Birdie of Mississippi

NEW POSTS By Peggy Williams AKA Birdie of Mississippi This morning I posted several articles to my blog.  I haven't added my photos to the articles yet, but since I was behind on posting, I decided that as one of my New Year's Resolutions I wanted to get all my articles on my "Birdie of Mississippi Blog" and get current.  I have found that writing is one of my passions and whether anyone reads them or not writing releases creativity and a voice that cries out from within me to be released.  There are so many wonderful things in life that when I focus my eyes and ears on them I can see them and share them with others!  By researching for my articles I have learned so much about birds, trees, bees and many, many other things.  Learning leads me to happiness and a lifting of my spirits even on the grayest of days.  If you are reading these words, I pray that God will bless you with His Joy and that you will enjoy this day that God has given us! FROM MY QUIET T

COURAGEOUS BIRDS By PEGGY WILLIAMS AKA Birdie of Mississippi While watching a PBS episode of the British “Antiques Roadshow” I saw a lady who had brought a framed photograph of a pigeon which quickly caught my attention.   As she explained her story of coming to possess the photograph she shared that the pigeon was one owned by her father.   The pigeon’s name was Cologne and he had served with the National Pigeon Service and had carried out over 100 missions with Bomber Command.   Cologne had received a metal of bravery in 1947 called the Dickin Medal from the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals with a citation that read: “For homing from a crashed aircraft over Cologne although seriously wounded, whilst serving with the RAF in 1943”.   The Dickin Metal is the size of a normal soldier’s metal and according to Wikipedia.com was given to the owner of the bird or animal for “conspicuous gallantry or devotion to duty while serving in military conflict.” The PDSA Dickin Me

BUT, BIRDIE IT’S COLD OUTSIDE By Peggy Williams AKA Birdie of Mississippi Yes, it’s cold outside, but January and February are the months that Birdies begin to look for sites to build their new spring nests to nurture baby birds.   It is also a good time for Birders to go ahead and put out birdhouses for spring nesting. By putting birdhouses out early, this will ensure that they would be available as temporary shelter for birds should we have a cold snap, bad weather or as a refuge from predators.   Birds that have more than one brood of birds nest early so that they can have time to do it again later in the season.   You will begin to see them scouting your yard any time now to see if it would be a safe place for their babies.   If you have bird houses already hanging, it would be good to clean out any old nesting material that may still be there from last year and scrub the house with one part bleach to nine parts water.   Rinse the house thoroughly and let it air dr

SONGS ABOUT BIRDS By Peggy Williams AKA Birdie of Mississippi While taking my morning walk I wear my headphones to listen to music on my phone and it helps increase my pace while walking.   I don’t listen to music the whole walk because I enjoy listening to the morning chatter and song of the birds in the neighborhood. But yesterday as I walked one of the songs talked about “singing to Jesus” and the morning songs of the birds became praise to God for the new day we had been given to enjoy.   As this thought took hold I began to wonder about pop songs that had been written that mentioned birds in them that I might know, so I Googled to see what I might find.   On Billboard.com this bit of wisdom was imparted - “Birds are often used as a metaphor for feeling free – flying above whatever it is that might be holding you down.   That’s one of the reasons artist play on birds – doves, vultures, bird songs or just the word “bird” generically – as a symbol in a song.” The article

HIS EYE IS ON THE SPARROW By Peggy Williams AKA Birdie of Mississippi Since I am not a professional in the study of birds, I do not know all the scientific facts about birds.   Recently I found out how really angry “true” bird professionals could become when I shared one of my photos of a sparrow on a Facebook site that is mostly made up of bird scientists.   I was amazed at how tiny sparrows could stir up the dandruff of the bird community. After a few mean sparrow comments were made the site administrator stepped in and told them to knock it off that sparrows were needed in our eco-system!   I laugh now at my ignorance of how such a tiny bird could get their blood boiling, but I still love little sparrows.   When I photograph birds in my backyard I often see leaves jumping around on the ground and as I zoom in on the movement I see tiny camouflaged sparrows hidden in the midst of the leaves searching for bugs! The Bible references the sparrow 40 times in the Old Test

DID YOU EAT “BIRD” FOR THANKSGIVING? By Peggy Williams AKA Birdie of Mississippi I have never thought that being a “bird lover” and being a “bird eater” could possibly be such a contradiction, until I read an article by Nicholas Lund on Audubon.org called: Decide How You Feel About Eating Birds.   Since we just had Thanksgiving and many of us sat down at our family gathering to eat our fair share of a turkey dinner, it’s a good time to think about how we feel about eating birds.   As a “bird fancier” it is a well known fact that I love birds!   Watching birds in my own backyard is one of my favorite things to do and the feeling of peace that they bring to me is wonderful, so how could I possibly enjoy eating birds?   And yet I do enjoy eating them! I fry them, bake them, boil them, broil them and grill them!   Just like Bubba in the movie Forest Gump I could recite a list of all the ways that I enjoy preparing “birds.”   But, how can I have such mixed feelings concerni

