Earth Day 2022

In honor of Earth Day 2022, I bring you some of my birds. As you think of these precious birds, and our wonderful planet, I hope you can decide to work to make a difference. Not to save our planet, but things you can do to save our environment. The planet doesn’t need to be saved. It’s going to keep on spinning for billions of years. Our environment needs to be saved. The environment these birds need to survive. The environment we humans need to survive.

These and other delicate creatures and creatures that don’t seem so delicate need our help. Celebrate our planet today on Earth Day and determine to make a difference. There is so much to be done. You’ve heard all the options. Make up your mind and do it.

The birds, top row, left to right: Scarlet Tanager (Piranga olivacea), Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus), Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis).

Middle row, left to right: Costa Hummingbird (Calypte costae), Scarlet Tanager (female)(Piranga olivacea), Sharp Shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus).

Bottom row, left to right: Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe), Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea), Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus).

_______________________________________________________________________

If you would like to receive my daily blog posts by email, sign up here!

Indigo Bunting

Knock your socks off COLOR. That’s what I think of when an image of a male Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea) comes to mind. With the female, if you look carefully you might be able to catch a hint of the vivid azure that the male wears so magnificently. But I wouldn’t know a male Indigo Bunting during the winter. He wears feathers of brown.

Soon to arrive to spend the summer. You’ll get a hint as to how soon in looking at this photograph. She’s using a spear of asparagus as a landing spot. Asparagus is coming up right now. In looking through my photos and seeing when the Indigo Buntings have arrived in the past, I think they’ll be arriving just any day now. And through their journey they often migrate at night using the stars to navigate. Birds after my own heart.

Amazing to think, the feathers of the Indigo Bunting contain no blue pigment. The blue we see is a result of the way the feathers are bouncing and reflecting light.

What an amazing trick of Nature.