What a Thrill!

I was making my husband's lunch this morning when I spotted two Tufted Titmice at the bird feeder! This is the first time that I've seen them at my feeders! I was so excited! I immediately stopped making the lunch and grabbed my camera! Priorities, you know!



They were the first birds I saw at the feeders this morning and quickly flew away when the feeders got more crowded. I do hope they come back!




What a beautiful way to start the day!


I'm seeing more robins in the yard. I do hope this is a sign that spring is getting closer.


We've had snow on the ground for a while now, more is expected this weekend and Monday. The robins are coming to the bird feeders. I've never seen them eat any seed, but they seem to be looking for food. I hope the snow melts soon for them, although I don't think this one has missed too many meals!



The male red-bellied woodpecker came back!


I had to stand at the door to shoo the starlings away so he could eat! They kept landing on the suet feeder and chasing him away. I frequently do that for the downy woodpeckers too. Oh how I despise those starlings!


I'm seeing more cardinals than ever too! For the last few days I've had as many as six males and five females! For several years I only had one pair, so this is quite exciting to see!

I thought I would update on my diet that I mentioned on January 31 for those who might be interested. It is still going very well! So far I've lost 16.5 pounds! That alone is motivation to keep striving towards my goal, (only 25 more to lose)! I'm still eating just whole foods with a major emphasis on legumes, fruits and vegetables. Still no caffeine or sugar! A neighbor gave my daughter half of a Cheesecake Factory Turtle Cheesecake when she babysat for them on the Saturday before Valentines Day. Now that was TORTURE! I didn't dare eat a bite though. I was so very glad when it was out of the house!

I am already seeing benefits of the diet change, which motivate me even more! Not only am I down a full size in clothing, (from a 16 to a 14), but my blood pressure and blood sugar are both staying in the normal range and my digestion issues are slowly being resolved. I am feeling so much better already!

I look forward to warmer weather when I can get outside to garden and walk again. I'm not too keen on indoor exercise and haven't been able to make myself do it...yet. Hopefully I can get motivated to start soon!

Another side note, due to increasing spam comments, I decided to stop allowing anonymous comments since most of the spam I get is anonymous. I decided to do that rather than use the word verification. I do hope this doesn't inconvenience anyone.

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Robin

Happy Valentine's Day!

My sweet Valentine of 30 years, (married for almost 28 plus the 2 years of dating), and I went out to dinner last night with a group from our church. We had the small restaurant reserved for our group.

We were asked to bring a wedding picture to the event. What fun it was to see the couples who had been married for many years and how they had changed over the years! Many of them, like my husband and me, had married young! My hubby and I share the same birthday, and we had just turned 20. I have no regrets at all for marrying so young. We were poor as church mice, but we didn't care. We were and still are soul mates! What a blessing that is!

I thought I'd have a little fun with the Valentine's candy. I don't like most of the sayings on the candy so I turned them to the back side and made up my own using the text on Picasa. It's too late to use it for my hunny's Valentine's card this year, but hopefully I'll remember and make him a special card next year using this idea. What fun I could have personalizing his special card!

Happy Valentine's Day to you all!

Wordless Wednesday- Sweet Blue Jays

Dove Ghost- Mystery Solved

On January 24, I did a blog post about a dove that had hit my window while try to escape from a Cooper's hawk. The dove hit the window pretty hard and left this incredible impression on the glass. I wasn't sure if the white substance on the glass was dander or dust.

Today my neighbor, who home schools her children, was reading a story about the American Bittern bird. The Bittern is considered a Powder Down Bird. My neighbor had read my blog post about the dove and called me to tell me about the American Bittern.

I did some Internet research today and sure enough, that is the explanation for the impression on the glass. The dove is also a Powder Down Bird! Mystery solved!





Here is a great explanation I found for this interesting phenomenon:

Doves don’t have an oil or “preen” gland to help with waterproofing their feathers. Instead, they have “powder down” feathers—extremely fine feathers that disintegrate into a dust-like substance. Through preening, the bird coats its feathers with this dust to provide some waterproofing. If you’ve ever seen a window strike by a dove, you may have seen a “ghost bird” on the glass—a tracing of the bird left on the glass by this powder down. If you and the bird are both lucky, that’s the only remnant of the strike you’ll find…
http://sipapu.wordpress.com/birds/wildlife-rehabilitation/suboscine-and-non-passeriformes-species/ Tina Mitchell