Wednesday's Wisdom: One Cure for Rejection, Keep your eye on the birdie!

TUFTED TITMOUSES ARE FEATURED IN MY BOOKS

TUFTED TITMOUSES ARE FEATURED IN MY BOOKS

TUFTED TITMOUSES ARE FEATURED IN MY BOOKS

TUFTED TITMOUSES ARE FEATURED IN MY BOOKS

Today's entry is not part of the regular posting schedule I announced this past Monday, rather it is an extra posting which I mentioned might be something I will do from time to time.

My reason for today's entry is to let you know that the photography book project that I have spent much time preparing and is one I referenced when I altered my blog schedule this past August has rejected my proposal stating, "...and thanks for formatting the files to meet our request. G.S. thanks you for your submission 'It’s the Little Things,' which he personally reviewed. Unfortunately our program is set for years to come, and adding new books to our program is the absolute exception. I wish you all the best for the publication of your interesting project...") is to keep looking for another publisher, which I am doing."

Hence here is my Wednesday Wisdom: Probably one of the best cures for a rejected proposal is to look for other places to submit work and I found one based in the northwest portion of the United States who said it would be a long shot as their content focused on the wildlife in that area of our country.

STILL, when I told her my angle, she told me to send a PDF to her, which I did this past Monday after receiving the rejection.

THE OTHER CURE for rejection is to cull photos; so I went through some pictures I took of titmouses whom I encountered in Central Park in February 2019 and some of the images I came across are featured atop this entry.

A Bird in my Hand...

TUFTED TITMOUSES ARE FEATURED IN MY BOOKS

TUFTED TITMOUSES ARE FEATURED IN MY BOOKS

TUFTED TITMOUSES ARE FEATURED IN MY BOOKS

TUFTED TITMOUSES ARE FEATURED IN MY BOOKS

The bird type featured in the photos atop this entry is a tufted titmouse who I came upon yesterday (he was one of many in within that variety that happened to be there) while walking in The Ramble section of Central Park. Temperatures were very bitter, especially with the windchill but I took off my gloves and put some black-oil sunflower seeds in my hand, as I know that, in cold conditions, tufted titmouses have been known to eat out of someone's bare hand.

Friday's Feeling is FROM THE BIRDS

Certain birds are speaking out via a cartoon by Dan Regan (which he did for Shoebox) that something has to be done re the naming of certain birds.

Feed the Birds Day 2018

I've posted a You Tube video atop this entry in honor of one of today's (February 3rd) holidays, which  is known as Feed the Birds Day (according to Holiday Insights who states the following):

"Date When Celebrated: Always February 3: Help the wild birds in your backyard to survive the long, cold winter by feeding them. That's exactly why this special day was created. Mid and late winter are especially hard on all outdoor animals. By mid winter, food sources become scarcer and scarcer for the wild birds that over-winter in your backyard..."

I featured this quote from Holiday Insights along with the Mary Poppins film clip that's included here in my 2017 blog entry for Feed the Birds Day,

In terms of the many photographs of wild birds eating that I used in the aforementioned entry, most of them are different than the ones I am using today.

MARCH: The new month of NO's?

No sun - no moon! 

No morn - no noon - 

No dawn - no dusk - no proper time of day. 

No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease, 

No comfortable feel in any member - 

No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees, 

No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds! 

November! 

Thomas Hood wrote a poem called "No," which is posted atop this entry. Hood's poem may be familiar to TLLG's readers for I've referred to it in a number of cyber venues. including a prior post here on Blogger.

But, it is not November that has been a month of no's for me, for November in bygone years is when birds, (including tufted titmouses) visited my rooftop garden (in 2012)! And so did cardinals (2012 and 2013)!

Moreover, this past November, as most TLLG readers know, I was graced by the extended visit of Emily, a lone Baltimore oriole. As I have stated on TLLG's FB Page, Emily arrived on November 16th 2013 and visited me daily until December 26 2013; then she returned on January 30th 2014, but her visits since that time have been on a sporadic basis: the last time I saw her was on February 16th 2014, the third day of GBBC (Great Backyard Bird Count). Not only has Emily stayed away, but so have Cam and Mac, my cardinal couple, and I have seen no tufted titmouses either! 

