Birdie of Mississippi

Yesterday was a cool rainy day, so I pulled up my recorded NOVA episode called “Saving Notre Dame.” On April 15, 2019 a fire broke out at 6:18 pm that nearly burned down the 850 year old cathedral.   As I have revealed before, I am sort of a science geek. I loved this episode not only because I am interested in finding out more about the fire, but because this NOVA episode shows that there is a lot of science involved in resolving the many issues that have stemmed from the fire.   The damage is so bad that it is taking a large team of researchers to figure out how to salvage as much of the original Notre Dame as possible and to restore the cathedral to its former glory.       The fire began in the attic and quickly spread to the roof because the dry timbers under the roof burned so quickly.   As the lead roof and spire burned they sent out toxic lead into the air and coated the whole cathedral and its stain glass windows.   The researchers had to determine a way to remove the lead

At my house, Friday is called “Bird Friday”.   On Friday afternoons I have a Facetime bird class with my Southaven grandchildren.   It’s a wonderful way for me to share my love of birds and photography with them. Since we all take this class seriously, I know that it also adds to their education.   They are only 8 and 5 years old and I am sometimes amazed at how much they retain.   And since we are in the middle of this pandemic, I am thankful that this gives us a set time to visit and I can find out what they have been up to during the week. I have found that when I prepare for my weekly Birdie article and for “Bird Friday,” I learn a lot from the preparation. Several years ago, I bought my grandchildren copies of the field guide - “Birds of Louisiana & Mississippi” by Stan Tekiela at Wild Birds Unlimited in Southaven.   It is a small book that is just right for kids to handle and it is also easy to throw into my backpack for birdie field trips.   We use this book as our textboo

Since I love bird photography I belong to several FaceBook Groups that share bird photos.  Depending on the group the quality of photos may vary from photos taken with a cell phone to professional quality photos taken with very expensive cameras and huge telephoto lenses. One day a photographer shared a photo of a House Finch that was obviously very sick.  The bird’s eyes were filled with gook and were very swollen.  The photographer asked the group members if anyone knew what was wrong with this bird.  The responses came in quickly and let the photographer know that her little bird had an eye disease called “conjunctivitis.” According to Dr. Sidney Taylor of Coldwater Vision Center – “Conjunctivitis is an eye condition also known as “pink eye”, where the conjunctiva becomes inflamed and irritated. The condition is most often caused by cold viruses, but can also be a bacterial infection or allergies.   Conjunctivitis can resolve itself, but in some cases it can progress to more s

  When I am in my yard I never know what type of bird may come - whether it will be an old friend that comes every day or a visitor just passing through on the migration trail.   If it’s a photography day, I begin to pray for God to send birds that I have never seen in order for my “bird passion” to stay alive.   And on some days God does exactly that - He calls in birds that I have never seen and I get all charged up again.   But, some days He tells me to be content with what He gives me.   I have found that’s the good life….being content with what He gives us.   In that contentment I have often received a fresh look at a bird I have seen many times but there is so much more for me to learn.   This week that bird is the Brown Thrasher. This is the time of year that a Brown Thrasher really enjoys because the leaves are falling and everyone’s yard will be covered with leaves.   Just like his name says the Thrasher likes to noisily “thrash” through leaves, small rocks and branches

  WHAT WE COULD BE MISSING BY: PEGGY WILLIAMS AKA Birdie of Mississippi You may not be a PBS fan because lots of people aren’t interested in educational programming, but I am becoming more and more of a fan of both PBS and National Geographic as I re-coop on the couch from my fractured bones.   Not every program is educational, but since I enjoy math and science I gravitate toward programs about the earth and about outer space.   The nature programs have helped me learn about the grand scope of our environment down to tiny details about our planet.   There are programs about what we see when we look through our telescopes here on earth and also about the photos taken of our solar system from Voyager 1 and 2. And the more I watch and learn the more that I want to become like Solomon and have wisdom!   The programs show me how inter-woven every detail of nature and man are.   And even the word “nature” is such an all encompassing word!   Flowers and trees, birds and bees, and water

