End to a New Beginning

 

 

End to a New Beginning

 

 

 

 

 

    These past few weeks have been a little horrid. The focus of my observations weren't coming to feed me content. All the birds I had been observing; suddenly disappeared; or so at least I thought they had gone away for the winter. The winter is really hard on the birds since they need a warm climate to be able to survive. As mammals; they just stuff themselves up with food for the winter and forbid themselves to come out until the spring. Birds; don't naturally have dens or tunnels they could stay in for the winter. Birds have to move to warmer climate during the cold winter months whether it would be south or just near the equator. Being said I thought that all the birds left my house to migrate. The days started to resemble to other days. Well no birds; I guess ill just stop trying to observe birds. The day I finally saw I bird I realized that there was so much else to observe other than the birds. Spent so much time waiting for the birds in the morning I blindly realized that I also was observing the trees, the clouds, sky, grass, wind, sun, and the mountains.

 

 

   

Those days that I didn't get to see any birds I would just give up on the field notes and call it a day; but there was something much more hidden under the bark that I just couldn't seem to recognize. Nature was a flowing river of thoughts; and I still managed to only look at the birds. Birds are in every which way ;a part of nature. All this time I was observing the birds; seemed to have blocked out the part of which is more important.

 

         

 

That is: Mother Nature and its entirety. My greedy mannerism lead me to think twice about what I was observing every morning. The moment things started to get a little more interesting; the next day it was gone just like that. "The bird I am trying to identify is grey-brown bodied with a black head and a bright white beak"(Field Notes). Around the first day to the end of the first week of December; things just broke out in flames of intricate fire. And as always was too greedy to JUST observe birds. "Two weeks have passed without seeing them: where did they go?"(Field Notes). Just a few days have passed and they are gone completely; but just a few days ago they were feeding just fine? Did god answer my prayers? am I finally getting karma for being greedy? who knows. This last and final blog I had no idea what to say because simply I just had no good stories to tell or messages to leave just boring paragraphs to write. Not that it is boring to write up the blogs: but boring to hear about the same thing OVER and OVER again. It is tiring for me and especially good people who are reading the blogs. The observing of the birds was just a small step in the million to take. The birds were only leading me to something WAY better and that is again as it has been said a gazillion times Mother Nature. As much times this has come up I really mean it when I say that I started caring more about nature through the process of looking at the birds, then the sky, then the scenery. It was really hard to just observe one thing because it all involved something else than just birds and feed. Nature functions like a clock if one gear is out the whole clock will not work. In this case the birds were turning the gears in the clock and it clicked. Nature was the focus of my observations: not the birds. Because without nature there would be no life on this planet. All the plants would not produce the oxygen that we breathe. All the bees would not produce the honey that we all love soo much. All the rivers would not quench the thirst of all the wildlife out there. My point is nature should be our biggest priority to protect it with as much care as we can give to nature. If nature had not done all of the wonderful things it has done for millions of years what would we do without it?. Nature has done a lot for us; now its time to pay back what nature has given us.

 

 

 

 

Works cited

 

Ruelas, Alejandro "The week of hopes" Field notes 1st Dec 2014

Ruelas, Alejandro "The week of hopes" Field notes 9 Dec 2014

A change in the Weather

 

A change in the Weather

 

 

 

 

 Monday morning I focused on observing more than just the Song Birds themselves, I began to observe everything that occurs outside the tree and where the feeder is located. The tree is filled of orange-yellow leaves and it looks absolutely amazing. As a kid I would always be more exited for fall instead of summer, anyways, in the fall when the leaves fall and birds like ducks and geese migrate to the south for the winter would be the highlight of my year. The grass is still green with the brutally cold mornings that mother nature brings us, but soon it will lack life and become dry. The birds don't seem to be affected by the cold morning.

 

I will insert a picture as soon as I get a memory card reader, later on.

 

 

The house finches on Tuesday morning is what surprised me I would never have thought I would see house finches at my new house, since they only would come to my old house on grove. They are given a warm welcome  with some dry grass to stuff their nests to stay far from freezing."This morning I counted five gold finches"(field notes). The smell of rain strengthens the smell of the thistle and the birds go nuts over the feeder and the tree. Scat is all around the base of the tree and draped over the branches and leaves. Amazing how much poop come out of a little bird, might be gross, but the fact just fascinates me. These songs birds are becoming more and more interesting everyday.

 

 "I find it strange that these birds are still feeding when its 35 degrees outside"(taken from field notes). I just had an idea what it would be like if I was eating outside at that temperature. My cereal would be rock solid and my eggs would taste disgusting. The cold breeze and humidity is showing no mercy on the grass. The grass is burning up with the frost every morning. It sounds ironic that grass is "burning" up by the touch of Jack frost's finger tips. Jack frost is right around the corner lurking in every corner and gust of wind while I just sit on the steps to my house enjoying the view of the mountain tops.