Therefore, the month of no's for me, has been March.

Monday's Musings: Is it titmice or titmouses? That is the question!

The little bird featured in the photograph that's atop this entry is known as a Baeolophus bicolor AKA Tufted Titmouse. He/she is enjoying black-oil sunflower seeds from an umbrella style bird feeder that's atop an urban hedge in my rooftop garden.

Monday Musings: ON BEING AN ODD DUCK ETC

Yesterday morning I got the notification via a tweet from from Manhattan Bird Alert  which stated
"The MANDARIN DUCK and his reflection, continuing this Sunday at the Central Park Pond (60th and Fifth)" and upon reading it I made my way over to that area of CP.

However, when I arrived the Mandarin duck was no where to be seen, but The Pond, was being used by a number of other ducks, including male Wood ducks, such as the one seen in my photograph atop this entry.

Some Feline Bird Watchers Have Lots to See!

There is a lot of bird watching to be be had from the vantage point of my rooftop garden but also from the vantage point of those whose apartment windows face our courtyard. No one knows this better than Snooze, the cat seen in the image at atop this entry.

Currently she lives in the building directly east of me and her window faces my garden as well a courtyard (Sadly Snooze is moving in a few days but I do have stories about her on my blog.)

At this time, Snooze is not the only one who spends her hours watching the avian creatures in our midst, there is another cat who lives in a building directly north of us (just across the courtyard).

Today, May 4th, IS FOR THE BIRDS!

Many of you might recognize the cardinal featured in the photograph atop this blog entry, for this creature is Cam, the author of Words In Our Beak Volume One, a book which I helped her to write.

In any event, the image that is atop-this posting is included in her story, and it was taken in my rooftop garden, located in NYC, and where the story takes place. Cam is with me in honor of the holiday, which is Bird Day. According to Holiday Insights (HI), Bird Day is aways celebrated on May 4th.

HI explains that "Bird Day is the oldest of the days set aside to recognize birds. According to the U.S. Library of Congress, Bird Day was first observed  on May 4, 1894. It was started by Charles Almanzo Babcock, superintendent of schools in Oil City, Pennsylvania. By 1910, Bird Day was widely celebrated, often in conjunction with Arbor Day. Bird Day and Arbor Day events are focused upon conservation training and awareness."

Therefore, in honor of this event, Cam and I are featuring images of all the bird types who have visited my urban garden, as of this posting. We are doing this in order of the appearance of a given fauna type in my place.

Cam is the first bird I saw in my garden, however, others have seen hummingbirds her. But since I have not, we'll begin with her. Cam has been here with her husband, Mac, as well as couple of her children as seen in the next set of images.

The second bird type who I noticed in my garden is male and female house finches who can be seen getting intimate while perching on the string lights which hang over my garden.

Mourning doves were the third bird variety to spend time here and they also used my place to get intimate as evidenced below.

All three of the aforementioned bird types are discussed in detail (accompanied by an array of images) in Words In Our Beak Volume One.  

The  other birds which have visited here will be featured in subsequent volume. These include (in order of appearance in my garden.

Blue jays:

House sparrows:

Tufted titmouses:

Chickadees:

Downy Woodpeckers:

Common Grackles:

White-Breasted Nuthatch:

Rose-Breasted Grosbeak:

Pigeons:

Baltimore oriole:

European starlings:

Northern mockingbird:

American Goldfinch:

American robin:

A Leutistic House Finch:

And an American kestrel:

The American kestrel's arrival brought the total amount of bird types who have visited my garden to twenty.

Of these twenty varieties who have come here, I have seen seven of them represented in Central Park, including American robins, blue jays, cardinals, common grackles, European starlings, mourning doves, pigeons, sparrows and tufted titmouses.

I've also encountered other types of fauna in the park.

