The Tenth Day of Christmas and other Stuff

IMAGE CREDIT

Happy Tenth Day of Christmas, the day when someones's true love gave to them (according to a song) ten pipers piping, nine drummers drumming; as well as eight maids a milking, seven swans a swimming, six geese a laying, five golden rings, four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree.

The web-page, 12 Birds Of Christmas, has this to say re The Tenth Day of Christmas: "We sing the song with the ten lords a-leaping, but originally it was ten pipers piping, at least in England. In earliest known variant found in North America, on the Tenth Day of Christmas, the true love sent ten Cocks A-Crowing. It's all the same, however. Cocks and sandpipers were both legendary for being noisy, excitable, vain and arrogant, feisty, and sexually aggressive  It was shortly after the broadside was published that the word 'rooster' replaced 'cock' in polite company in North America. That may help explain why we don't hear that version today..." 

In honor of the gift of pipers piping on this Tenth Day of Christmas, I've posted an illustration by  Roberta Baird, whose whose other bird illustration I included in yesterday's post here on Blogger.

A Red-Tailed Hawk in my Courtyard (Thursday's Testimony)

THIS RED-TAILED HAWK IS FEATURED IN VOL 3

A woman who lives in the building that is adjacent to the one in which I live, has called me on a few occasions to alert me to the fact that a hawk is alighting on the branches of a nearby Ailanthus Tree and is staring at my rooftop garden. Her assumption has always been that the hawk is doing this because he/she "knows I feed the birds who visit my place."

Yesterday was the first time that I happen to notice the awesome creature. He/she is featured in the photograph atop this entry where, indeed, he/she does appear to be staring down at my garden.

Thursday's Tandem-Cycling Tale: Inwood Park

The photograph atop this entry features Trudy Hutter, an avid (understatement) cyclist, who is also a coordinator for The Weekday Cyclists in NYC. They meet on Tuesdays to ride in Central Park and on Thursdays, they ride to different locations in NYC and its surrounding areas.

I am not a member of this group, because, due to my visual challenges I am not able to ride a bicycle; unless it is as a stoker on a tandem. Therefore, I'm grateful to say that I have been able to participate in tandem cycling, ever since the opportunity was presented (2009) to persons with vision loss. At that time ZW was assigned to be my captain, and we've been cycling ever since.

It is through ZW that I met Trudy, and she she has joined us on her single bike on occasion, including when we've ridden to Piermont, a popular cycling destination for New Yorkers. The town is north of the hamlet of Palisades, east of Sparkill, and south of Grand View-on-Hudson, on the west bank of the Hudson River.

Tuesday's Truths WK 13: How The Bald Eagle Became America's National Bird AND Other Cool Facts!

Hello and welcome to week thirteen of Tuesday's Truths. The photo of a Bald Eagle atop this entry was taken yesterday at The Raptor Trust, a bird rehab facility in New Jersey. As you may know, dear reader, I initially learned of The Raptor Trust's existence from The Wild Bird Fund, the only bird rehab center in NYC. I made my first trip to their facility last Friday and posted this fact on Blogger on Sunday, October 9th, where I introduced Pearl, an American Robin, who is classified as "partial-Albino" by The Raptor Trust, as evidenced in the photos below.

In any event, within the aforementioned blog post, I promised that I would write about the other birds that I saw there. But I  didn't know that I would have the opportunity to return to The Raptor Trust today with a friend who wanted to give our mutual buddy (who has been recovering from an illness for a long time) an opportunity to have a day trip.

I only took a few photos yesteday as I haven't had the chance to use the ones I took this past Friday! But the photo of Pearl (directly above, as well as the image atop this entry, and the two directly below were taken yesterday.

I had hoped to get better images of the Bald Eagles who are permanent residents at the facility as I knew my intention was to post information re how the Bald Eagle became America's national bird.