  A GOOD FIELD GUIDE BY: PEGGY WILLIAMS AKA Birdie of Mississippi   As like most Birdies, I have several field guides to help me to identify birds and find out information about the bird in question.  Some field guides only tell you general information about birds and some give very detailed info about birds.  The one I enjoy using for simple info and easy to identify is Birds of Louisiana and Mississippi by Stan Tekiela.  This field guide narrows down the birds that I am likely to see in my own backyard.  Some of the birds listed are year-round residents and some are migratory birds that can only be seen passing through Mississippi at certain times of the year.  I bought this as my first field guide at Wild Birds Unlimited in Southaven when I first got started being a Birdie.  I have loved it so much that I have recommended it to all my friends and have bought copies for my grands.  My grands pull it out all the time to show me birds that they have visiting in their backyards an

 WORLD’S FASTEST ANIMAL BY: PEGGY WILLIAMS AKA Birdie of Mississippi   Do you know what the world’s fastest animal is? I didn’t know.  After I heard the answer, I thought, “That’s a trick question!”  Well, perhaps not for everyone, but since I had forgotten the definition of animal, I don’t usually think of a bird as “an animal.”  But, according to Britannica Kids - “Animals are living things.  Like plants, animals need food and water to live.  Unlike plants, which make their own food, animals feed themselves by eating plants or other animals.” Then you get into different categories of animals such as – “Animals that have a backbone are called vertebrates.  Animals that do not have a backbone are call invertebrates.”  Birds are vertebrates - a type of animal. So, what is the world’s fastest animal?  It is the Peregrine Falcon. This falcon reaches speeds up to 200 miles per hour! The Peregrine Falcon is a raptor that is 14” to 19” long, with a wing span of 39” to 43” and weighs

  WILDFIRES CAUSE BIRDS TO LOSE HOMES & LIVES BY: PEGGY WILLIAMS AKA Birdie of Mississippi   Deadly wildfires that have been burning in our western states have left at least 23 dead at the time of this writing and many families homeless.  Smoke has filled the air and according to CNN has caused hazy skies all the way to Washington, D.C., upstate New York and even into Canada. The loss of homes during these pandemic months whether by hurricanes or by wildfires has to be full of anxiety and questions of where to go and what to do?    Last night as I thought about what I would write this week, it came to me that all the trees that have burned were homes and food sources for millions of birds!  And these questions came to my mind for the birds – Where will they go? What will they do?  If the birds were able to escape the flames, then they must leave the forests and search for a place to go for their food and shelter.  Will they go into states that they have never lived or wil

  WHY DO THEY LOOK SO FUNNY? BY: PEGGY WILLIAMS AKA Birdie of Mississippi   During the spring when I take photos of birds, what I think that I am getting isn’t always what I get!  Since many birds are laying eggs and new babies are hatching every day fledglings are appearing all over the place.  This makes some birds hard to identify especially if you only get a quick look before they flutter away!  The look of the bird can be totally different from the parent bird when they are first born and the wacky description that we type into a bird identifier app may come up with some fairly unique sounding birds! If you have the luxury of seeing the nest and eggs before they hatch that would be a huge advantage to identifying the bird.  But there are different sizes and shapes for nests and unless you are pretty familiar with these, even this information can prove to be a challenge to your bird identification checklist.  Using Google, we can type in nest descriptions and the color, siz

 Why Suet? BY: PEGGY WILLIAMS AKA Birdie of Mississippi   This morning I got tickled because I saw two little Downy Woodpeckers literally licking the cage that I put my suet in.  My daughter Amanda Vines bought me two containers of Peanut Crunch suet from the Senatobia Co-op as part of my birthday present in April.  The brand and type of suet was different from what I usually buy from Wal-Mart and it has attracted a variety of birds that I don’t usually have come to visit.  This brand also seems to be irresistibly delicious because Downy Woodpeckers, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Carolina Wrens, Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks, Chickadees and even Cardinals are waiting in line and even having a fight or two over it.  A Catbird is a total newcomer to my yard and apparently has taken up residence in my yard just to eat on this new suet.   So, why suet?  What makes suet so desirable? One main ingredient of suet is “fat.” This fat is the hard white fat on the kidneys and loins of cattle, shee

