Giving a THUMBS UP to #DrawaBirdDay (2017)

Today, April the 8th, is an official time to celebrate an unofficial holiday, which dates back to the 1940's and is known as Draw A Bird Day. In honor of the event, I've posted a drawing of a blue jay that I did as a very young child. As you can see, drawing was not my strength! When it comes to pictures of birds, I'm better off rendering them photographically, rather than with crayons, but being an accomplished drawer is not a criteria for participating in this holiday.

Here's what MNN (Mother Nature Network) has to say re the event: "Although it's not a recognized holiday, it's celebrated worldwide on April 8 as a way to find joy in life's simple pleasures and to help people temporarily forget their suffering. According to the Draw A Bird Day website, the holiday dates back to 1943 when a 7-year-old British girl named Dorie Cooper went to visit her uncle who'd been wounded in the war. The man was distraught after losing his leg to a landmine, so in an attempt to distract him, Dorie asked him to draw her a bird. He drew a picture of a robin, and Dorie laughed, saying he wasn’t a very gifted artist but that she’d hang the drawing in her room anyway.

"The young girl's honesty and acceptance lifted the soldier's spirits, and every time Dorie visited after that, he and the other wounded soldiers would have a contest to see who could create the best bird picture. In a matter of months, the ward's walls were covered in bird drawings. Tragically, Dorie was hit by a car three years later and killed. At her funeral, her coffin was filled with bird pictures drawn by soldiers, nurses and doctors from her uncle's hospital. She was remembered as the little girl who brought life and hope to a ward of suffering, and since her death, people have been honoring Dorie by drawing birds on her birthday."

MNN goes on to say that "anyone can participate in celebrating Dorie's life by drawing a bird on April 8 and sharing it with someone." 

Therefore, in memory of Dorie Cooper, I'm honoring the day by posting the following images of bird drawings that were on a chalkboard inside a store on the UWS of NYC;

as well as a drawing of a bird that was on a pop-up chalkboard (as seen below) outside a shop near to The Wild Bird Fund, the only bird re-hab facility in NYC.

IF I COULD, you know that I would fly away with you....

The pose this sweet dark-eyed junco (seen in the image directly above) is making, as he stands on the surface of my rooftop garden, reminds me of the look of the girl depicted by the seventeenth century dutch painter, Johannes Vermeer, in Meisje met de parel (Girl with a Pearl Earring). An image of his painting can be seen directly below.

This is a look that the visiting junco often gives me,

and I may not see this expression again for a while as I think the dark-eyed junco and his comrades have left for the season. The junco is a snowbird; and over the years, this bird type has visited me from late October until early to mid April.

In Honor of Mockingbirds & N'tl Poetry Month (which is always April)

This morning a Northern mockingbird, who seemed to be undeterred by the April showers we are having in NYC, paid a visit to my rooftop garden, and alighted upon my Prickly Pear cactus, as seen in the images posted directly above.

The Prickly Pear seems an odd choice as a place to perch, given its sharp needles, but my advice was not solicited by the visiting mockingbird!

Wednesday's Wisdom: It's N'tl Dandelion Day! (Take THAT Crayola!)

Just under a week ago, Crayola forced the crayon (pictured above) known as Dandelion, into early retirement! However, the dandelion for whom the crayon was named, is still in the spotlight; especially today, April 5th, because this is National Dandelion Day!

According to Holiday Insight (HI) who made the announcement, National Dandelion Day is Always April 5th. Furthermore HI states "Any plant as versatile and durable as the dandelion, certainly deserves a special day set aside to honor it. We all know of dandelions as weeds in our lawns. To kids, the dandelion is a flower to gather and bring home to mom. But, dandelions are oh so much more than just a weed. Even many gardeners think of it as a weed. But, more knowledgeable gardeners know better. Dandelion leaves are edible, and are savored in soups and salads. It is rich in vitamins A, B, C, and D. Dandelions are used in making wine and for tea, too. Native Americans used it for medicinal purposes."