INSIDE BIRDIES By Peggy Williams AKA Birdie of Mississippi During Fall Break my family and I had a great little vacation trip to St. Louis.   While we were there we went to Grant’s Farm which is a wonderful place to spend a day feeding goats, looking at animals and enjoying being with your family.   One of my favorite things we did was go into a Birdie cage to feed parakeets.   My parents didn’t have birds for pets when I was little, so I didn’t realize how beautiful parakeets are!   Before we went into the cage we were given seed hot glued to a Popsicle stick to feed them.   There were about a hundred parakeets in a variety of beautiful colors and we were surrounded by Birdies!   My grand-daughters’ laughter as we fed the little Birdies was contagious and before I knew it, I was giggling, too! They were so colorful, tiny and cute.   One landed on my daughter’s head and suddenly we each had parakeets landing on us.   One was on my hand and another on my shoulder.   They felt

WINTER BIRDIE FEEDING By Peggy Williams AKA Birdie of Mississippi Photographing birds in the winter is one of my favorite things to do.   Even though I often get very cold sitting out during the winter months, it is one of the best times of year to get great photographs of birds.   There are many advantages to winter birding.   The birds come in great quantities to the feeders because bugs and blooming flowers are not as plentiful so they are in search of high energy food to withstand the cold. Suet and black oil sunflower seed are high energy foods to fill your feeders and it keeps them coming and helps provide for them during these cold winter months. I like that there aren’t many bugs to swarm around and bite me while I sit outdoors during the winter.   I can sit inside my duck blind tent and it keeps the wind and most of the cold off of me and best of all - I don’t get too hot or have to swat mosquitoes!   As Julie Andrews sang in the Sound of Music - “These are a

IS IT FACTOR OR FICTION? By Peggy Williams AKA Birdie of Mississippi It seems as though all the hummingbirds have now migrated.   This year due to the warmer weather I had Ruby Throated Hummingbirds coming to my feeder until October 21st.   I kept my feeders out because I continued to have hummingbirds come to eat and because I had also made the decision to leave my feeders for honey bees to have winter food.   When I posted photos on Facebook of my hummingbird visitors I had several people tell me that I needed to bring my feeders inside.   Their comments said that if I continued to leave my feeders hanging then hummingbirds would camp out at my house and not migrate south for the winter. If the hummingbirds missed their migration time, then they would stay, freeze to death and I would be the one responsible for their death. I want no hummers on my conscience, so - Is this fact or fiction?   Since I am a “bird fancier” not a professional, I checked with th

EAGLES Peggy Williams AKA Birdie of Mississippi In 2010 my husband Dennis came home excited from fishing at Arkabutla Lake and told me that he had spotted a bald eagle’s nest out on the water in the top of a tree.   He asked if I would bring my camera and take photographs because at the time bald eagles were still very rare. Last week I noticed that on some of my old sales awards the eagle was the symbol used and I began to think again about the eagles I had photographed years ago. I don’t know much about eagles so I researched some simple facts on kids.nationalgeographic.com.   Bald eagles are not actually bald.   In old English language “balde” meant “white” thus since the head and tail feathers of the bald eagle are white it was given this name.   They are very large birds and the female is even larger than the male.   Their weight can be up to 14 lbs and the female’s wingspan is up to 8’ wide!   That’s the height of most rooms from the floor to the ceiling!   Eagle

AS LOVELY AS A TREE By Peggy Williams AKA Birdie of Mississippi As I look out my kitchen window it is teaming with birds and I think of what Jesus instructed us all to do “Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow or reap nor store up in barns, yet your Heavenly Father feeds them.” Matthew 6:26.   As I have tried to live out this Scripture, I have become involved with all sorts of birds, bees, squirrels, chipmunks, and now He has lead me to study trees.   Trees are the habitats for most of these creatures and we all use trees for a variety of things. My yard is filled with trees in a neighborhood filled with trees in a town filled with trees.   It sounds like a line from a Dr. Seuss book, but it is the way things are in Senatobia – “Tree City USA.”   In order to have the environment that we have, trees are a necessity and a pleasure given to us by God for all – birds, insects, animals and humans.   Trees provide oxygen, shade, food and homes for us. A Tree E