Henry is not a fan of Mondays. (Photo courtesy Linda Porter)
Greetings, friends. As my mom and I are gathering thoughts for this article, we are sitting and shivering on our screened-in porch on this fine June morning. Brrr. I think we are going from winter straight to winter.
I imagine you are wondering, yes, 144 days as of this writing till Halloween. My mom has it down. Sigh, it just goes on and on; I need a nap.
We have lots of birds and squirrels outside. The hummingbirds are back. Mom dug up the feeders for them and cleaned them out. There was a bit of mold still in the little plastic flower parts. She cleaned them as best she could, but the mold is tough. She ordered some spare replacement pieces. They arrived and fit perfectly. After making some sugar water with one cup of sugar and 4 cups of water the feeders were good to go.
Hummingbirds are so cool to watch. We think they are nesting in one of the white pines in our yard. I often wonder why birds migrate to the south for the winter. Why don’t they stay put instead of travelling so far to get back to New England? So, we did a wee bit of checking out on the All About Birds website (allaboutbirds.org).
Apparently, there are several reasons; they are looking for a mate, food resources are low in winter. I get that but wonder why they don’t just stay in the warmer climate, saving themselves from all that flying.
We checked in with “Ask the Professor” Mark Pokras, an associate professor of environmental and population health at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. He talks about how in the northern region, winter is a very tough season for birds, and it takes much energy to stay warm, and food can be very hard to come by.
But why do they come back if it is nice and warm where they are? He says that unfortunately, despite what the Jimmy Buffet song indicates, life in the tropics is not as ideal as one would think. There is not as much food as one would think, and they would have to compete with the birds that live there year-round. This makes all kinds of sense.
There is also the fact that warmer climates tend to be a home to a great many parasites and infectious diseases. Migration is a tough deal, and a lot of birds don’t make it.
This makes me sad. We are all happy to see the different birds at our feeders. There are so many varieties. We even had a couple of turkeys. Mom was really happy to see them. There were maybe 40 or so last summer/fall and then they just went away. I like watching them from the living room window.
There were a lot of squirrels at the feeders. It seemed there were a lot more than last year. Mom said she sees a lot of them that have been hit by cars. We hear a lot of ravens and sometimes see them coasting about overhead. Mom says she wishes they would land in our yard.
We have several crows. They are fun to watch. When Mom puts food out for them there is usually one lone crow that flies in. He hangs around and then calls out. He is probably yelling “Hey the restaurant is finally open!”
Well, I guess that’s it for now. It is close to dinner time. We took a writing break and ran some errands. I hope everyone has a great week. It is going to get warmer soon, at least I think it is. Please remember, if we can’t go into stores or restaurants with you, please leave us home. Cars heat up inside super-fast and can be deadly for us doggos.
Hugs to all, Henry.
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