be featured in any of TLLGs cyber-venues and, as far as I know, it has yet to be "patronized" by any birds.

The feeders indicated with the numbers two through four have all been discussed at length in entries here on Blogger as well as within posts on TLLG's tumblr and hometalk pages.

The number five indicates one of my suet feeders, and while I have not discussed the use of suet, you may recognize this feeder from previous posts where the following images were included.

As Seen on TLLG's FB Page August 2013

As Seen Within a TLLG June 2013 Blogger Post 

All the feeders are hanging from a pole system, a system I described on hometalk, and the empty clay pots seen below it (also discussed in a separate entry on hometalk as well as here on Blogger) were recommended as a seed catcher to deter pigeons based on someone's belief that pigeons were not likely to dive into clay pots for seeds and therefore would eventually leave my garden to go elsewhere for food. 

Be that as it may, as I stated in my referencing clay pots as seed catchers in the aforementioned venues, mourning doves were not deterred by clay pots when it came to accessing seeds and recently, close comrades of the Mourning doves, pigeons, began to dive into clay pots for falling seeds (perhaps "dared" to do so by a lone Mourning dove) as seen in the images below.

Whether the pigeon was "accepting" a "dare" from a lone Mourning dove still remains a question, but I do know that I will have to rethink the style/type/shape of clay pot that I am using for this purpose if I want to deter pigeons!

Meanwhile, I am happy to announce that Cam's (my visiting cardinal) son, Vincenzo, actually perched and ate from one of my feeders! For as you may recall, dear reader, all of the feeders that I have procured (and the subsequent devices I've attached to them) were in an attempt to accommodate my visiting cardinal couple Cam and Mac, who both avoided perching from them.

Therefore I was thrilled to see Vincenzo munching away at my "shine" feeder (the feeder encased in a fence and indicated by the number three in the picture atop today's entry). His "actions" of engaging with the feeder as well as learning to make an exit may be seen in the images posted below.

And Vincenzo did not seem to mind the company of the House finches as you might surmise from the pictures below.

However, Vincenzo's mom, Cam, may not have felt her son should hang out with the finches and she showed up at the feeder to watch over the situation, which may have mortified Vincenzo as you might suspect from the image of them below where Cam can be seen in the upper right hand corner assessing the situation.

Whatever Cam's motives may have been re her son, Vincenzo, it is clear that protecting him was a greater motivator in her actions than her "fear" of perching as you can surmise from the photographs posted below.

All of the pictures of Vincenzo, Cam and the house finches interacting with my "shine" feeder were taken on September 21st 2013, which was a week and two days ago, I have not seen them at this feeder since that time. In fact I have not seen Vincenzo since that time, so I hope he was not injured or killed by a predator. I have not seen his father, Mac either, but I have caught glimpses of Cam poking around on my garden's surface for fallen seeds.

In a few days time I will have a meeting in my rooftop garden with a bird rescuer who is an expert re birds in general. I may speak to him about my becoming a bird rehabber, but first I want to see if I have made a safe environment in my garden for Cam and her family. Please stay tuned!

Meanwhile, as I stated yesterday on TLLG's FB page, some of the flora that grows in my garden have been busy proving Albert Camus' quote: "Autumn is the second spring . . . "

This is evidenced by the photos posted below. They include pictures of two types of roses, an echinacea, and of flowers from the Sweet Autumn Clematis  which I'll leave you to ponder until I "see" you here again on Blogger, when I hopefully will be reporting Vincenzo has returned!