Budgerigar at my Bird Feeder

Last fall when I moved to the house Im living in I set up a few bird feeders. Well 8 feeders: 2 Hummingbird feeders, 1 Oriole feeder, 1 Tube, 1 Double-sided feeder, 1 platform feeder, and 2 thistle feeders. It took more than a month for any birds to come to the feeders but now its a very different story. I have seen at least 40 species of bird in my backyard (I'll post some pics on a future blog post), some use the feeders and others do not.

Today while I was watching all the baby House Finches, House Sparrows, and a Mockingbird family being fed by their parents, something very colorful came down. It was a Budgerigar!

This bird is commonly sold in any pet store that has birds. In Houston, and many other places, people have a very bad habit of letting their pets go or releasing them into the wild when they are tired of them. I also do know that many birds like this budgerigar, or budgie, are released for religious ceremonies and weddings. This can be harmful to the birds themselves as most will not survive, but also to other species by spreading diseases and out competing native species for food and nest areas.

Anyway, it is a very charming little bird. Hopefully it will come back and maybe it will attract some of the Monk Parakeets I always see flying by...

Spring Cleaning the Blog...

There are quite a few post on this blog that have lost there pictures due to the fact that I have changed email addresses. I have decided to just delete those post instead of trying to fix them (which could take hours and hours). Sorry if you cant find what you are looking for but if you email me I'll be glad to help you out with finding a deleted post. :)

Nepenthes copelandii

Its such an nice spring day today! I have been gardening for most of the day but I wanted to come in and get a drink and share this picture with you. Its my Nepenthes copelandii. I bought this plant from Sarracenia Northwest about 2 years ago and it is doing very nicely on my bathroom window. The pitchers are as long as the plant is tall, which I think really looks cool. Care wise I don't do anything to it but give it water (lately Figi water that I haven't finished drinking) but also distilled water. I love the color of the pitchers... really beautiful.

Versace S/S 2011 Ring

On my recent trip to NYC I stopped by the Versace boutique searching for 3 items, all from the S/S 2011 mens collection: rings, swim shorts, and sandals. Unfortunately they have not gotten any swimwear or sandals yet this season so I ended up only getting a ring. Its one of three they are showing on the website and was worn for the fashion show.

Here are the three rings from the men's Versace S/S 2011 collection. The two on the left are currently available for the US.

Here is my ring - showing the Medusa.

And a view from above to show more of the detail.

My Garden - Spring 2011

Hi Everyone! Sorry I haven't updated in a long time... It has been such a busy year this year! Lots of weddings, trips, and work! Anyway, with all this excitement it is nice to take some time to relax in the garden. It has been a more challenging year because of the extreme drought but luckily all the flowers I planted are native and are able to cope with periods of drought. Here is what has bloomed so far this spring:

Bluebonnets - Lupinus texensis, these were the first flowers to bloom in the garden this spring. They grew nicer than previous years, more bushy and more flowers, and are now covered with lots of seed pods.

This is what the seed pod of the bluebonnets look like. It reminds me a lot of edimame (soybeans) which makes sense as they are both in the Fabacea family also known as legumes.

Downy Phlox - Phlox pilosa, this started blooming shortly after the bluebonnets and it is still blooming. I grew these plants from seed I got from Prairie Moon nursery.

Blanket Flower - Gaillardia pulchella, now that it is hot and sunny these plants have really put on a growth spur. The seeds I planted last winter are all now a big bush of these very pretty flowers. This is a really tough native that you can see growing along many roadsides in Houston, Galveston, and along the Gulf Coast.

Lanceleaf Coreopsis - Coreopsis lanceolata, this is another tough native. Its a little taller than Gaillardia and just as showy. Both plants have been covered with blooms the past month. They both make long lasting cut flower arrangements.

Obedient Plant - Physostegia intermedia & Southern Blueflag Iris - Iris virginica shrevei, these plants are growing in a big non-draining glazed pot which is my mini water garden.

Pickerelweed - Pontederia cordata, this plant is also planted in a glazed non-draining pot. I'll have to make a post about my water garden plants soon.

