Birdie of Mississippi

 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”...

  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 s...

  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 ne...

 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 o...

  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 livin...

  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 ...

  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 wh...