It's a GIRL! (Now named A.L.J.J.)

Facts have been confirmed! The American kestrel (or Common kestrel), pictured atop this entry as she clutches her prey (which happens to be an unlucky mouse), while she alights upon a railing that surrounds my rooftop garden (in NYC), is a female.

If you've been following my entries on Blogger, dear reader, than you might recall that I announced this bird's first time visit in an entry I published this past Thursday, where I include a photograph that is very similar to the one posted above.

In the aforementioned post I also included the fact of how, initially, when I first saw this bird, I had mistakenly ID-ed the fauna's type. I followed up on Thursday's entry in a post here on Blogger, which I published yesterday.

This follow up post includes a number of images as well as information on how I was able to confirm this bird's identification in terms of the classification. If you'd like to refer to Friday's follow-up post, please click here.

At the time of my composing yesterdaty's entry, I had reason to believe my avian visitor was a female, but on closer examination of the pictures I had taken of the bird, I was not sure if my conclusion was correct.

I had made this determination re the bird's gender because I had learned that the male American kestrel (or Common kestrel), have blue markings; and I wondered if the blue markings seen on my visiting kestrel's head (in the following image),

where the creature is alighting on the branches of my kiwi vines, meant that I was wrong in thinking the bird to be a female.

Therefore, before I posted any "It's a GIRL!," rhetoric regarding this bird, I reached out to folks via a comment on my Facebook Page for The Last Leaf Gardener stating: "Me again, I'm going through some more photos that I took of this awesome bird and at first I had thought the gender was female. Now I've noticed the bird blue on the head! Do you still think it's a female, Amanda Remsberg? What say you, Leslie Monday and Joan Morris?" 

A Friday Follow-Up AND "This is not a joke..." Turns Out "My" Peregrine Falcon is an American (or Common) kestrel!

Yesterday, in one of my entries here on Blogger, I announced that a member of the fauna community whom I had never seen in my urban garden, paid me a visit. The bird I'm referring to can be seen in the image atop this entry where he/she is alighting on the branches of my kiwi vines, that wrap around the railing of my rooftop garden (in NYC).

In the aforementioned post, I wrote this about my newbie visitor : "I studied the newcomer through the camera's long lens and made the determination he/she was a Peregrine Falcon..." 

However, because I'm not that confident in my bird ID-ing skills, after I published my entry on Blogger, I went to my Facebook Page for The Last Leaf Gardener as well as my Facebook Page for Patricia Youngquist, and I reached out to those who read my page, asking if I was correct in my determination. As it turns out I was not! It turns out that "my" visitor was not a Peregrine Falcon, but she was an American (or Common) kestrel!

Today, May 4th, IS FOR THE BIRDS!

Many of you might recognize the cardinal featured in the photograph atop this blog entry, for this creature is Cam, the author of Words In Our Beak Volume One, a book which I helped her to write.

In any event, the image that is atop-this posting is included in her story, and it was taken in my rooftop garden, located in NYC, and where the story takes place. Cam is with me in honor of the holiday, which is Bird Day. According to Holiday Insights (HI), Bird Day is aways celebrated on May 4th.

HI explains that "Bird Day is the oldest of the days set aside to recognize birds. According to the U.S. Library of Congress, Bird Day was first observed  on May 4, 1894. It was started by Charles Almanzo Babcock, superintendent of schools in Oil City, Pennsylvania. By 1910, Bird Day was widely celebrated, often in conjunction with Arbor Day. Bird Day and Arbor Day events are focused upon conservation training and awareness."

Therefore, in honor of this event, Cam and I are featuring images of all the bird types who have visited my urban garden, as of this posting. We are doing this in order of the appearance of a given fauna type in my place.

Cam is the first bird I saw in my garden, however, others have seen hummingbirds her. But since I have not, we'll begin with her. Cam has been here with her husband, Mac, as well as couple of her children as seen in the next set of images.

The second bird type who I noticed in my garden is male and female house finches who can be seen getting intimate while perching on the string lights which hang over my garden.

Mourning doves were the third bird variety to spend time here and they also used my place to get intimate as evidenced below.

All three of the aforementioned bird types are discussed in detail (accompanied by an array of images) in Words In Our Beak Volume One.  

The  other birds which have visited here will be featured in subsequent volume. These include (in order of appearance in my garden.

