Tufted Titmouse – Tendrils

Sunflower

Sunflower (Helianthus). The happy flower. You bet.

Today would have been my Dad’s 96th birthday. He LOVED sunflowers. He loved to grow huge sunflowers!

This post is a salute to my Dad’s favorite flower. A flower that’s popular with many creatures including bees.

A flower that brings on the butterflies.

A flower that inspires artists. A flower that inspires me to do pastel paintings.

A flower that invites birds to dine. A Tufted Titmouse to munch.

A flower that prompts me to pull over to the side of the road to get a picture in New Mexico.

A flower that looks like its name.

A flower that is lovely even from behind, with light shining through its petals and leaves.

A flower that knocks my socks off even before it is a flower.

A flower that comes in surprising colors.

A flower with seeds that follow the pattern of the Fibonacci sequence. Well, if the seeds were there!

A flower that completes the scene in Cloudcroft, New Mexico.

A flower most wonderful. Good choice Dad!

A bird that doesn’t migrate. Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor) is a bird that comes to my feeders during all seasons. Well, all seasons that I have those feeders out. Bears think the seeds I put out for the BIRDS are for bears as well. During many months of the year I must consider the pluses and the minuses of putting out feeders when bears may be roaming. For me, a tough choice to make.

I’ve discovered a Tufted Titmouse loves peanut butter and hulled sunflower seeds. But its diet consists to a large extent, of insects including caterpillars and stink bugs. I sure wish they’d eat MORE of the Brown Marmorated Stinkbugs that are way too plentiful around here.

The Tufted Titmouse enjoys berries that are in season in the neighborhood, as well as seeds, acorns and beech nuts.

Given a choice of seeds of different sizes, it will chose the largest. It will then take that seed to a nearby branch securing it in its feet, and work on it with its beak. Whacking it into smaller sizes so that it can be eaten in a genteel manner.

A Tufted Titmouse pair will build a cup-shaped nest in a cavity in a tree. A natural hole in that tree or a cavity created and abandoned by some other animal. Or the couple may settle into a bird house put out by a human, or choose an open pipe of just the right size. The nest will take shape using bark strips, leaves, moss, grasses, wool (as in the above image) or hair of all sorts of animals.

Look carefully at the photo above. There, blending in with the many branches of flowering dogwood are a group of Tufted Titmice. And drumroll please. A group of Tufted Titmice is called a “banditry” or a “dissimulation” of titmice. Who THINKS of these names!?!

This Wondrous World

Perhaps you’ve noticed. I tend to anthropomophize. A lot. Rocks have thoughts. Trees reach out to greet me. The wind speaks to me. And on this particular evening, in this particular photograph there is a lovely Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis). A female enjoying the incredible beauty of the ice storm we had a few days ago. Her rich buffy-orange-tan copies the color of the dogwood buds patiently waiting, knowing if they are indulgent, suffering in silence, spring will one day arrive.

Almost hidden in the image is one of the Cardinal’s buddies. A Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor) in the lower left corner. I wonder perhaps it’s having a snack soon to sit back and enjoy the beauty in every corner. All around are their best friends who have come out to enjoy the glittery sparkly day.

So many birds consuming so many seeds. Just because their world is beautiful.