For my Ajuga & Her "unacknowledged" Friends

The other day, these two mourning doves, sitting atop the container that "houses" my Actinida kolomikta and Actimida (Kiwi Vines), were having a heart to heart convo. They were discussing how they felt about the fact that unlike "some birds" that visit my garden, they do not have a baseball team named for them!

Wednesday's Wisdom + Thursday's Testimony (It's The Little Things)

This past Friday, June 2nd 2017, I came upon some people who were hanging out upon a stoop  of a one family brownstone that is located on the UWS of NYC.

They were engaged in conversation, enjoying pizza. Seeing them take such pleasure in the activity of eating pizza, while hanging out on a stoop during a Friday evening in NYC, gave me pleasure; and, I told them so.

I rarely take photos of people, but regretted not having my camera with me. Upon my telling them this, one of the stoop sitters, who referred to himself as Josiah Kargbo, took a picture with his cell phone, and emailed it to me. Kargbo's image is featured atop this blog entry.

The couple (N&J) who owns the brownstone are folks who I know on a little more than a "hi-how-you-fine-thanks" status; and in all the years I've passed their building, I've never seen them sitting on their stoop to watch passersby. However, I have seen a number of persons of all shapes and sizes, of all genders, of all races, and, of all ages, hanging out on this stoop.

It's Feed the Birds day!

Today is truly for the birds because it's Feed the Birds Day, a holiday that I wrote about in at least one prior post here on Blogger. In any event, according to an entry on a garden related web-page (as well as other sources), "Every February 3rd is known as Feed the Birds Day."

Within the posting of the aforementioned garden-themed web-page, they have included a chart on what various song birds enjoy eating and in honor of this holiday, I've posted a screenshot of it atop this entry.

THINKING OF STARR SAPHIR

CAM, A FEMALE CARDINAL

If you follow TLLG here on Blogger or Facebook, dear reader, then you know that recently much of my content has dealt with the escapades of Cam (the cardinal pictured in the image above), as well as the tales of her unnamed (as of this posting) beau, pictured in the image below...

MAC, A MALE CARDINAL

...and of their romantic interlude (indicated in the following image).

MAC AND CAM: A CARDINAL COUPLE

I'm thrilled with the aforementioned couple, and could continue to write about them for some time to come, but I am dedicating today's post (through the "escapades" of the array of all the birds which visit my garden) to Starr Saphir, a dearly departed birder, who you may read about by clicking here.

Ms. Saphir was known to many for the bird walks that she led in Central Park. Even though I live very near to this park, I've never been on one of her bird walks; or any other bird "event," for that matter, as my interest in birds as well as their antics, is fairly new: I have the feathered creatures to thank for it because they showed up in my garden without an invitation or lure of food other than the vegetation in my garden!

Let the Spring Season Begin

This past Wednesday, March 20th 2013), was the day of the Vernal Equinox and the first day of spring. A music loving visitor (who came to my indoor succulent garden) helped ring in the season by repurposing a leaf and turning it into an instrument! This can be seen in the image posted above today's blog entry (variations of this image were featured in postings on TLLG's Facebook Page and tumblr blog).

Anyone who follows TLLG knows that throughout the year, an array of eclectic visitors frequent my indoor succulent garden, providing some entertainment and ambience which helps my succulents thrive. "Stories" about this can be found in a number of posts here on Blogger as well as on tumblr. 

Moreover, I have guest blogged about this topic in the past. Additionally, there are images of most of the "folks" and "creatures" who visit my indoor garden on one of my Pinterest Boards.

In terms of Wednesday's arrival of spring in my urban (NYC) terrace (roof extension) garden, Juan V and I "celebrated" the onset of the season by working in my garden. You may recall from a number of posts here on Blogger that he comes to work in my garden approximately every ten days during "open season." 

And even though last Wednesday was only the first day of spring, my garden was already coming back from a dreary winter, as yesterday was also the second "round" of my working with Juan V for the 2013 "gardening season." Our first day of working together after "the winter break" had been on Saturday March 9th 2013. Every year when we "re-open" my garden, the first task is to de-winterize, which involves quite a few hours of work as my winterizing methods are quite extensive.