Tuesday Garden Party - Backyard Denizens

This week our garden is growing and growing. We've got only a few more weeks to corn. The sweet peppers are getting ready to turn their bright beautiful colors. We transplanted our ghost pepper and scorpion pepper seedlings into their permanent home. And we're still hopeful for the tomatoes.


So I thought today I would show you a few of the residents of our garden.

 I believe you have met Anna.

We've also got this guy and some of his friends.

And this guy (along with his friends) who love to dig in our cocoa mulch.  Hmmm.  Chocolate Lizard?

I love to see the bright blue scrub jays.

And even this garter snake is a welcome visitor - he will eat snails and slugs, hopefully before they destroy my plants!

Maybe my favorite visitor this year was this wren and his family.  He made his nest in this bird house, right off our patio.  We could hear the babies every day - they were always so excited when they were about to get fed!  Sadly, they all left just a couple of days ago.  It is so quiet now  Talk about empty nest!  :-)

Check back next week to see what else we're up to in the garden - in the meantime, check out An Oregon Cottage for her weekly Garden Party.

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In Our Backyard

We see quite a few hummingbirds in our yard.  They are among my favorite things to watch - they are pretty fearless, and will come right up to us.  I expect because they want us to get out of their territory.  They haven't learned much about sharing yet.

Hummingbirds are among the smallest of birds, most species measuring in the 3–5 inch range. They can hover in mid-air by rapidly flapping their wings 12–80 times per second (depending on the species). To conserve energy while they sleep or when food is scarce, they have the ability to go into a hibernation-like state (torpor) where their metabolic rate is slowed to 1/15th of its normal rate.  They are also the only group of birds able to fly backwards.  They can fly at speeds exceeding 34 mph!

Hummingbirds drink nectar, a sweet liquid inside certain flowers. Like bees, they are able to assess the amount of sugar in the nectar they eat; they reject flower types that produce nectar that is less than 10% sugar and prefer those whose sugar content is stronger. Nectar is a poor source of nutrients, so hummingbirds meet their needs for protein, amino acids, vitamins, minerals, etc. by preying on insects and spiders.

Hummingbirds drink by using protrusible grooved or trough-like tongues. Hummingbirds do not spend all day flying, as the energy cost would be prohibitive; the majority of their activity consists simply of sitting or perching. Hummingbirds feed in many small meals, consuming many small invertebrates and up to twelve times their own body weight in nectar each day. They spend an average of 10–15% of their time feeding and 75–80% sitting and digesting.

With the exception of insects, hummingbirds while in flight have the highest metabolism of all animals, a necessity in order to support the rapid beating of their wings. Their heart rate can reach as high as 1,260 beats per minute!  They also consume more than their own weight in nectar each day, and to do so they must visit hundreds of flowers daily. Hummingbirds are continuously hours away from starving to death, and are able to store just enough energy to survive overnight.

Hummingbirds are for the most part unsociable. In fact, the adjectives pugnacious and feisty are often appropriate. When more than one hummingbird is around, it is often a scene of repeated high-speed chases. In fact, male and female hummingbirds do not form a pair-bond after mating and the female is left to care for eggs and chicks alone.

Hummingbirds do not need the help of other hummingbirds, either to locate food or fend off predators. Other hummingbirds are competitors for the flower nectar upon which they thrive. The help that a male might provide a female does not outweigh the burden of having a male around competing for food.

What is all this fighting about? Plants take time to secrete nectar into their flowers. In an ideal world, hummingbirds should time their visits to flowers to take advantage of a full load. But they wait to feed at a flower at the risk of other hummingbirds beating them to the punch. It is therefore worth the effort for hummingbirds to chase away competitors so they have access and control of their favorite flowers.

In many cases, hummingbirds defend small territories around a favorite flower patch, and do so even during brief stop-overs for refueling during migration. Where many species live together, the large species attempt to dominate flowers and get the biggest drinks of nectar and smaller species try to sneak in for a few sips.


Do you attract hummingbirds to your yard?

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Birds Outside My Window...

I am one of the lucky people who has a window office.  I'm on the ground floor and the birds like to congregate outside of my window.

That might have something to do with the birdseed I put out each morning.  Possibly.

Sometimes I take pictures of the birds through the window with my phone.   They usually aren't great quality due to the angle and the light, but every once in a while one is not too bad.

Like this one -

Cute little guys, right?

I recently discovered Instagram.  And did this to them.

I used Picsay Pro (a different application for Android) to modify this one....

And Creative Kit (via picasaweb) for this one.

And to think not so long ago, we didn't even have digital cameras, much less cameras and picture editing software in our pockets.

What is your favorite phone photo app?

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The Tower of London

Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames.  It was founded towards the end of 1066 as part of the Norman Conquest of England. The White Tower, which gives the entire castle its name, was built by William the Conqueror in 1078, and was a resented symbol of oppression, inflicted upon London by the new ruling elite. The castle was used as a prison since at least 1100, although that was not its primary purpose.

A grand palace early in its history, it served as a royal residence. As a whole, the Tower is a complex of several buildings set within two concentric rings of defensive walls and a moat. There were several phases of expansion, mainly under Kings Richard the Lionheart, Henry III, and Edward I in the 12th and 13th centuries. The general layout established by the late 13th century remains despite later activity on the site.

The Tower of London has played a prominent role in English history. It was besieged several times and controlling it has been important to controlling the country. The Tower has served variously as an armoury, a treasury, a menagerie, the home of the Royal Mint, a public records office, and the home of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom.

