Bird watching: It's a legitimate hobby!

 

Mark Parisi's birds (featured in the carton atop this entry) got this! Birds watching their neighbors (and vice versa) is a legitimate hobby. I love the park and natural areas but I am truly grateful to be able to watch birds from my window as sometimes when I come upon them when outdoors, I feel as if I'm intruding on their territory.

"...When January brings new faces!"

"THE CHIKADEE" BY RALPH WALDO EMERSON

As promised in my last entry (published on 1-7-2021), I'm back in the blogging saddle for now. My absence wasn't so long when I consider it has been over eight years (November 18th 2012) since I heard the sound which poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson, calls the "gay and polite" "cheerful cry" of a Chickadee occcuring in my rooftop garden but I heard it this morning.

Friday's Follow-Up (Re Yesterday's Blog Post)

In yesterday's blog post, I mentioned the fact that the bird type known as a tufted titmouse (who can be seen in the first photograph atop this entry), is being included in the forthcoming volume two of the first book that I wrote with Cam.

I also discussed the fact that the tufted tit mouse bird variety is "a cousin" to the bird type known as the chickadee (who can be seen in the second photograph atop this posting). Both images were taken in my rooftop garden where the story being told in the book takes place.

Thursday's Tid-Bit Re The Tufted Tit Mouse

Cam, "my" female cardinal, and I have been engaged in the process of tying up loose ends for our sequel to the book, Words In My Beak Volume One.

This means I've been going through a vast number of images to determine which ones will make the cut regarding being included in volume two.

I won't be giving away the story by telling you that the bird type known as a tufted tit mouse (who is featured in the image atop this blog entry, where he/she is spending time in my rooftop garden), will be featured in volume two.

An UPDATE: Tweeting and Reflecting (Details on The New Direction for TLLG on Blogger)

Tweet! Tweet! (View One)
I also posted this image on WBU-MICH FB Page

Tweet! Tweet! (View Two)
I also posted this image on TLLG'S FB Page

It has been over a month since I posted here on Blogger, and I'd like to use today's entry as an opportunity to state what my intentions are for this blog in the days to come, for I feel I have gotten away from my original hope re this endeavor, an endeavor I began on the last day of 2009, when I set up this blog, stating:

"Now that I've gotten the setting up of my blog underway (and making my New Year's resolution to stick with a posting schedule, it seems I may be passée. I understand many people have moved on to Tweeting. It is my life story summed up in ten words: at the airport when the ship comes into the dock. Being a reflective soul, I'll probably stick to blogging over tweeting. Besides, as it is, while some of my posts will be snippets and captions, others may border on mini essays. My temperament reminds me of Herb Gardener, whom I happened to meet while working at a theater (but that is as 'they' say, another story), and he told me that before becoming a playwright, he was a cartoonist and when the 'bubbles of dialogue got bigger than the cartoon-characters, it was time to be a playwright.' Similarly, as opposed to tweeting, blogs let you generate more in-depth content. I see them having greater resilience in terms of perception. But they require what many people seem to consider long-term commitment today:setting aside 20-90 minutes daily, weekly or semi-weekly. Still some bloggers are providing insightful or informative blogs which I hope to do also. I am in it for the long haul, and perhaps the Charles Schultz cartoon posted below sums it up:"

Now, today, March 6, 2014, as I look back on my initial (December 2009) intent for this blog, which was at a time I knew very little about social media, I realize that in some ways, I've succumbed to the "pressure" of tweeting, albeit through my Facebook (FB) and Pinterest postings being automatically tweeted (it's rare that I compose a direct tweet from twitter), and I've neglected what is near, as well as dear, to my soul: generating more in-depth content.

Sorry Bert, "Doin' The Pigeon" is NOT for me!

This past Friday (June 14th) morning when I was making my morning coffee, a lone pigeon took it upon himself/herself to watch my every move from a tree in a neighbor's yard; and he/she even turned his/her head completely around to do so, as evidenced by the picture atop today's blog entry.

Now, I don't mind birds watching me; after all, I watch them on a number of occasions. However, I wasn't too happy to discover a pigeon so near to my rooftop garden, and, I definitely did not want him/her to come into my place!

