Well, sometimes it is. Other times it is a misery and I have to read way too many articles about things I really don't want to know.
However, while working on next week's Farm Side, I stumbled upon this lovely, illustrated list of NY wildflowers.
I stink at plants. I can remember the undertail patterns of warblers I have never seen and most likely never will, and the pedigrees and registered names of cows that died decades ago, but that fern along the foundation...not so much. I found the list only because I had to hunt up the name of the big lily in the center of the flower garden for a couple paragraphs about lily leaf beetles. Yeah, it's pretty bad. I read this lovely blog whenever there is a new post, but I just don't remember all that I would like to about plants and flowers.
With the plant list bookmarked it looks as if I will have a quick, handy, reference to help me remember the stuff that grows all over the place around here. Or at least I hope so.
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| A Palm Warbler, right here on the farm. Quite an appetite for such a little bird |
Here is a little teaser from the Farm Side for next week, which is pretty wide-ranging and broad based.
"I learned something amazing about my other favorite pastime this week as well. Mom and dad gave me a one-hundred-year-old bird book, The Warblers of North America. In one chapter a contributing author described one of the many woods warblers, in this case a Palm Warbler he was watching, eating forty to sixty insects per minute for four hours. He extrapolated that it ate over 9,500 bugs over that time.
Imagine what a flock of such warblers, some of which nest around here, with others that migrate through in spring and fall, do to control pests in our woodlots and backyards."
I'm better at plants...but OH how I love the birds. A flock of early geese came by today...makes me wonder.....
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ReplyDeleteLinda, ours are flying a little bit too, although i have only seen them over the house a couple of times so far.
ReplyDeleteJw, thanks
Thanks so much for plugging my blog! I am in awe of your knowledge about birds. I do love birds, but my eyesight is so poor I can never make out anything but dark blurs against the sky. At least plants hold still, and you can turn them this way and that and even peer into their naughty bits to tell if they're male or female (or both at once!). Most of my birding is done by ear, and I try to learn at least one new song each year. I am very grateful for birder friends, who are very patient with me.
ReplyDeleteJacqueline, as far as knowing the birds goes, every week I discover more about how little I know and how much I have to learn. However, I love it so.....lol Lots of fun anyhow. I also rely heavily on song to "get" the birds. My hearing is much more acute than my vision and even if they are obscured by leaves you can still hear them. Love your blog!
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