  WHY DO BIRDS SING IN THE RAIN? BY: PEGGY WILLIAMS AKA Birdie of Mississippi   I recently started back to walking each morning in my downtown neighborhood.  I have always loved walking and today as I walked I had a spirit of thanksgiving come up from within me!  We have such a special little town to love, enjoy and call our home.  With everything that has been disrupted by this quarantine most of us have realized many things that we took for granted and it is easy to continue to take even the things happening right now for granted, too.  But, special memories can be made even now amidst all the unusual circumstances that we have going on in our lives.  It is very easy to look at only the bad things happening instead of enjoying the moments of the day.   While preparing to teach my Sunday school class I came across a song by Jeremy Camp called “Keep Me in the Moment.”  Jeremy’s song is very relevant to these times that we are living through and tells us to keep ourselves present

  What Will We Feed The Birdies During Quarantine? BY: PEGGY WILLIAMS AKA Birdie of Mississippi   I have not gone shopping during this quarantine.  My children have told me to stay at home and let them either order online or have them pick up a click list for me.  I thought I would have enough bird supplies until we come out of the “Stay At Home” period, but due to the heavy rains my birdies have eaten a lot more than normal to help them keep their energy level up.  Forty or fifty pounds of birdseed can get expensive to ship, but thank goodness our Senatobia Co-op carries birdseed!  I phoned ahead, put my check in an envelope on the bed of my truck and they loaded two 50 lb bags with no contact!  It felt good to support a local business and receive great curbside service! I hadn’t thought of the co-op last week when I ran out of suet, so one of my new things to learn during quarantine was how to make homemade suet.  Here is my recipe: ½ c shortening or bacon fat            

  WHAT IT’S LIKE TO BE BIRD BY: PEGGY WILLIAMS AKA Birdie of Mississippi   Last week after I shared about my broken tibia, I received a wonderful email from a Tate Record reader who lives in Hernando.  She told me she is a faithful reader of my Birdie articles.  Of course that really brightened my day to hear that someone enjoys learning about birds as much as I do.  In her email she said that she was mostly a “local” birdie, but that she had seen real Ravens in the Tower of London in 2000 and during her lunch in a park in London saw Magpies!  She also shared that the book What It’s Like To Be A Bird by David Allen Sibley was on her Christmas wish list. Last November I watched a CBS - Sunday Morning interview with David Sibley. Being a Birdie you become sort of a “FAN” of famous birdwatchers and enjoy hearing about them.  You also like getting their new books!   So, I, too, had this book on my wish list.  So imagine my surprise when I shared my email with my daughter and she ord

  WARM WEATHER BIRDIES COME BACK TO VISIT BY: PEGGY WILLIAMS aka Birdie of Mississippi   After a long winter of many colorful and much loved birds leaving us to head south for the winter, they have returned to us.   Some of them are here for a short visit and some to stay with us for the WHOLE summer.   This past week many of you have had to quickly put up your hummingbird feeders because the little hummers came back with a big appetite after their long flights!   Bits of yellow and blue have shown up as American Goldfinch and Indigo Buntings decorated brightly our feeders.   And a very almost patriotic looking Rose Breasted Grosbeak and wife came to crack a sunflower seed or two!     And I was blessed to photograph a beautiful Eastern Bluebird couple protecting their nest of eggs in my daughter’s (Amanda Vines) bluebird house.   And today I hear that four Baltimore Orioles came to her oranges and grape jelly feeder!   What a wonderful array of God’s beautiful creatures that

  THEY EAT THE DEAD BY: PEGGY WILLIAMS AKA Birdie of Mississippi   Yesterday afternoon I looked out my kitchen window and I was surprised to see that there weren’t any birds at my feeders or feasting on the ground.   My first thought was there must be a cat hiding in the bushes, but then there was movement on a branch up about 25 feet.   The bird sitting there was HUGE! Since it was sitting in the shadows I couldn’t quite make out what type of bird it was.   I called my husband Dennis to come quick!   I thought it was a hawk since I have witnessed hawks swooping down to drag away squirrels or unsuspecting birds. Since Dennis is much better at recognizing the shapes of birds, he quickly told me that it was a Turkey Vulture and we both said “Yuck”!     As I am thinking “Wow, what is going on in my yard?”! I see in the adjacent backyard another Vulture, and another, then another!   And circling overhead are 5 or 6 more and resting on another limb in the next yard are two more!