Faithful friends ARE sturdy shelters.

The photograph atop this entry features a Northern mockingbird alighting on the branches of a shrub known as a Continus Coggygria (Smoke Bush) which has been growing in my garden for a number of years. I took the image when the lovely creature stopped by to spend a good deal of time with me this past Friday evening.

Friday Follow-Up

A SLIDE FROM MY PRESENTATION

A SLIDE FROM MY PRESENTATION

At the presentation that I made at Iona Prep (Lower) School this past Tuesday, I included a total of two hundred and three slides. These slides featured a number of views of nineteen different bird types who have visited my rooftop garden, as well as a few slides that showed a Red-Tailed Hawk.

She is one who kept her eyes on the comings and goings of creatures visiting my place from either the vantage point of an Ailanthus Tree in a nearby courtyard or from atop an air-conditioner that is in the window of a building which is across that courtyard (as seen in the images of my slides that are posted atop this entry).

As you can see in the first slide above, I included the common and scientific name of the hawk, which is something I did for each bird type (along with giving the students interesting facts re a given bird variety within the featured birds).

There was a student in the audience who was very good at pronouncing the Latin (scientific) names of the birds and there was also a staff member who had an interesting point upon seeing the image (below) on my slide,

A SLIDE FROM MY PRESENTATION

of a lone Northern mockingbird in my garden.

The Feast of The Annunciation (Monday's Meditation)

NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRDS HAVE A STORY IN VOL 3

I'm in the process of preparing a submission for an exciting project, so I've been going through hundreds of my photographs featuring birds who visit my garden as well as my images of avian creatures who visit nearby parks (Central plus Riverside) and who spend their time on the shoreline of the Atlantic Ocean.

BUT I have a confession to make, trusting my choices of pictures and words to include in my proposal is mind boggling. Unfortunately, I've been turning to many people for their opinions because  I have somehow convinced myself that the thoughts of others are more worthy than mine. In this sense, I've been like a mockingbird,* the bird type seen in the picture atop this entry with his/her beak open ever so slightly.

Reflections on "MYSTERIES OF LIFE"

One of my favorite mini essays by E.B. White is, "Mysteries of Life." Recently I referred to it when commenting on an entry on The Writer's Almanac's Facebook Page. And I thought of White's "mysteries" essay again the other morning, prompting me to share it here:

MYSTERIES OF LIFE (9-22-28 E.B. White):

"About once a year the human soul gets into the papers, when British scientist convene. Once a year the mystery of life, the riddle of death, are either cleared up or left hanging. The reports of the learned man enthrall us, and there have been moments when we felt that we were really approaching an understanding of life’s secret. We experienced one of those moments the other morning, reading a long article on the chemistry of the cell. Unfortunately, when we finished we happened to glance into our goldfish tank and saw there was a new inhabitant. Frisky, our pet snail, had given birth to a tiny son while our back was turned. The baby mollusk was even then hunching along the glassy depths, wiggling his feelers, shaking his whelky head. Nothing about Frisky’s appearance or conduct had given us the slightest intimation of the blessed event; and gazing at the little newcomer, we grew very humble, and threw the morning paper away. Life was as mysterious as ever."

The essay came to my mind, not because I was reading through the newspaper to check on the reports of "the learned man," and missed the birth of a creature in the process; rather, I thought of the essay when I woke up this morning after a difficult night caused by my having spent too much time going over and over things I had or hadn't done that made me disappointed in myself.

My First Pine Cone!

The photograph atop this entry as well as the ones directly below were taken by JV (Juan V) after he spotted a pinecone on the  Japanese Larch (Larix Kaempferi) which is located in the northeast corner of my rooftop garden.

I've never seen a pine cone when it was in the early stages of life and was so fascinated by Juan's discovery that I did a bit of research to learn more about them, which is my wisdom for Wednesday.

According to an article by Natalie Andrews, "Pine trees, also known as “conifers,” have cones instead of flowers. These cones serve as a pine tree’s source of seed. Conifers also produce separate male and female cones for seed development. In general, the development of a pine cone takes around two years and fertilization happens in the spring. Both male and female cones start like tiny pink-lilac bristles.They turn green as they develop, but their scales stay tucked together until maturity. When fully mature, female cones look like typical pine cones, with hard brown woody scales spread apart. They form at the foot of new shoots below the terminal bud and take about two years to mature and produce seeds. Each female pine cone has about 200 seeds, depending on the pine's species... " (You can read the rest of Andrews article by clicking here).

As for my Japanese Larch, I got it in 2005 or 2006 or was it 2004? Not so sure when I first planted that tree in a container that she eventually outgrew!

Wednesday's Wisdom: Outdoor Xmas Trees... are for the birds!

MY GARDEN IS THE SETTING FOR "WORDS IN OUR BEAK"

The photograph atop this entry features a Christmas tree that I had in my urban garden (which is on a rooftop in NYC) in 2015. I am thinking of putting up a tree for the 2016 Christmas season next week. I have not done my garden winterizing for the 2016-2017 season, and that annual task is a prerequisite for putting up any holiday decor. This chore involves wrapping all my containers in bubble wrap, as well as burlap (from on-line fabrics), and then tying them with jute, before placing them in the southeastern corner of my garden (to protect them for the season).

