Well, here we are already in the third month for the year 2019, proving time does fly rather one is having fun or not! I hope someone remembers to wake Mooch (who can be seen in the
Mutts comic strip posted atop this entry). But, maybe Mooch needs to sleep a bit more... after all, his pillow looks pretty comfortable and plus the weather might not be so great just yet.
As you undoubtedly know the beginning of March is associated with an idiom: "
If March comes in like a lion, and goes out like a lamb and if it comes in like a lion, it goes out like a lamb."
Evidently
this is because "March straddles winter and spring in the northern hemisphere, it tends to have very harsh, unpleasant weather in the beginning but typically has milder, more palatable weather by the end."
Here in
NYC, March is beginning with moderate snowfall as seen in the picture below of my
rooftop garden taken in the morning.
In any event, according to a number of sources (including Holiday Insights AKA HI), the month of March in the United States is known as
Irish American Month, Music in Our Schools Month, National Celery Month, National Craft Month National Frozen Food Month, National Irish American Heritage Month (designated by Congress in 1995),
National Nutrition Month, National Peanut Month, National Women's History Month, Red Cross Month and
Social Workers Month.
While
National Peanut Month is honored in March, the
birds who visit my rooftop garden appreciate this legume during all months of the year, as evidenced in the next set of pictures featuring male and female adult Northern
cardinals .....
.... as well as a young cardinal.
As you may know, the adult female cardinal featured here is named Cam and the stories told in my three volume book series,
Words In Our Beak are told from her perspective. Cam's husband Mac is the male cardinal seen in the pictures above and the young cardinal seen in the photos is their daughter Peanut.
But even though cardinals do like peanuts, their first food of choice is black-oil sunflower seeds, here are a few pictures of Cam and her husband (respectively) indulging in this food during different types of situations as well as under various weather conditions occurring in my garden.
Moreover, young cardinals like to eat black-oil seeds too. Cam's son, Vincenzo (who is introduced in volume one of the book series is no exception). He even begged to be fed by Cam...
.... before he learned how to eat on his own (as you might surmise from the next photo).
One of the ways cardinals express their love for one another is by feeding each other as seen in the next two pictures where Cam is feeding her daughter Frannie (who was also introduced in volume one)...
.... and where she is being fed by her husband.
Cam and her family are all featured throughout my book series; along with quite a number of other birds, including male and female
blue jays (both young and adult).
Jays are a bird type who truly enjoy peanuts during all months and from an array of places, including branches of the
Ailanthus Trees in my courtyard...
... from a bowl...
.... from the "tall house feeder" (featured in the fifth bird image above where the young cardinal named Peanut is by herself) ...
.... and from my wreath-style feeder (featured in the first four bird pictures of this entry).
Images of blue jays enjoying peanuts are featured on a couple of my
cards that are in my collection on
Fine Art America (FAA) and pictures of them can be seen below.
FAA can also print these images on an array of surfaces for wall art, the perfect gift to give someone in honor of National Peanut Month.
In any event,
Common Grackles, like jays favor peanuts too — no matter what the weather conditions (but especially snowy ones).
Moreover, male
House sparrows ...
...a young
pigeon...
... and an adult pigeon (whose gender I couldn't identify) ....
.... as well as a lone male
Downy woodpecker (adult)...
.... and a young downy woodpecker...
... also enjoy peanuts throughout the year, not just National Peanut Month.
Be that as it may, this first day of National Peanut Month is also known as National Peanut Butter Lovers Day, and as is the case with birds enjoying peanuts outside of the "official" month to do so; they also enjoy peanut butter on any cold day; not necessarily March the first (which may or may not be cold).
By the way, during the frigid weather, I've been known to place slices of bread within the suet feeders (with peanut-butter spread on both sides of it) as a food source, for the birds need fatty food in the winter.
Many of my visiting fauna love an opportunity to eat peanut-butter, as evidenced by Harper, a lone
Northern mockingbird, seen in the pictures below, where she is enjoyed my "ornaments" (suet feeders filled peanut butter laden bread) that were on my outdoor
Christmas Tree in 2015.
And with that info re birds in relation to National Peanut Month and National Peanut Butter Lovers Day, let me remind you, dear reader, all the birds featured in this post (and many more fauna types) are included in my
Words In Our Beak book series, here's the purchase info:
Volume One: ISBN: 9780996378529
Book Seller Info:
http://bit.ly/2AFZDCz
Amazon:
http://amzn.to/2zxVujM
Barnes & Noble On-Line:
http://bit.ly/2AAnB26
book culture On Columbus (a bookstore on the UWS in NYC):
http://bit.ly/2FsC1Uf
Volume Two: ISBN: 9780996378536
Book Seller Info:
http://bit.ly/2q75g8e
Amazon:
https://amzn.to/2DY0mz0
Barnes & Noble On-Line:
http://bit.ly/2G65m6H
Volume Three: ISBN: 978099637853
Amazon:
https://amzn.to/2IYkmpA
Barnes & Noble On-Line:
http://bit.ly/2vedQot
EACH OF THESE BOOKS CAN BE ORDERED FROM ANY PLACE SELLING BOOKS BY GIVING THEM THE TITLE, OR ISBN, OR MY NAME, PATRICIA YOUNGQUIST.
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