The red barn might look pretty against the white snow, but to me, it would look prettier with green grass and leaves on the leaves as I had my quota of winter this year.
Looking for Green & Red
Picture of the Day for February 16, 2013
The Great Backyard Bird Count is an annual four-day event that engages bird watchers of all ages in counting birds to create a real-time snapshot of where the birds are. The 16th annual GBBC is Friday, February 15, through Monday, February 18, 2013.
The visitors to my yard the last two days have been Mourning Doves, Chickadees, Red Polls, Pileated Woodpecker, Nuthatch, Purple Finch, Downing Woodpecker, Hairy Woodpecker, Crows, Red Bellied Woodpecker and the Gold Finches but the Gold Finches aren’t so “gold” right now with the male displaying its dull olive winter plumage.
The Gold Finch molts its body feathers twice a year, once in late winter and again in late summer. The brightening yellow of male goldfinches each spring is one welcome mark of approaching warm months so I’m looking forward to the ‘gold’ color again.
‘Golden’ Gold Finch
Picture of the Day for February 15, 2013
I don’t think these Mourning Doves like the new snow either as now their perches in the trees are snow covered again.
Mourning Doves is one of the most abundant and widespread of all North American birds with population estimated at 350 million. They are the most frequently hunted species in North America with more 20 million shot each year. But I only shoot the doves with my camera and not with a gun. But since the Mourning Doves feed on the ground, approximately 1 in 20 will ingest lead shot in the heavily hunted areas and lead poisoning is another threat to the doves.
The nesting pair will have one to six broods a year with normally two eggs in each brood. Mourning Doves eat almost exclusively seeds, but the young are fed crop milk by their parents which is a secretion from the lining of the crop (enlargement of the esophagus) of parent birds that is regurgitated to young birds. It resembles and smells like cottage cheese.
Its plaintive woo-OO-oo-oo-oo call gives the bird its name and the wings can make an unusual whistling sound upon take-off and landing. The bird is a strong flier, capable of speeds up to 55 mph.
Primarily a bird of open country, scattered trees, and woodland edges, the Mourning Dove can survive in the desert as they can drink brackish water that is almost half the salinity of sea water without becoming dehydrated the way humans would.
The Mourning Dove was named Wisconsin’s symbol of peace in 1971.
Chilly Doves
Picture of the Day for February 14, 2013
There are different theories about the origins of Valentine’s Day, with some placing the origin with the Roman fertility festival of Lupercalia that occurred February 13th to the 15th. The festival included a matchmaking lottery, in which young men drew the names of women from a jar. The couple would then be coupled up for the duration of the festival and maybe even longer, if the match was right.
In the 3rd century, the Roman Emperor Claudius II thought marriage was not good for war since men wanted to stay home with their wives, so he outlawed marriage. At the time there was a Christian priest named Valentine who felt sorry for the couples and married people in secret. When Claudius found out, he threw Valentine in jail and executed him on February 14. Before his death however, Valentine wrote a letter to the jailer’s daughter, who had become his friend and signed it from your Valentine.
St. Valentine’s Day began as a liturgical celebration of one or more early Christian saints named Valentinus. The Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred.
Valentine greetings were popular as far back as the Middle Ages, though written Valentine’s didn’t begin to appear until after 1400. The oldest known valentine still in existence today was a poem written in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orleans to his wife.
Whatever the origin, an estimated 1 billion Valentine’s Day cards are sent each year, making Valentine’s Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year.
Happy Valentine’s Day
Picture of the Day for February 13, 2013
On February 13, 2000, the last original “Peanuts” comic strip appeared in newspapers one day after Charles M. Schulz died. The comic strip, written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, ran from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000, but re-runs continue on.
And while this acorn isn’t a ‘peanut’, it is a nut that squirrels like but this acorn might need some digging out from the ice and then the squirrel might only find the acorn cap (or cupule) and no nut!
Frozen Acorn
Picture of the Day for February 12, 2013
Next Monday is President’s Day celebrating the birthday of George Washington but there is no national holiday for Abraham Lincoln who was born February 12, 1809, the second child of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Lincoln, in a one-room log cabin on the Sinking Spring Farm in Hardin County, Kentucky. His father Thomas, owned two 600-acre farms, several town lots, livestock, and horses. However, in 1816, Thomas lost all of his land in court cases because of faulty property titles. The family moved north across the Ohio River made a new start in what was then Perry County but is now Spencer County, Indiana.
Besides Abraham Lincoln, several actors were born on February 12, and some of them played in western movies like Wallace Ford who played in the movie ‘The Man From Laramie’, Joe Don Baker who played in the ‘Guns of the Magnificent Seven’, Clifford Tobin DeYoung who played in ‘Centennial’ and ‘Glory’, and Forrest Tucker who played in many movies like ‘Chisum’.
A Canadian actor, Lyon Himan Green, better known by the stage name Lorne Greene was also born on February 12 in 1915. Lorne Green made Ben Cartwright come alive on the TV series Bonanza from 1959 to 1973 with his faithful horse Buck.
And while this horse is not a buckskin like Buck, I think he is saying happy birthday to everyone and secretly wishing someone would take him south for the winter as you can see his frosty breath on his chest.
Red & White
Picture of the Day for February 11, 2013
The chickadees are the only ones that sound so cheerful after the snowstorm except maybe for some happy individuals who earn income from clearing driveways and sidewalks.
The Black-capped Chickadee, a bird almost universally considered “cute” thanks to its oversized round head, tiny body, and curiosity about everything, including humans. It is notable for its capacity to lower its body temperature during cold winter nights, its good spatial memory to relocate the caches where it stores food, and its boldness near humans (they can feed from the hand).
The Black-capped Chickadee is the state bird of both Maine and Massachusetts.
Cheerful Chickadee
Picture of the Day for February 10, 2013
Like the donkey, this cat doesn’t seem overly thrilled to hear about about snow storm but maybe with all the eyes watching it, the storm will turn tail and take a different path.
(Well the cat didn’t stare down the storm as the freezing rain just started!)
Stare Down Calico Cat
Picture of the Day for February 9, 2013
This donkey might also be keeping an eye on the weather and the approaching storm. The snow probably wouldn’t bother the donkey since it has its winter coat, but the freezing rain is a different story. But like all storms, the weather forecasters never agree where and how much – at least not until the storm is over. The donkey is probably just as accurate predicting and it doesn’t have a happy face – but then do donkeys ever have a happy face?
A Happy or Not So Happy Donkey?
Picture of the Day for February 8, 2013
It may be sunny out today, a big change from the snow every day, but this old truck is keeping its eye on the weather and the approaching storm.
This truck is old enough to collect social security although it appears it has already been retired for a while. There are vent windows and the door handles are still the pull down style so it appears this is a 1951 Chevrolet 1 ton pickup as 1951 was the first year for the vent windows and by 1952, the door handles were push button. The hood side emblem states 3800 indicating a one ton load capacity. By 1954, the front windshield was a single curved piece of glass instead of the center vertical dividing strip.
Retired Truck
