Birdie of Mississippi

  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!  

 THE RAVEN BY: PEGGY WILLIAMS AKA Birdie of Mississippi   Lately I have had the Common Raven brought to my attention.  I watched an episode on National Geographic - America’s National Parks going through the Grand Canyon along the Colorado River.  One of the birds that could stand the high heat of up to 120 degrees of this desert area was a Raven.  The Osprey dived down into the Colorado River and caught a fish that he saw from over a 100 feet in the air!  He flew to the cliff side to enjoy his meal when a Raven flies down and taunts him to fight.  The Raven doesn’t really want to fight he just wants to steal the Osprey’s fish!  But, the Osprey leaves his fish to fly after the Raven in hopes of “whooping up” on him.  The Raven has excellent aerial skills and out flies the Osprey and then doubles back to scarf down the Osprey’s fish!  The narrator tells that this is normal for the Raven to be a prankster and outsmart other birds in order to take away their food.   Ravens are c

  The Great Backyard Bird Count By PEGGY WILLIAMS AKA Birdie of Mississippi   Every February the National Audubon Society in coordination with Cornell Lab of Ornithology promotes an event called “The Great Backyard Bird Count”.   The good news about the GBBC is that it is free, fun and easy to do for most all age groups.   All that is required is a portion of your time (15 minutes or so) during a 4-day event in February counting birds in your backyard or even while you are on a walk in your neighborhood. You will then submit your counts online to birdcount.org. This event is open to “beginner” and “expert” bird watchers in the field.   This year’s GBBC was held Friday, February 14, through Monday, February 17, 2020.   I had never participated until this year, so I was excited to spend my time counting birds!   Due to the bird population declining, I wanted to take part in helping scientists with this year’s count.   According to the GBBC website over 160,000 people participat

  THE BIRDIES SAY RAIN, RAIN GO AWAY By: PEGGY WILLIAMS AKA Birdie of Mississippi   Sitting in my duck blind in my “daytime pajamas” on a rainy Sunday afternoon watching birds fly in to have Sunday dinner, I enjoy the way that their feathers look so pretty and clean from all the rain that they have endured living outside.   I’m sure that all of you have noticed that the rain has continued longer than we can ever remember!   The weather man said yesterday that out of 84 days in 2020 so far we have had 59 days of rain!   So this prompted me to think – How does all this rain affect the birds? Feathers protect birds from the wind and the rain by trapping air against their bodies.   The natural oil from their preen glands keeps their feathers pretty much waterproof and helps the rain run-off without sinking down to their body.   But in heavy or continuous rains like we have been having they must seek shelter in bushes and trees to preserve body heat.   They then conserve their energ

  SPECIAL FOOD FOR RETURNING BIRDS By PEGGY WILLIAMS AKA Birdie of Mississippi   Yesterday I put out new food goodies for birds that should begin to return to our area.  Normally I put out nothing but black oil sunflower seeds, but because of the returning birds I decided to put a few items out that I don’t usually spend the time or money to do.  March and April are great months to see birds that only “pass through” Mississippi and because it will soon be mating season they will begin to wear their mating feathers!  This means that they will be all decked out in their brightest feathers!   Niger seed is a skinny black seed that several small-billed birds such as Goldfinches enjoy eating. The American Goldfinch has a finely pointed beak and they can pick out tiny seeds from thistles and flowers.  Since Goldfinches are one of my favorite birdies and generally only pass through my yard headed north, I like to provide this treat for them.   When the Goldfinch first arrived last y