To refresh your memory, here again is the photo for Bird Quiz #4. Read no further if you still want to have a shot at identifying this bird.
As I mentioned in the quiz, I saw this bird near Grand Junction, Colorado, in May. Even a non-birder will probably recognize the flat face and upright posture as belonging to an owl. The real question is, which owl?
Laying out your veggies in beds lets you cram more plants into a smaller area, producing more veggies in less space with fewer resources. That’s a claim that’s hard to beat! It’s no wonder that gardening books are touting the advantages of raised beds and “square foot gardening.”
(Make sure you also see the previous months’ Bird Quizzes!)
Can you identify this bird? The photo was taken near Grand Junction, Colorado in May. My answer will appear next Monday.
Earth Day is this weekend, and what could be a more appropriate celebration than starting a vegetable garden. And for those of us in the Pikes Peak area, it’s finally time to get some dirt under our fingernails.
If this is your first year growing veggies, the first order of business is finding a promising spot for the garden. I talked about this in a previous post. Next, you need to decide how big to make the garden. This involves not only your desired yield, but also how you lay out the garden. Will you have traditional rows, wide rows (pictured here), beds (raised or otherwise) or a combination of these? Today I’m going to talk about rows… next Thursday I’ll cover beds.
Time was running out. I had one more day of birding paradise, and too many options remaining. Should I go to Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge? Salineno, a 90 minute drive up the valley, was reporting Brown Jays. Maybe we should head there. Then I overheard someone mention that a Black-vented Oriole was hanging around the feeding station at Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park, just 20 minutes from our motel. The decision was made—I’d be chasing another lifer.
One lovely afternoon many years ago, Pete and I were enjoying an outing to the slough at the mouth of the Salinas River, in central California. The trail was somewhat overgrown, and we were pushing through tall weeds looking for birds and other wildlife, when I suddenly realized there was a large, red tick crawling up his shirt.
Knowing that ticks are arachnids (fascinating creatures that nonetheless give me the willies), and having heard about all the diseases they carry, I calmly alerted shrieked at my husband and started flailing at his back. As that tick was dislodged, I noticed another one on his thigh… and another, and another… when I suddenly realized that if he was covered with ticks, then I was probably covered with ticks….
“Have you seen any good birds?”
It’s the expected question when you meet another birder on the trail. We’ve all heard it, and probably asked it ourselves.
The first time I heard this I was a bit confused. What’s a “good” bird? Does that mean there are bad birds? Since that time I’ve learned that the question actually means, “Have you seen any unusual birds?” This makes a lot more sense. We all want to catch the rarity. But if seeing a rare bird is the only reason to go birding, we’d get bored pretty quickly.
Can you name a plant that has short stems and showy purple flowers at this time of year? Now add eye-catching seed heads, and the fact that it’s native to Colorado (and other cold-winter areas in both North America and Europe). This cultivated wildflower is Pasque Flower (or), named after its Easter time bloom.
Appearance
Besides the lilac wildflowers, other purple shades are available in cultivated strains, from a deep purple-red to, rarely, white. Gray-green leaves appear after the flower buds, and may be more or less finely divided. They’re covered with silvery fuzz, giving a soft appearance that makes you want to pet them.
To refresh your memory, here again is the photo for Bird Quiz #3. Read no further if you still want to have a shot at identifying this bird.
As I mentioned in the quiz, I saw this bird in Tucson, Arizona in March. We also know it enters cavities and, at least in this case, that cavity is in a large cactus. Since the bird was doing this in the spring, it was probably building a nest or feeding young.
Most veggie gardeners grow lettuce, spinach, and perhaps chard, kale or collard greens. Some are familiar with bok choy (spelled a dozen different ways). It’s the adventurous gardeners, or those from overseas, who include veggies such as Mizuna, Salt Wort, Fun Jen, or Yu Choi Sum.
Since we used to live in Cupertino, California, where my local grocery store was Tin Tin #2, and the closest restaurant served the most incredible mu shu pork and lettuce wrapped chicken, it was only natural that I included some Asian imports in my garden as well.
I admit to having western taste buds, so what I recommend might seem all wrong to someone used to more exotic flavors. However, I like what I like. Maybe you will too.
Mountain Plover 