Observing Song Birds through the five senses

 

 

 

Observing Song Birds through the five senses

 

 

Monday morning was very successful in observing the birds because it was nice a toasty. The sound of the chirps tells me what a great morning it was. Gold finches sound like any other song bird but the chirp really says something about these wonderful birds, that they are absolutely amazing.    Tuesday and Wednesday I had the feeder bag empty just to see what are other parts of a song bird diet. The Tuesday morning was pretty frosty around 43 degrees f. The birds seem to be eating up the small black spiders that hop around with every step I take. Not only the birds were eating the spiders but also picking at the shade tree leaves for a bright golden little flower that falls from the tree the pick usually from two to three little branches of the golden flowers and fly off to eat it. That was a very interesting Wednesday I will never forget. Thursday I see a bird I haven't seen around Reno being that I have been living here for 9 years. The little bird had a different sound than a gold finch, house finch, or warbler. The chirp was two at a time and very high pitched "peep-- peeeep". One bird was black headed with the same colors of a sparrow but black headed and the other seem to be wearing bright yellow eye shadow and the tips were white and two strips from beak to tail. I find this really intriguing I need to know what bird it is. This Friday and Saturday I just watched for what the birds do. I found out something very cool and interesting American and lesser gold finches always always travel in groups or pairs but never alone. I wondered why and now I know since they are such small animals they need to go together or else a crow will gulf them down in one bite. If they are in groups they can spread and scram and confuse the crow. When the day brings bugs the birds will eat bugs if no bugs are present they will eat feed but if there is feed and bugs available they rather go for the bugs is it a higher source of nutrition for them? could be. They will eat any insect from mosquitos to black widows, since I have an army of them.

 

 





Starlings, the Bullies

 

 

Starlings, the Bullies

 

 

 

This week was not as productive in observing Song Birds, but it was very eventful. On the chilly Monday morning I had the chance to wake up early and go out to the spot where I observe the birds. The odd thing about it is that no birds came to the feeder I found it kind of odd so I go back in my house and get ready for school. As I head out the door and walk down the street I see a bluebird and I got as close to it as I can without spooking the poor little creature and then another and another came flying into the cedar's and the pines. The  big tall pine soon turned from a blue-green color to a deep sea blue. The blue birds suddenly turned into a flock resembling the waves of the sea.

Photo by Google images

 

 

The morning after Monday the wind picked up with no chance of seeing the birds feeding at all.

 

 

      The Wednesday I woke up in time for school, I get an unexpected visit from a bird I never thought I would see during my observation, a female northern woodpecker. It was such a sight to see the woodpecker gallantly gliding across from tree to tree in search of insects in the hollows. The light brown color disappeared into the morning sunlight with just glimpses of the spotted wings of the wood pecker. I begin to look if there was any nest around that could belong to the woodpecker but no nest's were seen. Woodpeckers don't really have a song like a song bird does but the thumping on the trees is very a distinctive sound for a wood pecker and contributes to the sound of the my mornings.

Photo by Google Images

 

   Thursday, Friday, and Saturday I come across a problem I confronted two weeks ago that problem is starlings. Thursday was very loud in the tree where the feeder is located I head out side and the ground is full of starlings picking at the sparrows and enjoying the fallen thistle. The problem with these is that if the starlings get to the feeder first than the American and Lesser gold finches or the warbler's and house finches they will hog the spot and not any other bird near. On Friday as loud and chatter blasted as usual the starlings bring the whole family to the feeder. Of course I did not want these birds interrupting my bird watching so I take away the feeder on Saturday to see if the will leave but the starlings weren't at the feeder for food they just wanted to bully other birds and not let others get by without a huge fight. A Western warbler pair fly by and land on the bird house as soon as they poked their heads in a gang of starlings kick them out so to be fair I also scared all the starlings away and prevented them from coming back to the feeder because the feeder was strictly for the song birds and not the starlings.

Photo by google images

Photo By Google images

 



Photo by Google Images

Another Week of Observing Song Birds

 

 

Another Week of Observing Song Birds

 

 

 

 

 

 

As I finish up writing down the field notes for the Song Bird observation I come across the conclusion that  where I have been observing the birds no one has the near image to what or where the observations take place. 

The Sound of a Beautiful Morning

Photo By Google Images

Photo by Google Images

The Sound of a Beautiful Morning 

 

The sound of the morning might not sound like a sound at all. At First it sounds completely idiotic to say that morning has a sound to it and it does. In my English class we are doing a 2 month project of observation on a subject of our choice. Every morning before I go head out the door on my way to school I have been observing the morning but to be more specific I am observing Song birds because that is the highlight of every morning. Waking up by the alarm, taking a shower, and heading outside into the crisp warm morning sun with a slight breeze smelling like the roses. During a 15 minute span I observe as much as I can about habits of the song birds, what they eat, what is the season that they breed in, and etc.

 

In the past week the air has been so polluted with smoke that only a starling will be brave enough to sing in the air and wake up the world. In the front yard of my house there is a tree within that tree is a bird feeder containing Thistle; thin little black seeds that attract song birds. On that bird feeder I have seen lesser Gold finches and house finches. Little have I known that for the past year or so that I have been living in the house the song of bird that sounds so beautifully just like the feeling I get in my stomach from the smell of pancakes is how I feel about this song now not only my mornings smell better but the also sound better too. I am NOT a morning person but because of these wonderful birds I am willing to drag my butt out of bed just to write about these amazing creatures.          -Alejandro Ruelas