Monday Musings: ON BEING AN ODD DUCK ETC

Yesterday morning I got the notification via a tweet from from Manhattan Bird Alert  which stated
"The MANDARIN DUCK and his reflection, continuing this Sunday at the Central Park Pond (60th and Fifth)" and upon reading it I made my way over to that area of CP.

However, when I arrived the Mandarin duck was no where to be seen, but The Pond, was being used by a number of other ducks, including male Wood ducks, such as the one seen in my photograph atop this entry.

Saturday's Sequel

STORIES IN MY BOOKS ARE SET IN MY GARDEN

It snowed again last night but the accumulation did not amount to much in my garden as you can see in the photo directly above and compare it to the one I included in yesterday's blog post, hence I'm considering this to be Saturday's sequel.

In the aforementioned  post, I also mentioned that March is National Peanut Month and I featured a quite a number of birds, including Northern cardinals, Blue Jays and Common Grackles, enjoying peanuts from various bird feeders in my garden.

It's March!

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.

THE STORIES IN MY BOOKS TAKE PLACE IN MY GARDEN

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.

Rare Disease Awareness Day 2019

It was brought to my attention (through a Facebook posting) yesterday by my acquaintance (Catherine C) that Rare Disease Day is being observed on February 28th this year.

According to a number of sources, including NORD (The National Association for Rare Disorders), "In the U.S., any disease affecting fewer than 200,000 people is considered rare. This definition comes from the Orphan Drug Act of 1983 and is slightly different from the definition used in Europe. There are more than 7,000 rare diseases affecting 25-30 million Americans. In other words, one in ten Americans are suffering from rare diseases and more than half of them are children."

She advocates for this cause due to the fact daughter has a rare disease (Klippel-Trenaunay Syndrome AKA Fibro-Adipose Vascular Anomaly OR Kawasaki Disease). As it happens, before I saw Catherine's posting, I had a very unpleasant experience re my rare disease (Neurofibromatosis).

FLOWERS & FOLIAGE ARE FOR THE BIRDS! (Wednesday's Wisdom)

HOUSE FINCHES ARE  FEATURED IN "WORDS IN OUR BEAK"

EMILY'S STORY IS IN VOLUME THREE

It is rather common knowledge that "birders who hope to see hummingbirds often plant nectar-bearing flowers to attract them, but hummers aren't the only birds attracted to flowers."

This truism (or wisdom) is certainly evidenced by the photos directly above (taken in my garden a few years ago) where a male house finch seems to be enamored by my blooming Crabapple Tree while a female Baltimore Oriole is spending her time in the midst of my roses.

Kermit THE Frog & An American Coot (Tuesday's Truths WK 115)

Welcome to segment 115 of my Tuesday's Truths series. The photograph atop this entry is a partial view of a Macy's Ballon (which was in one of their Thanksgiving Day Parades in bygone years) rendered in the likeness of Kermit The Frog. In this image, he is "flying" high above the treetops along CPW (Central Park West).

I thought of their ballon when I was by The Pond in Central Park yesterday.