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| I know I just wrote a blog about wild turkeys last week, noting their colorful heads. But they came back and this time on a sunny day that showed off their iridescent feathers. Turns out the turkey is not just a big brown bird with a flashy head. |
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| It's a walking rainbow! |
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| Some details. Click to enlarge. |
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| Feathers like burnished metal scales. |
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| Copper, gold, and bronze. |
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| Impressive! |
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| Wild turkeys have been passing through my yard lately. Males are primed for breeding season. This one kept spreading his tail, puffing up his feathers, and strutting. And what female turkey could resist that red, white, and blue skin head? | |
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| Striking the classic turkey pose. |
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| Then there's this guy who seems to be still growing into his head gear. Click to enlarge. |
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| Some turkey facial ornaments have names. That's a snood dangling over the the beak, red wattles under the chin, and various other head bumps are called caruncles. Get a load of the snood on this guy. And the wattles. And the caruncles. |
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| Looking good, turkeys! |
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| Remember last week's blog about crocuses? A day after the flowers bloomed a fleet of honeybees arrived and got to work in them. There were so many honeybees that the flower patch was humming. Click to enlarge. |
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| See the big yellow pollen sac on this one's hind leg? It's stuffed with tasty crocus pollen. |
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| Christy Lefteri wrote in The Beekeeper of Aleppo: "Where there are bees there are flowers, and wherever there are flowers there is new life and hope." There are only 12 days to go until spring. |
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| First crocuses! They popped up on Thursday. Click to enlarge. |
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| As the famous horticulturalist Gertrude S. Wister once said: "The flowers of late winter and early spring occupy places in our hearts well out of proportion to their size." I agree. I love finding the first flowers. |
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| They are proof that spring is beginning to waken. Only 19 days until it officially begins. I think that it will be extra nice this year. |
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| So this crow lands on my lawn. Then two more. But then they all flew away. |
It was an attempted murder.
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| Although, technically, it's only a murder if you have probable caws. |
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| But seriously folks, what's this about Botox being good for crow's feet? |
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| Click on the photos to enlarge. |
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| Brought to you by the American Crow, Corvus brachyrhynchos, or as friends call him, Vel. Vel Crow. |
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| Happy Lunar New Year! We're having an unusually holiday-rich week. |
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| We're also celebrating Lincoln's Birthday. |
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| And Washington's Birthday. |
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| ...which makes me think of cherry trees. Click to enlarge. |
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| And today is Valentine's Day. Here's a wreath I made to celebrate. Happy Valentine's Day! |
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| All helping us get through this cold gray month. This mourning dove looks ready for spring. |
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| We had a great snowstorm this week. Click to enlarge. |
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| I took a walk a few days later. Most of the ground was still covered with snow, except for spots like this shielded area under an evergreen shrub. A white-throated sparrow was foraging for food there. It was scratching with both feet while taking little hops backwards to turn over leaves and stir up insects or seeds. |
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| Can you see the sparrow? I was attracted by the activity and might not have seen the brown bird in the dark shadows. |
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| There. It's a pretty little sparrow with a white throat and stripe over its eye and a patch of yellow between the eye and beak. Even when the ground is totally snow covered, it can find seeds and dry fruit that are still on plants. They visit bird feeders, too. |
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| Although white-throated sparrows seem inconspicuous right now, just look at this male from a few years ago in his bright spring breeding plumage. It won't be long. |
