Birdie of Mississippi

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 ca...

  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” th...

  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 an...

  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 t...

 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...