Under the Tudors, the Tower became used less as a royal residence, and despite attempts to refortify and repair the castle its defences lagged behind developments to deal with artillery. The peak period of the castle's use as a prison was the 16th and 17th centuries, when many figures who had fallen into disgrace, such as Elizabeth I before she became queen, were held within its walls. This use has led to the phrase "sent to the Tower". Despite its enduring reputation as a place of torture and death, popularised by 16th-century religious propagandists and 19th-century writers, only seven people were executed within the Tower before the World Wars of the 20th century. Executions were more commonly held on the notorious Tower Hill to the north of the castle, with 112 occurring there over a 400-year period.

In the latter half of the 19th century, institutions such as the Royal Mint moved out of the castle to other locations, leaving many buildings empty. Anthony Salvin and John Taylor took the opportunity to restore the Tower to what was felt to be its medieval appearance, clearing out many of the vacant post-medieval structures. In the First and Second World Wars, the Tower was again used as a prison, and witnessed the executions of 12 men for espionage. After the Second World War, damage caused during the Blitz was repaired and the castle reopened to the public. Today the Tower of London is one of the country's most popular tourist attractions.

Legend says that the kingdom and the Tower will fall if the six resident ravens ever leave the fortress. 

It was Charles II, according to the stories, who first insisted that the ravens of the Tower should be protected. This was against the wishes of his astronomer, John Flamsteed, who complained that the ravens impeded the business of his observatory in the White Tower. 

Despite their having one wing clipped, some ravens do in fact go absent without leave and others have had to be sacked. Raven George was dismissed for eating television aerials, and Raven Grog was last seen outside an East End pub.

They are fun to watch and seem to always have something to say!

You can also see a fantastic armory at the Tower, which houses armour from throughout British history.

And you can see some of the spoils of war.

And of course, the Crown Jewels!  Wonderful and worth the wait.

If you've been to the Tower of London, you've probably seen most of what I've shown here.

I managed to obtain tickets to something yo probably have not seen - the Ceremony of the Keys.  We arrived at the Tower at about 9:45 PM and waited outside near this sign for the Yeoman Warder to come meet us.  About 20 people see this each day.

Yeomen Warders are the colourfully-dressed bodyguards on duty at the Tower of London. While a Royal Guard provided by the Foot Guards mounts on Tower Green every day at noon, the Yeomen Warders provide a ceremonial guard for this ancient Royal palace and fortress.

One of their main ceremonial functions is the daily Ceremony of the Keys. In this ceremony the gates of the Tower of London are secured each night shortly before 10.00 pm by the Chief Yeoman Warder escorted by an armed guard of four men.

 After locking the gates, the Chief Yeoman Warder is challenged by a sentry bringing his rifle into the on-guard position. He allows him to pass after recognising the Chief Warder as the bearer of Queen Elizabeth's keys by saying 'Pass, Queen Elizabeth's keys, and all's well'.

 The Chief Yeoman Warder and his escort are met by a ceremonial guard on the Broad Steps near the White Tower, which then presents arms. The Chief Warder concludes the ceremony by raising his Tudor bonnet and proclaiming 'God preserve Queen Elizabeth', to which all present reply 'Amen'. The keys are then carried by the Chief Yeoman Warder to safekeeping, whilst the Last Post is sounded. The ceremony has taken place over the same piece of ground, in war as well as peace, for about 700 years.

What a great experience - we couldn't have asked for a better conclusion to our Tower of London experience.

Tomorrow I'll show you something interesting we saw at a cathedral that I bet none of you have ever seen.

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Tuesday Garden Party - Mega Fincho?

Remember last week, when I showed you the super-cool finch feeder we put out?  (You can get them on Amazon for those interested....)

Well, as we were watching or finches fight for spots on the feeder, playing Fincho!, we said to ourselves... "What could be better than a 24 finch feeder?"

And the natural answer to that question is this:

A 121 finch feeder!  The Mr designed and built this feeder that we like to call the Finch Organ (because it kind of looks like an organ....) so that we can watch 121 finches feed at one time!

Is that not the coolest thing ever?

We haven't had 121 finches yet, but we've had over 35.  The "word" will get out in finchland, and soon we'll be playing MegaFincho!

They are cute, aren't they?

We found one side effect of a large feeder.  A large amount of food on the ground.

Which leads to a second side effect.  Mourning doves.  Apparently they like the finch food too.

So does this California Towhee.

The hummingbird doesn't, but I liked him just the same.

And now that we've invited all of these birds into our yard, I am left with one question.  Beaks or teeth?

The few tomatoes we have are suddenly being eaten.  I can't tell if this comes from birds or rats or a different animal.  Any ideas?

We're watching and waiting for our tomatoes to start really growing. Check back next week to see how they are doing. In the meantime, check out An Oregon Cottage for her weekly Garden Party.

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Tuesday Garden Party - Fincho!

We've been working to create a nice retreat to be able to watch birds. The Mr and I like the birds. We recently got a new feeder, on which we can see 24 finches at a time! We play finch bingo when we watch this (4 in a row is fincho.... 24 is finchout!). And take pictures of course.

You can see some of the different kinds of finches we get here.

Sometimes two sit in one spot.  And sometimes (often!) they push each other off the perch.

And sometimes we get just one.

Sometimes we get distracted by other birds.

The guys at this feeder think all of us are crazy.  Which we may well be.  ;-)

But always, we watch for that most elusive of events.... finchout!

Check back next week to see what The Mr built for our backyard enjoyment! In the meantime, check out An Oregon Cottage for her weekly Garden Party.

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