The 5th Anniversary of Harper Lee's Passing

The author, Harper Lee, known mostly for her novel, "To Kill A Mockingbird," died five years ago today (2-19-2016). In honor of her memory I'm sharing three photo-ops (atop this posting) of a Northern mockingbird who hung out with a Mourning dove in my garden during yesterday's snowstorm.

The 4th Anniversary of Harper Lee's Passing (And Her Influence On Me)

IMAGE CREDIT

Today is the fourth anniversary of Harper Lee's death. I've paid homage to Ms. Lee's passing since the day it occurred (2-19-2016). This morning while doing some research I came across an interesting New York Post article (by Melkorka Licea, Isabel Vincent and Melissa Klein) re an apartment that she maintained in NYC. The photo atop my entry is from their piece.

As I've mentioned in my blog entries re Harper Lee, rarely is the time I encounter certain birds such as blue jays or mockingbirds and not think of her novel, To Kill A Mockingbird.

It's the 3rd Anniversary of Harper Lee's Death

IMAGE CREDIT

I posted something early this morning for my Tuesday's Truths series, but don't want the day to pass without paying homage to Harper Lee on this third anniversary of her death. The photo atop my entry is from one of her obituaries. Rarely is the time I encounter blue jays or mockingbirds and not think of her novel, To Kill A Mockingbird. 

The 2nd Anniversary of Harper Lee's Passing

BLUE JAYS ARE FEATURED IN "WIOB"

BLUE JAYS ARE FEATURED IN "WIOB"

BLUE JAYS ARE FEATURED IN "WIOB"

Whenever I see blue jays at at the wreath-style bird feeder in my rooftop garden, or alighting on the branches of an Ailanthus Tree in my courtyard, or in the treetops of Central Park; I think of Atticus Finch (a main character in Harper Lee's novel, To Kill A Mockingbird.

Remembering Author Harper Lee' s Birthday (With A Cool Fact Re Mockingbirds' Eyes)

Every time I see a Northern mockingbird in my rooftop garden (which is what is featured in the picture atop this entry), I think of Harper Lee, for her writing the book, To Kill A Mockingbird.

Ms. Lee was born on this day of April 28th in 1926 and died on February the 19th in 2016. In honor of Lee's birthday, I'm featuring a cool fact regarding this bird type, who as you can see appears to have eyes on the side of his head. This a trait other bird types also have and it is described in a page from Quora.

According to Sam Greydanus, a contributor to the aforementioned page (who addressed a question re the fact that most birds have eyes on the sides of their heads, not on the front), "Birds, insects, and many mammals that have eyes on the sides of their heads actually depend heavily on motion parallax, which is one of these types of depth perception. Motion parallax is when you move your head from side to side and objects close to you appear to move more than objects in the distance."

I have also read that "most birds that have eyes on the side of the head have only one fovea. Fast flying biers have a temporal fovia. This temporal fovia allows them to see light from in front of them through each eye. This in turn helps with depth perception. Birds without this have to turn their head to get the same light in both eyes."

And because the mockingbird pictured above and below, is turning his head, I would assume he does not have a temporal fovia, however I am waiting to hear back from a few naturalists regarding my assumption.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: Is some one going to be buying me a diamond ring?

During the month of January in the year 2015, a bird type that I'd never seen before, visited my rooftop garden, here NYC. 

He/she can be seen within the picture atop this entry (in an image taken at that time). And as you can see, he/she has a morsel of food in his/her beak. This happens to be suet which he/she availed him/herself from one of a dozen suet-basket feeders that I had hung on a Christmas tree in my garden. The bird type that I am speaking of is a Northern mockingbird; and, as I just stated, he/she began to visit my garden in January of 2015 (or at least that is when I first noticed him/her). I immediately named him/her Harper, in honor of the dearly departed author, Harper Lee, who was alive at the time, but has since died (one year ago today).

In any event, from January the 15th of 2015 through the present, Harper has been visiting my garden on a fairly regular basis. I've written about him/her in posts within my cyber venues of Blogger, Facebook, hometalk, as well as tumblr. Additionally, I have a vast number of photographs of him/her on Pinterest (and there are a few images of him/her on Instagram). 

Moreover, I "covered" his/her antics when I participated in The GBBC (Great Backyard Bird Count) in 2015, I "documented" my findings by putting together a mini video which can be viewed within my Vimeo Library.

I never tire of seeing this lovely bird in my midst! And I was particularly grateful that he/she was able to survive the recent snowstorm here in NYC, as evidenced by my entries re the subject here on Blogger (that you may refer to by clicking here and here). The following are additional images (not included in the aforementioned snowstorm posts) of "my" Northern mockingbird spending time in my garden's winter wonderland during that time.

 And he/she continues to dine here, as evidenced in the following image!

But, during all of my encounters with this awesome bird type, I've yet to hear him/her sing! So, I ask you, dear reader, does this mean, that since I have not heard him/her sing, is some one going to be buying me a diamond ring? (As the song in the You Tube video posted below suggests.....)

In Honor of Harper Lee's Passing 2-19-16

Even though Atticus Finch said (in the novel #ToKillAMockingbird) that it was OK to ‘Kill all the bluejays you want….’ my blue jays mourn ‪#‎HarperLee‬’s passing as do I. She died today and in her honor, I’m offering a link to a post (on Fb) that featured how Ms. Lee had time to kill in order to write #ToKillAMockingbird.