As I was creating the zoomed images into collages, I was drawn to color in my February collection of photographs.
Enjoy the zoomed images from February!
Our February has been very mild so far – some cold mornings but generally warmer than usual – and not snow. The birds frequent both our bird bath and feeder. The cardinal likes the maple or sycamore.
The chickadee comes when it can get a drink or a few seeds when the juncos are not around.
The doves are sporting a sheen to their feathers.
I don’t see flickers every day but there was one that must have been very thirsty. It arrived and kept the juncos away from the bird bath --- and I had time to take some portraits. My favorite is the last one of this sequence that shows the feathers fluffed against the cold.
The red-tailed hawk is still around. I first saw him peering from the black walnut tree through the pine. He flew to another tree where I could only see his front and the beak; can you see him in the jumble of branches?
The blue jays are around every day. They have quite an attitude! The second picture shows the varying shades of blue and note the way the feather look on the top of the head (almost like scales).
Starlings don’t come around our deck very often – and I’m glad since they usually travel in flocks. Our feeder is squirrel proof…and apparently starling proof too since it closes down if too much weight is on it (2 or more starlings!).
I observed two different types of sparrows this month…didn’t realize it until I looked more closely at the pictures. The first was a house sparrow.
And the second was a white-throated sparrow which is only in our area during the winter. Note the yellow marking between the eye and beak.
The downy woodpecker comes for very short visits to our feeder. It finds most of what it needs in the forest behind our house.
February was a good month for birdwatching through my office window!
The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.
Top 10 Winter Warriors – Wild life in winter. The ones I see most frequently are chickadees although most of the ones at my bird bath and feeder are Carolina rather than Black-capped.
When is a black bear actually a blue bear? – Black bears are not always black!
Dynamic Wildlife Duos - Originally posted just before valentine’s day…liked the pictures.
Experts reveal hidden dangers behind supplements – Over the counter supplements advertised to treat obesity and erectile dysfunction problems were labelled as fully herbal but often included dangerous pharmaceutical ingredients that were not listed on the label…..which are often dangerous and can cause serious side effects. One example: Sibutramine (licensed as Reductil until 2010 when it was withdrawn across Europe and the US due to increased risk of heart attacks and strokes) was found in slimming supplements. These supplements are the 21st century equivalent of snake oil (or maybe they are worse than snake oil).
National Park Service History eLibary Additions for February – Another online source for documents about National Parks!
A Crack in an Antarctic Ice Shelf Grew 17 miles in the last two months – Stories keep coming about the giant crack in the Larsen C ice shelf. This one is from 2/7 and has a lot of good graphics and explanation.
20+ National Park Portraits Celebrating the Rainbow – Colored Lands in the US - Beautiful images from the National Parks
New, long-lasting flow battery could run for more than a decade with minimum upkeep – If only half the new battery technology stories turn out to be true….the energy storage needed daily life could change dramatically over the next decade.
How to avoid falling for lieds and fake news and How to spot misleading health news – Two stories from BBC Future. With the easy flow of ‘stuff’ around the internet, the skills for determining validity of stories are more important than ever before.
Don’t call it wheat: an environmentally friendly grain takes root – Perennial grains…still needing further development but the potential to create a more sustainable way to produce our bread!
My office window continues to be a great vantage point for photography. The heated bird bath and a usually well supplied bird feeder attract quite a few birds. Some are occasional visitors (or I don’t catch them on their rounds very frequently): Chickadees,
House finches,
Starlings (the sun was just right to catch this bird’s coloring), and
A downy wood pecker (because of the chisel-like bill….otherwise it could be a Hairy Woodpecker).
The cardinals I see more often…but they seem to be more nervous than usual (perhaps because of the red-tailed hawk frequenting the forest behind out house).
The juncos I see all the time – they are the most frequent visitors to our deck.
The mourning doves have been arriving in larger groups this month. They look very fat on cold days when they have their feathers fluffed out.
We do have a hawk that comes to the edge of the forest. The blue jays usually make a big ruckus when it is in the area…making it easier to photograph.
The jays themselves seemed to enjoy the heated bird bath more than any other bird. The stop for water and then fly off to the maple or tulip poplar.
Yesterday we woke up to a dusting of snow (this has been a warm January with less snow than usual for our area). As soon as it was light enough I took some pictures of the bird bath (no bird tracks) and the feeder (a few tracks on the nearby railing.
An hour later – it was obvious that a lot of birds were out and about!
Celebrating the whole of life....
Thanks for visiting my blog! Enjoy the photo picks from 2023:
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