If you look closely at this image you will see an orange arrow (near to by signature) in the lower right corner. The arrow indicates the area where most of my winterized containers of flora are placed for a given season.

And if you look closely at my Christmas tree (topped with a star), you will notice that I have quite a number of ornaments on it which happen to be bird feeders (mostly suet basket varieties).

My Christmas trees have become a place for an array of types of fauna (including a Harper, a Northern Mockingbird), to get food and keep warm.

Mockingbirds and starlings have common behaviors! Tuesday's Truths WK 208

For this 208th segement of my Tuesday's Truths series, I'd like to tell you a behavior that the bird types (European starlings and Northern mockingbirds) featured in the photos atop this entry have in common.

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.

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.

Sunday's Sentiment: Remembering my Grandfather's Appreciating Trees

My maternal grandfather, Albert Elmer Herman Lewis Melahn, can be seen in an unndated snapshot (directly above) with a tree he had just planted. He died in the mid to late 1970's on this day of January 24th.

Ground Hog Day: One Week Later

It's been one week since Groundhog Day; and, as you may know dear reader, on that day, the NYC creature, a groundhog named Staten Island Chuck, did not see his shadow! Hence, this fact meant that he predicted an early onset of spring; as seen in the You Tube video which is posted atop this blog entry.

However, on this one week anniversary of his early spring prediction, nine inches of snow fell in Central Park, which is near to where I live in my studio apartment. I have a terrace garden (on a rooftop) at my home, and, it is a place where I grow a variety of flora. It is also a place which is visited by an array of fauna.

The following images show how three of my bird feeders (one of them, a "wreath style" feeder is indicated by an orange arrow in the first image, which includes one of my "house-style" feeders...

THE STORIES IN "WORDS IN OUR BEAK" ARE SET IN MY GARDEN

THE STORIES IN "WORDS IN OUR BEAK" ARE SET IN MY GARDEN

... looked after the snowstorm. As you can see, it appears that my place received close to the same amount of snow as the nearby park. I'm very happy to report that the heavy snowfall did not deter birds from visiting my place, nor did it stop them from partaking in nourishment!

Finding Joy During the Coronavirus Pandemic (Tuesday's Truths WK 169)

A #ClapBecauseWeCare Participant

Last night was the fifth night of the 7PM clapping/cheering nightly event (that has been dubbed #ClapBecauseWeCare) in NYC that is taking place to honor first responders and health care workers who are keeping New Yorkers as safe as possible during the coronavirus pandemic.

Many people participated but I only took one picture (featured atop this entry) as I can't clap and take pictures at the same time.

Re National Chocolate Covered Raisin Day... (It's NOT for the birds!)

Yesterday, if your troubles seemed so far away, it may have been because you were enjoying the holiday known as National Chocolate Covered Raisin Day, which is a holiday I wrote about in an entry here on Blogger a number of years ago.

According to a web-page (which Google Images referred me to for the image which is atop this entry), "Raisins coated in a shell of either milk chocolate or dark chocolate have their own special day of honor each March 24th on National Chocolate Covered Raisin Day."

And another web-page re this holiday explains that "in some countries, chocolate covered raisins are known as Raisinets. (and they also claim that 'more than 1 million Raisinets are produced per hour'). Raisinets were the earliest and one of the most popular brands of the product.  Currently made by Nestle, they are the third largest selling candy in United States history.  The Blumenthal Chocolate Company introduced the Raisinets to the United States in 1927, and then in 1984, the brand was acquired by Nestle.  There are also a large number of other brands of chocolate covered raisins on the market."

Moreover, there is a web-page which describes ways on how to celebrate chocolate covered raisin day! They state that "Chocolate Covered Raisins by the handful is just the beginning of the best ways to celebrate this delicious holiday! Those who truly love Chocolate Covered Raisins reach their innovation into the kitchen, and find new ways to enjoy them. For the truly dedicated, there’s nothing like sprinkling a handful into chocolate cake batter before cooking, and then adorning the top of the cake with them to add a sweet bite to a rich chocolatey cake." 

And they announce that "there are those who take the most amazing cookie the world has known (Or the devils chocolate chip to those who aren’t fans) the Oatmeal Raisin cookie, and use Chocolate Covered Raisins to turn this healthy cookie favorite into the pinnacle of decadence..."

The holiday may sound to some as a good excuse to indulge; but it is not an occasion that should be celebrated by sharing one's chocolate-covered raisins with the birds. For while it's true that a number of wild birds (including Northern mockingbirds, blackbirds, song thrushes and American robins), do enjoy raisins; as evidenced by the Northern mockingbird,

who is eating plain raisins while atop the ledge which surrounds my rooftop garden, they should not be fed the chocolate-covered variety. This is because (according to a number of sources) it contains a compound called theobromine. Theobromine is toxic to dogs and cats as well, but birds, again due to their smaller size and more rapid metabolism, may be even more susceptible to its toxic effects.