Blue Mistflower - Conoclinium coelestinum , another tough wildflower for the garden. Its spreads nicely. This wildflower can be seen commonly around Houston as well.

Scarlet Sage - Salvia coccinea, these are the latest wildflowers to bloom. They really like warm weather. This winter when we had below freezing temperatures they died back to the ground but re-sprouted this spring from their roots and seeds.

Other wildflowers that are growing in the garden and are about to bloom soon include:

Rudbeckia maxima

Rudbeckia hirta

Echinacea sanguinea

Monarda fistulosa

Tradescantia ohiensis

Helianthus annuus

Check back soon for more garden updates and hopefully more frequent updates. Im trying to find a way for me to blog while at work but without my Macbook... perhaps and iPad??? :)

Shorebirds on Galveston Island

Hello! Today was a beautiful day. It was sunny, cool, and breezy so Tink and I decided to do a little bird watching on Galveston Island at the Apffle Park Beach. There was an abundance of birds today, especially Ring-billed and Laughing Gulls, and a wide variety too. The main reason I wanted to go to Galveston Island was to look for my favorite bird, the Red-breasted Merganser (which we saw), and also see what kind of shorebirds can be found here in winter. So this is what we saw:

Black-bellied Plover - Pluvialis squatarola , this was the only one I saw today.

Piping Plover - Charadrius melodus , there was unexpectedly a few of these! We counted 24 of this endangered specie. Interestingly two of them were banded with different bands as seen below.

This one has a blue band, which I didn't notice until I was zooming in to look at the picture on my camera.

Here is the second one with one orange and one red band on the lower leg and a green clip band on the upper part of the same leg ( the green leg is barely visible). I wonder where these two were banded?

Here are some more of the Piping Plovers with two Dunlins. A lot of the shorebirds were hiding behind debris today because of the strong cold winds; the sun was very warm otherwise. I hope they were comfortable.

Snowy Plover - Charadrius alexandrinus , we saw 14 of these today. This was the first time I have seen a Snowy Plover, and now I have seen all four of the small North American plover species.

Black-necked Stilt - Himantopus mexicanus & Greater Yellowlegs - Tringa melanoleuca

This was the only Black-necked Stilt we saw today which was with three Greater Yellowlegs. They seemed to be finding lots of goodies to eat in the tide pools.

Long-billed Curlew - Numenius americanus , there were two of these sleeping in a shallow area. Luckily a Laughing Gull flying by called and woke this one up for proper view and a picture.

Marbled Godwit - Limosa fedoa , there were four of these in the same estuary as the Stilt and Yellowlegs but these seemed to prefer the deeper spots.

Ruddy Turnstone - Arenaria interpres , blending in very well with the exposed oyster bed.

Sanderling - Calidris alba , taking an afternoon nap.

Dunlin - Calidris alpina , we saw about 21 of these. Unlike the other small shorebirds these were all very active in feeding; constantly moving and plunging their beaks deep into the sand.

Least Sandpiper - Calidris minutilla , this was the most common shorebird we saw today. We counted 63 of them. A lot of them were hidden among the exposed oyster beds. They were extremely hard to see, practically invisible, until you got close and they would scurry a little and then blend right back into the surrounding. It was amazing.

This is what I mean about being extremely hard to see! How many can you find?

There was also a few Willet - Catoptrophorus semipalmatus, but for some strange reason I didn't photograph any of them! They are common throughout the year on Galveston Island.

... and to end this post here is a Roseate Spoonbill - Ajaia ajaja , it was just a few feet from the road in the salt marsh.

Thanks for reading! :)

Sleeplessness

Hi! I cannot sleep now. Its supposed to snow tonight (the first time this winter season) and I really hope it does! I have not seen a single flurry this winter and if it doesn't snow it will be the first winter in my life that there has not been snow. Sigh... There is something about the snow that makes me want to go out and explore.

Anyway, I think that its just a lot of anxiety that is keeping me up... the new year, the weather, changes, traveling, weddings, money, taxes, delays, work... but I am trying to be positive about the things to come.

I think I feel more calm after writing this post.

Current weather conditions: No snow yet, but freezing rain - which is covering tree branches.