Good-bye Summer '16

According to the calendar, yesterday was the last day of summer.  Nature's calendar is not always so precise.  But,  while I was looking thru my photos from this past week, I was feeling somewhat nostalgic about saying good-bye to summer.  

Would this be my last photo of a Painted Turtle this year?

Nice little flower, too!

The swamp was looking a bit like fall, even though we haven't had enough cool weather to make the trees and plants really start turning colors yet.

I doubt it will be the last time I'll see a great-blue heron this year, but you never know.  Oh, you didn't see the heron in the photo above?  He's in there!

Our 3 'yard hummingbirds' left, and for several days the garden was very quiet!  Monarchs were flitting around the flowers but they don't make any noise.

Even when they are in competition with bees.

Then on September 17th, I heard a familiar noise and saw a hummingbird.

I figured that one would be my last hummer for the summer.  (You knew I'd get one more photo of a hummingbird on the blog this year, right?!)

This little red squirrel appeared on September 21st to cheer me up from my 'summer's-almost-over blues'.  What a cutie pie!

This red squirrel still has its summer stripe!

And smart, too!  It was a warm day so he ate his end-of-summer picnic in the shade of the bird feeder.

"Thanks for the yummy lunch and cool shade, too!" 

My late-summer walk down by the swamp revealed more changing colors.

These Winterberries will be appreciated by the birds after the weather turns colder.  

Now, there's something to look forward to-- maybe I'll cut some to put by the bird feeder and see a Pileated Woodpecker eat them like last year. (See my post about it here.)

The Winterberry bushes are loaded with berries now.  These shrubs (which are actually deciduous hollies) love wet spots like along the edge of the beaver swamp. 

I'm not sure I like the name Winterberry for them, as they obviously have berries now, and it's just the beginning of Fall.  We'll enjoy Autumn before we think about Winter!  The bright red berries do stand out more in Winter when there is snow on the ground, of course.

Well, that's it for my 'good-bye' to Summer.  However, I do have one more photo to show you.  It's my 'Fall hummingbird'!  After an absence of hummingbirds since the 17th, we had a ruby-throated hummingbird at our feeder on both the last day of Summer AND the first day of Fall.  Now, that's something to enjoy in both seasons!

Ten Days in Trinidad and Tobago

The islands of Trinidad and Tobago are a birder's paradise located off the northern coast of South America .  Recently, my husband and I were very blessed to spend 10 days there.  Whether the sun was shining or rain was falling, we enjoyed all the amazing and beautiful things we saw.  While I usually write about the beauty of nature here at home, I have too many photos from Trinidad and Tobago not to share some of them with you! So, once again "This Is My Father's World" is going on a 'field trip'. (Other trips have included Colombia, Florida, and Texas).

For this post, at first I thought I'd only pick a few photos... to let you know why I haven't posted in the last 2 weeks-- but I couldn't choose just a couple!  Instead, I'm going to share a number of my favorites to get us started on our 'trip', then I'll post more about the birds, flowers, turtles, monkeys, and scenery as I have time.  I hope you enjoy the 'trip', and 'stay tuned' for more.

A male Tufted Coquette perched during a rain shower.  He's only 2  3/4" long!

A male Black-throated Mango in the sunshine

A White-necked Jacobin taking a bath in the rain

A Ruby-topaz Hummingbird fluffing his feathers in the sun

Those are 4 of the 12 kinds of hummingbirds we saw in Trinidad and Tobago!  There are 18 kinds listed in my T & T species checklist.

A BUNCH of Bananaquits (also known locally as Sugar Bird) at a feeder at Asa Wright Nature Centre!

A Bay-headed Tanager eating a berry in the pouring rain.  (Luckily, we were on the veranda!)

This Hibiscus flower looked especially beautiful when the sun came out after a brief shower.

While we went mainly for birds, it sure was fun to watch a family of White-fronted Capuchins in the rain forest.

The hanging Crested Oropendola nests add an intriguing touch to the silhouette of this tree.

In the opposite extreme of nest types, a Laughing Gull hatches from a very basic one on the ground. 

We also had the amazing experience of watching this 600+ pound Leatherback Turtle lay her eggs on the beach one night.

We didn't have to go out at night to see this Ferruginous Pygmy Owl.  While they are more active at night, they can also be seen and heard during the day.

