Do you ever pause long enough to enjoy the lovely sounds of nature? The earth has music for those who stop and listen!
This is what I found waiting for me to capture recently.
A hungry bluejay with its beak open waiting patiently for some suet.
A baby cardinal enjoying some safflower seed.
A beautiful swan protecting her young.
Did you ever wonder why there are so many types of bird beaks or bills? The most important function of a bird bill is feeding, and it is shaped according to what a bird eats. The bill is one of the characteristics used to identify birds. You can learn about bird behavior by looking at the bill and thinking about what it eats. Then you may think about where it lives, and so on.
Hummingbirds have long, tubular bills that resemble straws, which they use to sip nectar from flowers and sugar water from feeders.
We recently found this woodpecker in our tree. Sadly the city crew had to cut down our tree last week due to Dutch Elm disease. Woodpeckers have strong beaks which taper to the tip, forming a chisel for pecking holes in trees for food or nests. Most feed on insects which live under the bark.
A cone shaped bill is found in many birds such as finches and grosbeaks. They have a strong beak used for cracking seeds. We enjoy this grosbeak when he arrives to the feeder. We have a catbird watch over us daily. Sometimes he comes close and sits in a branch near our table when we eat outside. This week Gavin saw a fawn run across our backyard … a very rare occurrence for our neighborhood. What have you seen in your backyard this summer?
I will leave you with a John Burroughs quote:
I go to nature to be soothed and healed,
and to have my senses put back in order …
Until next time with more Sweet Conclusions …