Therefore, if you celebrated yesterday's holiday by nibbling on chocolate-covered raisins, I hope you did not share them with any birds, for as the song goes their "... will be here to stay."

So, you get the idea, dear reader, share your non-chocolate-covered raisins with your feathered friends. However if you do this in the spring and summer make sure you soak the raisins in water over night before serving them. And I guarantee  that you will get much pleasure in watching these creature eat them!

Meanwhile, until you get a chance to offer birds the proper raisins, I hope you enjoy the following photos of a Northern mockingbird induldging in this snack as he sits on a bouncer-style chair in my urban garden.

Paying Homage to White, Oliver and Millay (Tuesday's Truths WK 119)

Welcome to the 119th "episode" of my Tuesday's Truths series. I am honoring it by sharing the mini essay posted atop this entry which was written by E.B.White and published ninety-two years ago today on March 26, 1927.

Wednesday's Wisdom: Let them eat suet!

NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRDS ARE FEATURED IN VOL 3

NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRDS ARE FEATURED IN VOL 3

NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRDS ARE FEATURED IN VOL 3

NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRDS ARE FEATURED IN VOL 3

An article by Drs. Foster & Smith Educational Staff, states "suet was once something we stocked our backyard feeders with only in the winter months. Present day suet use is much broader - and more beneficial to birds. In spring, it meets the increased energy demands of nesting birds. In the summer months, it provides a good substitute for insect-eating birds, especially in years when insects are not very plentiful. In fall, suet helps wild birds store fat to prepare for migration or the coming winter. And of course, in winter, suet replenishes depleted stores of energy and nutrients, to help birds survive the long, cold months."

Over the past few years, a number of wild birds have come to my rooftop garden for suet, including members of the Northern mockingbird community, as evidenced in the photographs atop this entry.

Engaging Conversations

An engaging phone conversation is something yours truly has always appreciated, as evidenced by this photo of yours truly taken in bygone (way bygone years).

In a recent FB post on my personal FB Page,  I mentioned how grateful I was that Jenny from Santa Barbara had phoned me to see how I was faring in the lockdowns brought on by the coronavirus pandemic while still dealing with the aftermath of my broken greater tuberosity.

As I stated in that entry, it was such a blessing to speak with someone who didn't set their phone down and walk away from it while still talking to me, making it so difficult for me to hear.

I am mortified at myself for wasting precious moments of life struggling to hear someone who is doing so many things while talking to me.

I guess that's the point. People who do this are talking TO me NOT talking WITH me and I've gotten so used to it I hadn't realized how it made me feel...

Until....

Until I had A REAL conversation with Jenny last week.

AND MUCH TO MY DELIGHT, IT HAPPENED AGAIN!

This past Friday, I had a real and wonderful conversation with an out of NY state a woman named MH, who I only know through Facebook and she phoned me for the same reason that Jenny had: To see how I was faring in the lockdowns brought on by the pandemic while still dealing with the aftermath of my broken greater tuberosity.

I have often phoned people who I know are alone to see how they are doing and I hope it means as much to them as it does to me.

In any event, in the aftermath of my loving with conversation MH, I felt a sense of mourning for all the time lost straining to hear those who are talking away from afar while I hang on their every word and I could not even sleep.

SO...

Rather than fight the tossing and turning, I got up, and for the first time since living in my place, I went into my garden when it was still dark and uttered my own types of prayers while birds waking from their slumber chirped away, engaging with each other in their lyric conversation.

Eventually I went back inside to work on my column submission and heard a bird singing at the top of his/her beak and was thrilled (understatement) to see an American robin had stopped by!

AMERICAN ROBINS ARE FEATURED IN VOL 3

I was not the only one to enjoy the red-breasted songster.

Tuesday's Truths WK 49: Young birds & fledglings love having grapes!

Welcome to the forty-ninth week of my Tuesday's Truths. Today's post is dedicated to young birds (or should I say fledgings) including an European starling (pictured above — eating a grape— in my rooftop garden).

This little bird and I have something in common: We both appreciate grapes. Only I appreciate my grapes after they are "transformed" into a glass of wine!

And because I know how much I enjoy a glass (or two) of vino, I always make sure that I have placed grapes for my visiting birds in either a bird feeder (such as the one above) or on a saucer (such as the one below), where a young American Robin has grabbed one and is enjoying having his/her own grape.

The young Northern mockingbird is a bit more apprehensive about indulging (as evidenced in the next set of images); perhaps he/she is a bit intimidated by the other birds who are visiting my place.

I don't blame the Northern mockingbird for being cautious about partaking in the eating of a grape!

After all, perhaps he/she has heard the news re how those who grow grapes in vineyards for purposes of making wine attempt to keep birds away from their grapes by employing falcons to take care of starlings, robins and mockingbirds!

March 2021 is here!

March 2021 didn't come in like a roaring lion or a docile lamb, at least in my garden, but it did come in with a visit from a Northern mockingbird which I always appreciate.

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.....)