Red Crossbill

The Red Crossbill is a bird.  I recently saw first hand why it's called a Crossbill and readily admit I was amazed.  The Crossbill family of birds are about the size of sparrows.  They get along well with other birds and different species of the Crossbill clan will also flock together.

They are called Crossbill because of the unique way their beak crosses.  As you can see in the picture the tips of the upper and lower beak don't meet, they cross each other like crossing your fingers.  I've noted on some pictures the beak crosses one way and other pictures show the cross just the opposite.  I haven't read anything to explain this.

The reason for this adaptation is the birds primary food source is the Conifer Cone.  Apparently having the crossed beak enables them to pry open the cone and access the seed inside.

The one that I saw just a few days ago was more yellow and light green in the chest and on parts of her back.  Obviously a female because the males are definitely red.  The pictured Crossbill is a female.

Another name for these critters is the Common Crossbill.  I like the name Red Crossbill if for no other reason than they aren't "common" to me.

Last Day of Summer... Hello Fall!

I haven't forgotten y'all.  Things have been slow and uneventful.  The usual birds are here, the who-who birdies, sparrows and finches.  The Eurasian Doves have become regular visitor.  Today the quail stopped by for a while too.  We're still having a few hummers come over for the sweet water and expect they will move on in the next 3 or 4 weeks.

A little brown mouse has moved into the rocks by Joe's Station.  He is a cute little guy and hides in the rocks and sneaks out to grab seeds in the morning.  If he behaves and stays in the rocks he will live a long and happy life.  I don't look forward to his family and friends moving in.  So far it appears it's just this one little guy.... sure.

Fall actually arrives tomorrow, Tuesday, afternoon.  So today is the last WHOLE day of summer.  Autumn is the "proper" name for fall and it occurs when the tilt of the earth is such that the sun is directly over the equator.  If you were living in Australia winter would be giving way to spring as the southern hemisphere of Gods green earth is our opposite.

This season change is being greeted by an invigorating low temperature forecast for tomorrow morning of 37 degrees Fahrenheit.  I saw on the news this evening that there was snow in the mountains and south of Denver.  I'm not worried about any freezing yet and it will be a while before I have to prepare for freezing temperatures.

Life's a song my friends.... sing it!

Stealth Hawks

About 10 years ago I was visiting my sister in Las Vegas, Nevada.  We were sit'n around one morning discussing possible fun things to do that day.  Since I had already won my $32 million on the strip we decided to drive over to Nellis Air Force Base and watch the stealth bombers doing take-offs and landings. My brother-in-law explained to us that he has seen them a number of times and it was an awesome site. 

Off we went.  The drive was only about an hour and when we arrived it was a beautiful day for watching stealth planes come and go.  We sat in the car scanning the horizon as well as the runway.  We did this for about a half hour and then I figured it out.  We couldn't see the stealth bombers because they must have had their stealth mechanism turned on.  Of course.  Our government spent billions of dollars developing the stealth technology... they had to use it or it would have been a waste of money. 

So we sat there and enjoyed watching the stealth bombers take-off and land.  It was an exciting time.  Makes you proud to be an American I'll tell you.

This morning the birds were once again "spooked" and every last one of them took flight.  One second there were hundreds (yep really) of birds scarf'n down seeds and the next second they were gone. 

I knew there had to be a hawk around somewhere.  I grabbed my binoculars and searched the skies and trees.  Nothing.  Just like watching the stealth bombers take-off and land.

About a half hour later the birds started to return and within 10 minutes the circus had resumed like nothing had happened.

It must have been one of those stealth hawks....

September Already

The older I get the faster it goes.  It, in this case is, of course, time.  The one resource that is not renewable... ever.

Apparently the cute baby toads have moved on as we haven't seen them for quite a while now.  Joe is definitely somewhere I'm not... where ever that is.  She was fun to watch and sure gave me enough to keep my interest in this here blog. 

I still have a great time watching the circus every morning and I'm anticipating a few more raptors to come by as the weather continues to slowly cool. 

Under the Mulberry Tree I'm starting to get enough yellow leaves to make it worth my while to clean them up.  It's either pick them off the ground or clean them from the pond and skimmer.  I can tell you from experience the ground is easier.

Ginger is harvesting seeds from the annuals that are starting into the last phase of their life. 

Just when you think everything is dying back you come across the tomatoes that were planted this past spring.  We have been enjoying tomatoes for about 6 weeks now and from the looks of it the crop is about to "come it" and we will be swamped with 'em.  I love tomatoes and will enjoy them everyday with my dinner and eat the cherry tomatoes (regrowth from last year) for snacks.

In another 4 weeks the aspen trees will be shown on the news and we will hear about snow in the high mountains. 

Summer is giving way to fall and it's fun to be a part of it.  Labor day soon, Halloween before you know it.