Blue jays:

House sparrows:

Tufted titmouses:

Chickadees:

Downy Woodpeckers:

Common Grackles:

White-Breasted Nuthatch:

Rose-Breasted Grosbeak:

Pigeons:

Baltimore oriole:

European starlings:

Northern mockingbird:

American Goldfinch:

American robin:

A Leutistic House Finch:

And an American kestrel:

The American kestrel's arrival brought the total amount of bird types who have visited my garden to twenty.

Of these twenty varieties who have come here, I have seen seven of them represented in Central Park, including American robins, blue jays, cardinals, common grackles, European starlings, mourning doves, pigeons, sparrows and tufted titmouses.

I've also encountered other types of fauna in the park.

Some Feline Bird Watchers Have Lots to See!

There is a lot of bird watching to be be had from the vantage point of my rooftop garden but also from the vantage point of those whose apartment windows face our courtyard. No one knows this better than Snooze, the cat seen in the image at atop this entry.

Currently she lives in the building directly east of me and her window faces my garden as well a courtyard (Sadly Snooze is moving in a few days but I do have stories about her on my blog.)

At this time, Snooze is not the only one who spends her hours watching the avian creatures in our midst, there is another cat who lives in a building directly north of us (just across the courtyard).

"His eye is on the sparrow...."

 

During yet another snowstorm which occurred in my area this past Thursday, it was very discncerting for me to notice a pigeon's (seen in the three images atop this entry where he is in my garden) injury through the long lens of my camera.

Birds & Baseball

According to the FB Home Page for the Charles M. Schulz Museum, where the PEANUTS comic strip atop this entry is from, Spring Training (for baseball) began yesterday. I confess I don't follow the sport now since Julia V has died in 2002 (seven years before my first post here on Blogger) Julia was a homebound woman who lived on the UWS and I visited her on a regular basis through a program sponsored by The Church of the Blessed Sacrament.

Julia was a baseball fan (understatement), therefore, in order to have something to talk about a topic she would enjoy I listened to coverage of the sport on the radio, followed the newspaper headlines and watch a few games with her. I didn't keep with the the sport after she passed, but, I do know that a few teams have a bird as their mascot.

Saturday's Sequel re The Great Blue Heron

This past Tuesday, here on Blogger, I published a post describing my encounter with a bird type whom I'd never seen before, a Great Blue Heron. I mentioned that I came upon this lovely creature while walking in Central Park. I also stated that I only had a small pocket camera with me at the time, and that I normally use my DSLR to photograph birds. Therefore, I wasn't totally pleased with the images that I had taken of the Great Blue Heron. Because of this, I returned to the park yesterday (taking my DSLR this time) with the hopes of seeing the heron again.

But, alas, I did not see a heron. However, I did see Red-Belllied Woodpecker, who is also a bird type that I'd never seen before (which I discussed  in yesterday's blog post); and this creature is featured in the image directly above, where she is being pestered by house sparrows.

Seeing the Red-Bellied Woodpecker was a wonderful experience, but I still wanted another glimpse of the Great Blue Heron!

Yesterday, I checked the EXIF info re the images that I did manage to get of that awesome bird type the other day —  with the hope that knowing the hour in which they were taken — would give me a clue as to when I might anticipate seeing the Great Blue Heron in the place where I'd seen him/her this past Tuesday.

I'm thankful to say that my "detective" work paid off, for when I returned to the park, near to the time I'd seen the Great Blue Heron before, he/she showed up soon after I was there! The creature seemed in good spirits, nearly jumping for joy; as evidenced in the next picture.

It was very cold outside and my hands were freezing from being exposed as I took photos of this bird, but, as you will see in the next set of photographs (featuring the Great Blue Heron spending time with  Mallard ducks), my efforts were truly rewarded.

Wednesday's Wisdom + Thursday's Testimony (It's The Little Things)

This past Friday, June 2nd 2017, I came upon some people who were hanging out upon a stoop  of a one family brownstone that is located on the UWS of NYC.

They were engaged in conversation, enjoying pizza. Seeing them take such pleasure in the activity of eating pizza, while hanging out on a stoop during a Friday evening in NYC, gave me pleasure; and, I told them so.

I rarely take photos of people, but regretted not having my camera with me. Upon my telling them this, one of the stoop sitters, who referred to himself as Josiah Kargbo, took a picture with his cell phone, and emailed it to me. Kargbo's image is featured atop this blog entry.