A juvenile Masked Cardinal was pecking the top of a shiny car mirror.  He put on quite a show, though I felt a little sorry for all the energy he was expending trying to chase away the 'other' cardinal. 

A 'famous' Trinidad Motmot.... on the island of Tobago, where they are actually more common than on Trinidad.

And, finally (for now) two wild Flamingos we saw while watching Scarlet Ibis come in to roost at Caroni Swamp.  Seeing them seemed almost surreal!  I mean, we're used to seeing plastic ones in yards or live ones at the zoo, but out in an actual swamp? Incredible!

Happiness is Hummingbirds

We saw our first hummingbird of the season at our feeders on May 3rd.  The feeders had been up and waiting for them for almost 2 weeks... I was ready!

As far as I'm concerned, there's not much that compares to sitting on the deck and watching hummers.  So I thought I'd take a few minutes and share them with you.  These photos were all taken today.

So far, we have two males.  I haven't seen a female.  The males don't seem very territorial (as you can see below), so maybe the females haven't arrived yet. 

Did you notice both hummers in that photo?  Right away, the one with his ruby-throat lit up in the sunlight pops out at you, but there's another male above him.  In the next photo, both are still there and you can see how well they blend in with their surroundings. 

They both sat there for a few minutes.  Kind of close for two males, so I don't think either was worried about the other.  Once the females arrive, they will most likely be chasing each other around.

The apple trees are almost in bloom.  For now, the hummers rest among the buds.

Hope you enjoyed a quick hummer 'break'!

 

A Question for God

You know those funny questions kids ask God?  

"I asked for a puppy, why did You give me a baby brother instead?"  

"Did You mean for giraffes to look like that or was it a mistake?"  

Of course there is a question most of us have asked at one time or another, "Why did You make mosquitoes?"

I will admit to sometimes wanting to ask God similar questions.  Recently I've been thinking about this one:

Dear God,

Why did You give Colombia so many kinds of hummingbirds and only give us one?  I mean, I love our Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, don't get me wrong.  Thank You for them!  

But, it's the only one we have in the whole USA east of the Mississippi River (with the exception of an occasional kind that's out of its normal range).  

male Ruby-throated Hummingbird

You put over a hundred kinds in Colombia... a county maybe a quarter the size of the Ruby-throated range.  (I've read numbers anywhere from 147 species up to 162 of Colombian Hummers!)  Wow, that's wonderful.... but couldn't You have spread them out more?

Sparkling Violet-ear

They are all so beautiful! (There's a really neat video from BBC news at this link.  The first close-up in the video is of the next species of hummer and the second one shows a Violet-ear like the one above, with its ear feathers raised!)

Female Black-throated Mango

It was a real joy for me to be able to see some of them while I visited Colombia, Lord.  Thank you again!

(This one might have been a young one... it seemed to have quite fluffy feathers.  And, oh, that beautiful red tail.  Nice red beak with a black tip, too!)

 It liked the large white flowers of the tree it was sitting by.

I knew to watch the red flowers, too.  And You blessed me by having some Hummers come to them.

While I watched that flower, a Hummer sat nearby.  He drank nectar from the flower, too, but I didn't get a good photo.  Here he is:

Heliconia flowers are hummer favorites.  We don't have them in Pennsylvania, but we have plenty of other flowers they would like (at least during a few months of the year)!

Our flowers might be easier for them to drink from...

...this seems like it would be hard on the neck.

Well, God, I'm sure you had good reasons for giving Colombia so many Hummingbirds and us only one.  I'll try to be happy with looking at pictures of them.  (Here's a link with oodles of beautiful photos).

Just reading the names of some of them makes me happy, too, God.  

Ruby-topaz hummingbird,  
Violet-crowned woodnymph, 
Blue-headed sapphire,  
Glittering-throated emerald, 
Golden-bellied starfrontlet, 
Orange-throated sunangel, 
Blue-bearded helmetcrest, 
Bronze-tailed plumeleteer!   

These are all real birds that you created, Lord.  (See the whole list of Colombian hummers.) 

Some people think that Hummingbirds evolved (if people want to read about it, they can click here for an article from Scientific American).  

But I believe you are a VERY creative GOD! Amen.

I won't be ordering one of these t-shirts:

Dinosaurs to Hummingbirds?  I'm no 'Scientific American', but that seems like quite a stretch!