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!

Is Spring of 2013 FINALLY, FINALLY springing? (PART TWO of FIVE) ASK MY SIX TREES

Welcome to part two of my series (which I introduced in this past Friday's post here on Blogger) where the "things" I grow will answer the question: Is Spring of 2013 FINALLY, FINALLY springing?

Today my six trees and I will weigh in with their answers and we'll begin with the opinions of my Japanese Larch (Larix Kaempferi) followed by the thoughts of my 'Tamukeyama' (AKA Japanese Maple).

Then (in no particular order) my Lemon-Lime Cypress Twins, Acer palmatum ('Shisitatsu' Sawa) as well as my Acer shirasawanum (Autumn Moon) and my Fagus sylvatica (Beech Tree) will join the convo.

So without furthur ado, here's part two!

My surviving larch can be seen within the square imposed over a cropped aerial view of my garden (an image taken by Juan V) and I refer it to it as my surviving larch, for my other larch succumbed to a heat wave this past July, which is still a loss being mourned in my garden!

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!

"Consider the birds . . . "

Long ago, it was written to "Consider the birds . . . they do not toil . . . .," and, I TRULY need to take a lesson from my feathered friends! here on Blogger.

"another year over AND a new one just begun . . . " PART TWO-I- (November 2012)

Today's entry here on Blogger is part two-J of a series of posts pertaining to a year-end review for special occurrences in my urban garden for the year 2012 (the schedule for this series is described in part one as well as part two-A of this topic), and this entry concerns itself with the special "events" which occurred in my garden in the month of November 2012.

According to Thomas Hood, the British poet and scholar, November is a month of "nos." I wrote about this in a previous post (November 2011) here on Blogger, and if you'd like to, you may refer to it by clicking here.

In any event, according to Wiki, Hood's abridged poem re November is as follows: 

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

However, even though in bygone years in my garden, November did begin with a "bunch" of "no's;" this year the first of November, even though it immediately followed Hurricane Sandy, and major clean-up in my garden, did begin with a resounding "yes," and that "yes" was a visit by a male cardinal pictured here atop today's blog entry. He can be seen here "perched" on a container which is home to my Vaccinium macrocarpon (AKA Cranberry Vine) where he has one eye on a bird feeder and one eye on me.

Lumpy, Bumpy Greenmarket Thanksgiving Pumpkins AND THE WISDOM OF BIRDS

There are an array of greenmarkets all throughout New York City where I live, and one such market at Tucker Square takes place on Thursdays and Saturdays where, in by-gone years, have purchased Rosmarinus officinalis  AKA Rosemary  from a grower who participates in this particular market. And I've often gotten cheese from Bobolink, a cheese-maker that I have featured on Blogger in the past, including a post which you may refer to by clicking here.

In any event, this past Thursday, November 15th 2012, I went to the Tucker Square market with coupons for "freebies" in my hand as I was in search of pumpkins and gourds to photograph for my line of autumn and Thanksgiving cards. What I discovered was some pumpkins which were "lumpy and bumpy" (seen in the back row of the image above today's blog entry), and I immediately thought of them as a "visual" way of describing how the lumps and bumps that I have all over my body (as a result of being born with the neurological "disorder" known as Neurofibromatosis Type-One or NF-1) appear.

I asked the grower about these "odd" looking pumpkins and she referred me to an Internet source where I was informed that this lumpy/bumpy appearance "is not a hideously disfiguring disease that's suddenly stricken one of America's favorite autumn staples – these pumpkins have been genetically engineered to look that way. It takes at least 10 generations of cross-breeding to produce a pumpkin that's adequately covered in warts to be sold under the Super Freak label, according to Roy Pearman, director of sales and marketing for Siegers Seed Co., based in Holland, Mich., which "puts the genetics together" to create seeds for the bumpy, heavily wart-covered pumpkins and gourds."

This info leads me to believe that there is no political correctness in pumpkin patches when it comes to describing "favorite autumn staples," which is not surprising, given the type of verbal abuse I have experienced re my lumps and bumps; and an innocent pumpkin cannot defend himself against cruel remarks such as being considered a "super freak" and cannot get legal representation against such injustices!