Saturday, April 28, 2018

The virtue of a second look

Pine siskins spend the winter here and the summer in Canada. So I'm sure these guys didn't just show up yesterday. But I fear I never realized what they were before, dismissing them as female House finches. They really aren't that similar - streakiness is different, they have yellow on their wings, and their bills are totally not finch bills, being long and pointy instead of thick.

pine siskin on hopper feeder roof


pine siskin on tree branch

pine siskin on tree branch

pine siskin on feeder

pine siskin on feeder

Labels: ,

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

     <-- Older Post                     ^ Home                    Newer Post -->

Thursday, April 26, 2018

Hidden attributes

Rose-breasted grosbeaks hide color under their wings. The males aren't drab, by any means, but look at that flash of red. And on the otherwise plain speckled females, a sudden flash of bright yellow. (I don't pretend these are great shots, especially of her, but they do show what I'm talking about.)

female rose-breasted grosbeak in flight

male rose-breasted grosbeak in flight

Labels: ,

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

     <-- Older Post                     ^ Home                    Newer Post -->

Wednesday, April 25, 2018

And new girls

Female Rose-breasted grosbeaks, not as strikingly colored as the boys, but still distinctive.

female rose-breasted grosbeak on feeder

female rose-breasted grosbeak in trees

Labels: ,

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

     <-- Older Post                     ^ Home                    Newer Post -->

Tuesday, April 24, 2018

New boys

Looked out the window just now and saw these new boys at the feeder. Pretty, aren't they? They're two male Rose-breasted grosbeaks - from the map I think they're just passing through, but maybe we're high enough for them to stay the summer, though I don't remember seeing them in the summer before. Guess I'll find out.

(There's a mockingbird photo-bombing this one, but he's blurry)

two male rose-breasted grosbeaks on different feeders

male rose-breasted grosbeak on feeder

male rose-breasted grosbeak on feeder

male rose-breasted grosbeak on feeder

male rose-breasted grosbeak on feeder

Labels: ,

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

     <-- Older Post                     ^ Home                    Newer Post -->

Sunday, April 22, 2018

Plant a tree

"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best is now." ...

BCN family planting a tiny tree and Tommy saying 'somewhere in th future, this tiny tree is big and strong. And this place is a little nicer for it.'

Happy Earth Day!

(source)

Labels: ,

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

     <-- Older Post                     ^ Home                    Newer Post -->

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Birds!

Some birds in the back

Male American goldfinch, molting into summer duds


This one's already all bright for summer


American crow


Pair of Northern cardinals - she looks frazzled


Brown thrasher


Blue jay


This female cardinal looks more put together


Male Downy woodpecker


A couple of Tufted titmice



Labels: ,

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

     <-- Older Post                     ^ Home                    Newer Post -->

"Editing" does not include copy editing

list with 4 numbered items, then a break while protagonist explains why she's adding more, then added items starting with 1Or so I must conclude when I see a page like this in a book that lists one person and two companies under "editing".

A good copy editor should have caught this. This is how a computer - in this case Vellum™ - does lists. (Though with just a bit of work you can make most of them resume with 5.)

No actual person scribbling notes on paper does this. Not even after several days would you add to your list with 1 again.


    Labels:

    0 Comments:

    Post a Comment

    Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

         <-- Older Post                     ^ Home                    Newer Post -->

    Monday, April 16, 2018

    Ablutions

    A male Northern cardinal enjoys the bird bath


    male cardinal in bird bath

    male cardinal in bird bath

    male cardinal in bird bath

    male cardinal in bird bath

    male cardinal in bird bath

    Labels: ,

    0 Comments:

    Post a Comment

    Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

         <-- Older Post                     ^ Home                    Newer Post -->

    Sunday, April 15, 2018

    April showers

    Another rainy day in East Tennessee...

    a couple of Blue jays

    blue jay in rain

    blue jay in rain

    blue jay in rain

    a Northern mockingbird
    mockingbird in rain

    a female Eastern towhee

    female towhee in rain

    and a particularly bedraggled-looking American crow

    crow in rain

    Labels: ,

    1 Comments:

    At 10:26 AM, April 18, 2018 Anonymous Kathie had this to say...