I maintain that Crayola "shoulda" taken this into consideration when dismissing dandelion from its boxes of crayons.

Tuesday's Truths WK 35: Mourning Doves "PLAY POSSUM"

The image atop this entry shows a lone mourning dove in my garden, which as you may know, is on a "roof extension" in NYC. At first glance you might think that the dove has an injured wing which is exactly what he wants you to think! Doves do use the broken wing tactic to draw predators away from a nest site. 

Welcome to the thirty-fifth segment of Tuesday's Truths, where I will tell you a fact about this behavior known as the broken wing tactic. Young mourning doves are referred to as "squabs." 

And as an informative web-page states, squabs are "devoted parents rarely leave the nest or their young unattended. If danger is detected near them, they will perform  nest-distraction displays, such as a broken-wing display, during which they flutter on the ground pretending to be injured and easy prey -  to draw the predator's attention to them."

When I see mourning doves doing this, I say they are playing possum. This is because "apparent death, colloquially known as playing dead, feigning death, or playing possum, is a behavior in which an animal takes on the appearance of being dead. This form of animal deception is an adaptive behavior also known as tonic immobility or thanatosis. Apparent death can be used as a defense mechanism or as a form of aggressive mimicry, and occurs in a wide range of animals;" according to Wiki.

However, my seeing the dove behave this way could also be that he may have been sunning himself, even though it was not that warm. WBU explains that a mourning dove's "instinct to sunbathe even when already heat-stressed, supports the idea that it’s not always to warm the body. Like humans they probably enjoy a few rays but their main reasons for sunning must be to keep their feathers in top shape. Some ways birds maintain feather quality is through water, dust, and sun bathing.

"Most birds have a preen gland or uropygial gland at the base of the tail. With their beak, birds realign the barbs correctly, remove any dirt or parasites and apply preen oil. If the bird sunbathes the oil is exposed to the ultraviolet light from the sun. Then the uropygial gland secretions convert to an active form of vitamin D which is ingested with the next preening. This may explain in part why some birds sunbathe.

"However, doves don’t have the preen gland. Instead they grow powder down feathers that grow continuously and never molt. The barbs at the feather tips constantly disintegrate into a fine, talc-like, water-resistant powder. If you’ve ever seen a window strike by a dove, you may have seen a “ghost bird” on the glass. This is actually a tracing of the bird left on the glass by its powder down.

"In late summer doves are growing new outer feathers. Like ironing our clothes, the heat of the sun might help make it easier for doves to shape their new feathers. And along with easing discomfort associated with molting, the sun may also help dislodge parasites so the bird can preen them off more easily."

Perhaps the dove I saw was doing a bit of both: grabbing some Vitamin D while he could (as we've had very little sun); while feigning an injury so he could take a nap, as evidenced by his closed eyelids.

Julie Feinstein writes male and female mourning doves "have a small dark comma-shaped mark on both sides of the head below and behind the eyes. Their eyes are dark brown and ringed about with pastel blue skin. Their eyelids are blue, too -- one of my favorite things is to find a mourning dove asleep with its powder blue eyelids showing." And I feel the same way way when I see mourning doves do this, it is peaceful sight.

No April Fools Day Prank OR Fake News: Dandelion has been retired!

On this April Fool's Day, I'm sorry to report that the announcement made by Crayola yesterday, regarding their retiring the crayon color known as dandelion; was not a pre-April Fool's Day prank!

And it was not fake news either!

The crayon known as dandelion (pictured above) will no longer be a part of any of their crayon collections. It is my understanding that some type of blue color will be replacing dandelion, which seems problematic to me given Vincent van Gogh's philosophy on the color yellow. He is known to have claimed, "There is no blue without yellow and orange," which is something I wrote about here on Blogger in 2011!

Yellow has been an important color in my urban garden, as evidenced by the members of the fauna community who visit my place; as well as by the flora which has grown here.