The couple (N&J) who owns the brownstone are folks who I know on a little more than a "hi-how-you-fine-thanks" status; and in all the years I've passed their building, I've never seen them sitting on their stoop to watch passersby. However, I have seen a number of persons of all shapes and sizes, of all genders, of all races, and, of all ages, hanging out on this stoop.

Here's Tuesday's Truths for the 71st Week: This is The Year of the Bird

In honor of the sixteenth day, of the one-hundredth anniversary of The Migratory Bird Act, I am posting a reminder: This calendar year of 2018 has been designated as The Year of the Bird.

The collage atop this entry depicts the fact that The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is partnering with organizations that include National Geographic, National Audubon Society, Bird Life International, and, is "asking people to pledge to do one thing per month to help birds."

 A web-page for National Geographic, includes a quote attributed to Thomas E. Lovejoy, which states,“If you take care of the birds, you take care of most of the big environmental problems in the world.”

Readers of this blog surely know, I enjoy any opportunity to take care of birds, which I mostly do for the array of types who have visited my urban garden.

Today, 2/02/22, is known as Twos-day! Tuesday's Truths WK 230

Welcome to my two hundred and thirtieth segement of Tuesdy's Truths.  I realize my last  post re this series was published on November 16th 2021, a little over two months ago and that particular post was published soon after I had an accident which resulted in my needing to have a surgical procedure known as Open Reduction/Internal Fixation Surgery.

Upon discharge from that surgery I had to wear a pump for a couple of days...

.... unfortunately something with the pump malfunctioned and I nearly died as a result.

Feed the Birds Day 2018

I've posted a You Tube video atop this entry in honor of one of today's (February 3rd) holidays, which  is known as Feed the Birds Day (according to Holiday Insights who states the following):

"Date When Celebrated: Always February 3: Help the wild birds in your backyard to survive the long, cold winter by feeding them. That's exactly why this special day was created. Mid and late winter are especially hard on all outdoor animals. By mid winter, food sources become scarcer and scarcer for the wild birds that over-winter in your backyard..."

I featured this quote from Holiday Insights along with the Mary Poppins film clip that's included here in my 2017 blog entry for Feed the Birds Day,

In terms of the many photographs of wild birds eating that I used in the aforementioned entry, most of them are different than the ones I am using today.

Galeux d’Eysines, Bumpy Gourds, & The Muscovy Duck, what's bumps got to do with it? (Tuesday's Truths WK 95)

In yesterday's blog post, I mentioned that while on my way to a greenmarket and the green-flea (on the UWS) this past Sunday, I noticed (as did many others, including the police) that a raccoon was looking down (from the tree tops near some scaffolding) on all who passed by. I also mentioned that I was at the market longer than I anticipated, so I never did find out what happened to the creature; for when I returned all evidence of the incident, including on-lookers and policemen were gone.

One of the reasons for my tarrying at the greenmarket was that I spotted a pair bumpy looking pumpkins (pictured above) at Gaia's Breath Farm's "vending" stand and took the time to ask about them. I learned from a kind woman working there that these are a variety known as a peanut pumpkins, a term which I immediately googled after putting the one I got atop the urban hedge in my rooftop garden.

According to a gardening-related web-page, "the peanut pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima ‘Galeux d’Eysine’) is an heirloom pumpkin varietal notable for its distinctive peanut-like growths peppering the exterior of its pink hued rind. Certainly unique looking, some might say unattractive, the 'peanuts' are actually a buildup of excess sugar in the flesh of the pumpkin."

I was not surprised to learn that some say the Galeux d’Eysine was "unattractive" because of having peanut-like growths. However, it is the peanut-like growths that drew my attention, because they reminded me of my own lumps and bumps (that I deplore so much that I rarely alllow my picture to be taken, but for purposes of this entry, one is included towards the end) which I have as a result of being born with the medical (neurological) condition, Neurofibromatosis Type-One.

Honoring the (5) Great "new brand" Pumpkins (National Pumpkin Day 2019)

IMAGE CREDIT

Today is not part of my blog posting schedule for this week, but this entry is being published in honor of National Pumpkin Day!

One can hardly think of pumpkins without thinking of The Great Pumpkin made famous by Charles Schultz's Peanuts character, Linus, who can be seen with Sally (directly above) taking delight in a pumpkin patch, where they are awaiting the arrival of him/her.

This year I have five great "new brand variety" pumpkins and a few "standard" pumpkins, all of which I got from various farmers in the tri-state area who come to the Greenmarkets on the UWS.