    At least you got rain. Yesterday we had 1" snow, and some more is forecast for tomorrow. Neither the local birds nor daffodils blooming in our yard can be happy about this situation.

     

    Post a Comment

    Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

         <-- Older Post                     ^ Home                    Newer Post -->

    Saturday, April 14, 2018

    of course he's not

    Of course he's not in favor of "surrendering to words". Because if it doesn't offend a White Guy, it can't possibly offend anybody.


    Fair disclosure: (1) I know this poster; he's very conservative and proud of it.  (2) I grew up saying that. I've tried not to for quite a while now.

    Labels: ,

    0 Comments:

    Post a Comment

    Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

         <-- Older Post                     ^ Home                    Newer Post -->

    Friday, April 13, 2018

    Downed tree

    So I just heard a crashing sound and went onto the deck to see this. Big old mostly, maybe all, dead pine just went down. So much rain the ground is quite saturated, so even though the winds weren't extraordinarily high - gusts to 30 mph - the tree couldn't stand. At least it went down the ridge, not sideways, though it still wouldn't have hit my house. (Might have hit the neighbors' if it had fallen uphill.)

    Worst thing is, it took out several smaller trees when it fell, and one was the tree I'd seen the bluebirds preparing to nest in. This late in April, they might have had a nest already there. Hopefully they can find another spot close around.




    Labels: , ,

    0 Comments:

    Post a Comment

    Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

         <-- Older Post                     ^ Home                    Newer Post -->

    Happy? Friday

    happy friday the thirteenth

    Labels:

    0 Comments:

    Post a Comment

    Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

         <-- Older Post                     ^ Home                    Newer Post -->

    Thursday, April 12, 2018

    O nice job


    Nice job there, Facebook translating algorithm.

    But I do wonder: is it the first or second "do" that was unnecessary?

    Labels: , ,

    0 Comments:

    Post a Comment

    Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

         <-- Older Post                     ^ Home                    Newer Post -->

    Monday, April 09, 2018

    Curtain of Red

    The Japanese maple through the kitchen window



    Labels: ,

    0 Comments:

    Post a Comment

    Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

         <-- Older Post                     ^ Home                    Newer Post -->

    Sunday, April 08, 2018

    Were you satisfied?

    What's with these store surveys? 

    You go in, find what you need, buy it, leave. The survey asks if you were satisfied. 

    If you say "Very" they want to know what wonderful thing they did. You sold me the books I wanted?

    But if you just say "Yes" they want to know what they could have done better. Nothing. It wasn't wonderful but it was satisfactory. You sold me the books I wanted.

    It was fine. I'm satisfied. But it wasn't a spectacular life-changing experience that I will remember till I die. That doesn't mean you could have done anything more. You had the books I wanted. You sold them to me. Done and done.

    Labels:

    0 Comments:

    Post a Comment

    Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

         <-- Older Post                     ^ Home                    Newer Post -->

    Feeder newbie

    Eastern bluebirds aren't much for feeders. You can bring them in with meal worms, but dried meal worms never attracted any for me and live ones are, frankly, too much work. (And kind of gross.) I've had them at the water a lot, but this is the first time I've seen one at the feeders.

    First he scoped them all out.


    Then he checked out both the hoppers, but was dissatisfied.


    He flew over to both suet feeders.


    And grabbed a chunk of suet that he took back to the beam at the top of the station.


    And gobbled it up.

    They are, I hope, getting ready to nest in a tree just a little bit down the hill from my patio. I've seen them flying in and out of a cavity so I have my fingers crossed. Hopefully I'll be able to get some better pictures as the summer progresses.

    Labels: ,

    0 Comments:

    Post a Comment

    Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

         <-- Older Post                     ^ Home                    Newer Post -->