arunima's Journal

I lately have noticed a lot of Ronins in our yard as well as surrounding. Yesterday, I saw a Robin taking a bath in the shallow stream by the local YMCA. It was an adorable sight.

Shortly afterwards, I also saw an Eastern Blue bird sitting close by. Both birds made such beautiful pictures but unfortunately, my iphone storage was full and I forgot to take the camera on my walk! Oh well! I shall keep them in my mind as beautiful visions and next time not leave the house without a back up!

Arunima

In the past few weeks I saw many birds which included yellow finches, all kinds of gray or black little birds, Hawks, Blue Jays, cardinals sparrows, doves, and woodpeckers. Plenty of squirrels were abound too! I did not post everytime but saw some thing everyday!
I am so grateful to Carrie Seltzer for starting this program. It has given me such pleasure to be able to post my pictures somewhere and learn from so many talented and knowledgable folks from all over the place. So thank you all too who are wonderful contributers and educators to this great project.
I wish Carrie and all the fellow naturalists a Very Happy New Year- 2016 which is full of wonderful things, great health, wealth, love and much happiness instore!
Warm Regards to all,
Arunima

I took my 11yr old daughter and her friend to the Seymour Athletic park (which is also a nature park in Apex, NC ) yesterday as the weather was so beautiful. As we walked through the trees, we noticed so many varieties of mushrooms and fungi. They ranged in colors from white, brown, yellow, red to colors I couldn't describe. Nevertheless, they were a lot of them and some are very pretty. There are tall trees of all kinds. The land is also partly marshland and is also a disc golf location. It is a neat little park and we really enjoy visiting it.

9/3/15:
The humming birds were at each other again near the feeder! It was very comical to watch a young humming bird (HB2) finally putting up a fight with a slightly plump and mature humming bird (HB1) in order to drink from the feeder. We have been noticing HB1 perching on the wind chime to keep an eye on the sugar water feeder - they are few feet from each other. Earlier, it used to perch on the highest twig of the Weeping Willow tree as a watch out spot. I have seen it chase other humming birds as soon they would approach the feeder so many times. Now it has started perching on the wind chime which is much closer. I saw it also fluffing its wings and crouch down in order to look big. It is hilarious! Although, HB1 seems like it has put some weight! :). Anyway, I saw HB2 fence off HB1 even though he was much smaller! They both fluttered over the feeder going in circles, advancing towards each other and moving back and forth. Eventually, HB2 took a quick swig and flew away and HB1 resumed its post on the chime.
Later in the afternoon, as I was sweeping the pink blossoms of the Crape Myrtle in the front yard, two humming birds almost collided with my forehead as they came flying & chasing each other. Last minute they flew over my head like to tiny jet planes! They are adorable, yet feisty and territorial creatures!
Earlier that morning, I also saw many beautiful and peaceful creatures, plants and flowers as I took my four legged friend-Tess for a walk at the Apex Athletic/nature park. I saw purple flowers( Morning Glowry?) on the vine, green frogs sitting at the edge of the pond as though they were meditating, blue and green dragonflies fluttering among purple and white flowers and bright green leaves. Saw bright yellow and black Swallow tail butterflies too. Most intriguing was the screeching of a bird which I assumed was that of a hawk. I took a video for few seconds as I could not see it as it was coming from high among the trees and wanted to record the sound of its call. I briefly saw it flying among the trees- it was big and light brown in color. I also was big white mushrooms in clusters. There were pieces of dead wood with various kinds of mushroom or fungal growth all around. Even in death, they looked so beautiful. It is beautiful little nature park which both me and my dog enjoy very much!

Everyday, I have so much fun looking out of my kitchen window. All the creatures who come to visit our backyard are so beautiful, funny and downright mischievous. Some are so elusive that I can't even get a good picture as they disappear before I have a chance to get the iPhone or the camera out! I had to get the screen removed from my kitchen window so that I could at least have some fuzzy shot at them. Here are the following birds I see:

Woodpeckers- very elusive creatures. Love to eat the peanuts from the bird feeder. All the other birds clear out as soon as one of these pretty creatures land up on the bird feeder.
Brown Thrashers- These are beautiful shade of brown as big as woodpeckers.
Yellow/Gold finches: Their bright yellow color makes them very attractive as well fun to watch them. These also try to push the other birds out of the way. A bit feisty ones! It is very funny to watch them dip their heads into the humming bird feeder to drink water in the mid section. Sometimes, the humming birds hover them and wait for them to get out of the way. These yellow birds are quiet a few in number.
House Sparrow with Red throat.- these seem more docile and patiently wait for their turns at the bird feeder.
Humming Birds- They look adorable but their beaks look like swords or weapons. Often two will chase each other out of the way while a 3rd one cashes on that opportunity to drink from the humming bird feeder. Sometimes they will fight right in-front of my window and seem like two tiny jet planes canceling each other out. Sometimes, there are 3 or more at the same time trying to prevent each other. I worry about their pointy beaks poking each other. But mostly, they are fun to watch. More to come later! Arunima